Ryan
“How it is I know not; but there is no place like a bed for confidential disclosures between friends.”
“Let’s order some room service,” I say when it’s clear Tessa’s not even close to falling asleep. I roll toward the nightstand, looking for a menu.
“We can’teat,” Tessa says. “This is, you know, a purely sexual thing we’re doing here. Afling.”
“Dude, let me explain how flings work in real life—it’s not the way it seems in movies. You can’t just fuck a guy and immediately make him do the walk of shame—first, you gotta feed him andthenyou can kick him out.”
Tessa giggles. “Fine. But don’t get any ideas about sleeping here. We’ve got a big day tomorrow and we need to get some solid sleep.”
“Cool. Tonight’s all about fucking, food, and flapping our gums; next time, we add forty winks to the itinerary.”
“You sound like Keane.”
“God help me.” I grin at her. “Okay, well, I’m glad we’re agreed: we’ll do a sleep-over next time.”
“We’re not agreed about a damned thing. There won’t evenbea next time.”
“How long are you gonna keep doing that?”
“Doing what?” she asks.
“Pretending this thing between us isn’t inevitable?”
“It’s not.”
I sigh. She’s wrong, of course—we’re as inevitable as the sun rising and falling. But there’s no reason to try to convince her of that now. That’s the thing about the sun, after all: it does its thing whether you like it or not.
We find a room service menu, place our order, and put on some music—a playlist I made specifically for her before heading out to the opening party earlier tonight. The first song that comes up is “Shape of You” by Ed Sheeran, an upbeat, vaguely Latin-reggae-sounding groove that prompts me to pull her up from the bed and ask her to show me some basic ballroom dancing steps... and, before I know it, we’re doing a naked cha-cha (sort of) around the room.
When the Ed Sheeran song ends, we stretch out on the bed together as the next song—“Sex on Fire”—begins. I stare at her for a long beat, grinning, my head propped up by my elbow.
“What?” she asks.
“I could sit and stare at you like this forever and never get tired of the view.”
“Honey, there’s no need to butter me up,” she says. “I already slept with you, remember? Seduction complete.”
I wink. “I’m working on you for next time.”
“Don’t waste your time. We’re one and done.”
“You mean three and done?”
“Two and a half. But, whatever, we’re done.”
“We both know you’re full of shit.” I pat the bed. “Come closer and listen to my favorite song with me.” She complies, scooching her body closer to mine until her beautiful face is mere inches from mine.
“You promise you didn’t tell Keane about us?”
“I swear.”
“And you haven’t told Kat?”
“Not a word.”
“And you haven’t said anything to anyone else about me?”
