Chapter 25 #2
I grab my glass of rosé and take a sip, relieved to find it’s one that I like.
With the favors fiasco behind us, we’re able to enjoy the rest of our dinner while we chat about the few remaining details we have yet to hash out, like what time the photographer should arrive to get photos of us getting ready, what songs should be on the DJ’s “do not play list” and who’s going to be responsible for keeping track of the marriage certificate for signing after the ceremony.
We finish dinner and move on to dessert, pints of gelato from the grocery store Noah used to work at that he’s gotten me hooked on. The pistachio and raspberry lemon are my favorites.
“This is fucking divine,” Grace moans around a spoonful of dark chocolate. She licks every drop from the spoon before digging back in. “I can’t believe I’ve lived my whole life without knowing this existed, just fifteen minutes away.”
“Thank you, Noah.” Olivia raises her pint of mango gelato in salute. “Speaking of my second favorite florist – do you know that Ty has a massive, raging crush on him?”
“Awww,” Grace coos.
“I was there when they met and I swear, the man had hearts in his eyes,” I tell my friends.
Just thinking back to that day makes me smile.
“I think he gave me about five minutes after closing before he called to debrief and find out everything he could about Noah. When I confirmed that he’s bisexual, I believe Ty’s exact words were, ‘Thank fucking god.’”
I knew Noah wouldn’t mind, because he’s never been anything but open about his sexuality. Besides, he had been fishing for information about Ty the whole rest of that afternoon, thinking he was being subtle about it.
I also told Ty about the one date Noah and I went on, for full disclosure. “I knew you had good taste,” Ty had said proudly.
“Are we getting any vibes from Noah?” Grace asks. “Do we think there could be something there?”
“Definitely,” I nod. “I can’t decide who will be the first one to make a move, though.”
“Ty all day,” Olivia says. “The man knows what he wants and goes for it.”
“He does – but he blushed when he met Noah. I think he’s in uncharted waters here.”
“He blushed?” Grace gasps. “Oh, the man is down bad.”
“Speaking of down bad,” Olivia says pointedly, raising her eyebrows in my direction.
“Ah, yes.” Grace leans forward, her gelato clutched between her hands like she’s afraid we’ll snatch it from her. “My favorite topic of conversation: Elsie and the hot tattoo artist who eye-fucks her every time they’re in the same room.”
I can feel the flames in my cheeks before Grace even finishes her sentence.
Grace is brash and bold and will give us every detail about her sex life, if we let her.
Even Olivia has been pretty forthcoming about her hookups in the past, though she keeps certain details about Cam close to her chest. It’s a bit different, I think, dishing about the incredible sex you’re having when it’s with someone you’re planning to spend the rest of your life with.
We might know she’s having mind-blowing sex on the regular, but we don’t get the level of detail we would have if it were with anybody else.
I’ve never been as forthcoming as my friends with this kind of thing. Which is why the only sound in my kitchen is the scratchy old radio after I say, “He doesn’t eye fuck me. He does use his fingers, though.”
The silence is immediate, but short-lived. Grace and Olivia’s jaws both drop and I count one, two, three seconds of silence before Grace shrieks and slaps the table with both hands, the gelato she’d just been clutching now forgotten.
“No fucking way,” Olivia says. She turns to face me on the bench seat, eyes wide and a look of pure shock on her pretty face. I’d giggle if I wasn’t so nervous about telling them what happened.
“You little whore,” Grace yells, reaching across the table to squeeze my hand fondly. “Tell us everything.”
Anyone else might be offended by her words, but I know Grace – whore is a compliment of the highest order.
Despite her demand, I don’t tell them everything.
I give the condensed version – I briefly explain the kiss outside Declan’s apartment, which led to me avoiding him for several days, which led to him tracking me down in the greenhouse and delivering the best orgasm of my life.
I’d meant to keep that last part to myself, but it slips out.
“He finger-fucked you right out there in the open?” Grace sounds incredulous, and I can’t blame her. This entire conversation – hell, this whole situation with Declan – is very un-Elsie-like. “God, that’s hot.”
“It wasn’t exactly in the open,” I clarify. “We were far enough into the greenhouse that when Sean came out into the yard, he couldn’t see us. That’s what stopped us from taking it any further.”
“Hang on a sec, we need more wine for this.” Olivia slides off the bench and hurries over to the fridge, where she grabs three more bottles of wine. Plopping them down onto the table, she immediately grabs one and begins uncorking it. I hadn’t even realized we’d finished the first one.
