18. THE ONE WITH TIMJIM #2
“We did it,” I finally say. “We made it forty-eight…” I look down at the time on my phone.
“Well, forty-four hours and…” I pretend to think hard, counting on my fingers.
“Thirty-two minutes without ripping each other’s clothes off.
Technically, I helped you get dressed. Complete one-eighty I’d say. ”
Joey rolls her eyes, and I smile, lowering my hand to the armrest. I’m afraid to move too quickly in this chair. I’ll never fully relax knowing it might snap at one wrong move.
“Did you have a good time?” I question, worried she might not give me the answer I want to hear.
Joey pulls a pre-rolled joint out of her small crossbody, followed by a lighter. I watch as she places the joint between her plump lips and lights it. She takes a long drag, and my eyes don’t leave her mouth until the last of the smoke exits.
It’s a cool, early autumn night, but I swear it feels like the fucking sun came out with how hot I get waiting for Joey to say something.
Anything.
Her lips twitch, trying to hide a smile. “With the sex or the job?”
I almost go flying out of the chair but grab the edge of the table in time to save myself. The chair not snapping is a miracle.
The sound of her happy laughter creates the same bubble of bliss I felt the first night, when it bounced off the water and echoed down Boston’s late-night streets.
I hop to my feet and scramble after her.
She squeaks. Hardass Joey fucking squeaks when she shoots from her chair.
She doesn’t stand a chance.
I reach her before she can take more than a full step, slipping my arms around her from behind and tugging her against my body. Her ass fits against my lap perfectly, her back arching.
I rest one hand on Joey’s lower stomach, keeping her in place.
A sharp inhale slips through her parted lips as I pluck the joint from between them with my free hand. I lean in, taking a hit by her ear.
It’s been a while since I’ve smoked weed, and I’m hoping it’ll help with the constant need to touch… Joey.
My hands are on Joey.
Fuck. I promised her I’d be on my best behavior.
I almost let her go before I realize she turns her head to watch the smoke escape my lips, licking hers.
She wants me. Almost as bad as I want her.
Joey doesn’t move as I take one last pull from the joint. The smoke leaves my mouth when I speak. “You made me sign a No Sex Contract. For forty-eight hours worth of work.” With my hand still on her lower abdomen, I can feel her muscles twitch at my words. “But the job’s over now, Joey baby.”
The heady high hits me, and the hope I had that it would calm me down fades when Joey rubs her ass against my hardening cock and trails her nails up my arm until she plucks the joint from me.
“Whatcha gonna do? Bend me over this flimsy table and fuck me until I—”
The sound of the camper's door flying open and crashing against the side has Joey scrambling to get away from me.
I’m gonna fucking kill whoever it is.
Enzo stalks towards us. “You abandon me to deal with Kell, and you smoke without me?” He hasn’t had a drink in over seven years, but he’ll smoke an entire joint to the face with no help.
I swallow down the blazing heat building inside in time to catch Joey take another hit before passing the joint to Enzo. Her face is flushed, and she’s avoiding eye contact with me.
“Finish it off. I’m going to change while you’re both out here.” Without another word or glance my way, she heads inside.
It’s her last night and this is how we’re going to end it…
“Earth to West.” Enzo waves his hand in front of my face, and I blink, the world returning around me.
I’m high as fuck.
I glance up at the dark sky, no stars in sight from the city’s glow. It makes me miss home—the winding back roads of Northern Michigan, not a streetlight in sight, with a sky so full of stars it almost seems fake.
“You know that video is over ten-million views now?” I finally say, not even sure what he’d been saying to me before.
He nods, offering me the joint.
I shake my head, running a hand through my hair.
“I officially booked your tour out tonight. There’s nearly no room for anything else. Tickets for the added stops go on sale this week.” It doesn’t sound real.
I want to feel happy—I am happy, but there’s a part of me that’s worried. I've been on top of the world before. It doesn’t take much to nosedive to the pits of hell.
“Holy shit,” I breathe.
Enzo snubs the joint out and tosses the butt into the ashtray in the middle of the table. “Yeah, holy shit, mate.”
Staring at the RV, like I can see through to Joey, I say nothing, lost inside my high—inside the what-ifs.
My best friend surprises me by saying, “I think you should ask her to stay.”
I nearly break my neck to look at him. “What?”
“Joey. I think she should stay and take over the social media stuff for the rest of the tour.” His face is neutral, and I detect no sarcasm in his tone. “You should see everything people are saying online about you two after this weekend… Both your names are trending.”
I haven’t spent much time scrolling this weekend, but the little I’ve seen is enough to draw my own conclusion. We’re not going to be out of the spotlight for a while.
“You’re serious,” I state, waiting for him to laugh and reveal he’s telling the cruelest joke ever.
“We’ll have it in the budget.” He shrugs. “It would keep your schedule open for interviews, press, podcasts.”
I don’t hear anything else Enzo says after that. It doesn’t matter what else he says.
There’s a chance I get to keep Joey… All she has to do is decide to stay.