“So,” she says, grabbing each of our glasses and filling them nearly to the rim. “I’m not going to say ‘we told you so,’ but –”
“Oh, I will,” Grace cuts in. “We told you so. The tension between you two was off the charts. Even when he was pissing you off, you always looked like you couldn’t quite decide whether to strangle him or hate fuck him.”
Despite the fact that I’m the one who sent this conversation on its wayward path, I still blush at Grace’s crude description. The worst part is, she’s not wrong. There’s always been something there, and I think I was compensating for it by, well, being a bitch to Declan.
Sure, he knew exactly how to push my buttons, but nobody else would have been able to get under my skin like that. I’m the queen of brushing things off and keeping the peace, at all costs.
“So, now what?” Olivia asks. Ever the planner and preparer, she would be the one to ask that question. “Is this a friends with benefits type of thing?”
“Because that worked out so well for you,” Grace jokes. When Olivia and Cam started hooking up on their cross-country road trip nearly two years ago, she was so sure they could keep things casual with no strings attached.
Obviously, that was an epic failure. With their wedding just four weeks away, it’s safe to say the strings were very firmly attached.
“Hey, I’m not advocating for it,” she protests. “I’m all for finding someone you like being around and having sex with, and then doing that for the rest of your life.”
When she puts it like that, it sounds like the simplest thing in the world. As if finding your soulmate, settling down and building a life together is a walk in the park. When it’s the right person, maybe it is that simple, at least at first.
“I think it could be more than friends with benefits, but I can’t be sure yet. He did ask me out on a date,” I admit.
“What!” Grace shrieks. “Explain yourself.”
“When did this happen?” Olivia asks, leaning closer. She takes a big gulp of her wine and waits.
“This afternoon. We went out to the backyard to talk, got distracted kissing, and then he asked me out. Or maybe he asked me out before the kissing started. I don’t know, it’s all a blur.”
“Oh, I love this,” Grace says, grinning wickedly. “Sweet, buttoned-up Elsie Carmichael and the big, bad, tattooed sex god next door.”
“Stop it,” Olivia scolds, laughing. “It sounds like the theme of a bad porno.”
“They’re practically reenacting a porno, going at it in the greenhouse like that.”
I bury my face in my hands, embarrassed. “I never should have told you guys that.”
“Yes, you should have,” Olivia says, grabbing one of my wrists and prying my hand off my face. “We might tease you for it, but we want to hear all about you and your knight in shining black T-shirts.”
I shake my head, reaching for my glass of wine. When I take a sip, I wince. It’s much drier than the last bottle, and I prefer my wine on the sweet side. “I don’t know if it’s like that with Declan and I.”
“Like what?” Olivia asks.
“I mean, don’t expect us to be falling in love like you and Cam did, or anything like that. Maybe he just wants to get whatever this is out of his system, and then he’ll move on.”
Olivia and Grace share a look. A look that clearly says, yeah fucking right. Or maybe, this bitch is crazy. Or possibly even, there’s no chance in hell.
I ignore them and grab my melting gelato. “Sewiouswy,” I mumble around a mouthful before swallowing. “It’ll probably just be, like, a casual thing.”
Grace scoffs into her wine. “I don’t care how casual you keep it, as long as you give us all the details when that man finally dicks you down.”
I nearly choke on my dessert. “Jesus,” I mutter. “You make it sound so violent.”
Olivia grabs her napkin, balls it up and tosses it at Grace’s head in warning.
“It’s okay to like him, you know,” she tells me, her voice softer now. “I know he’s not your usual type, but if you want more than just hooking up with him –”
“Stop,” I cut in. Noting their surprised looks, I add, a bit more gently, “I don’t want to get ahead of myself here. Besides, I don’t even know if Declan does the whole girlfriend thing.”
I’m terrified to let myself consider the idea of more with Declan. Not when it’s so fresh and new, when I have no idea where his head’s at or what he wants out of this.
“If you want to keep it casual,” Olivia says, squeezing my arm, “then I hope for your sake it works out better than it did for Cam and I.”
She doesn’t say anything, but I don’t miss the subtle look Grace gives her before taking another sip of wine.
None of us say what we’re all thinking – that despite my protests, there doesn’t seem to be anything casual about the way Declan and I feel about each other.