“I’ll come pick you up,” Brad put in quickly. “What kind of guy doesn’t pick a girl up for a date?”
“It’s not necess—”
“I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
She hung up and carried on brushing her hair while Kevin sat on the bed, taking in deep breaths to calm down. He knew he had no right, absolutely no right to ask her anything, but for the sake of his own sanity, he needed to say something.
Dan:He’s ticking, Bob. He’s ticking.
“You’re going on a date tonight?” he asked.
She glanced briefly at him in the mirror before she answered. “It’s a house party.”
He knew all about house parties. He knew about the kind of hookups that happened at house parties. She got nervous from just kissing, so he was trying to convince himself that she wasn’t ready for anything past first base. But she was. She’d told himthat she didn’t want him to stop, she just wanted him to slow down. Friends with benefits washeridea.
His head was spinning, his palms stinging with restlessness. She hadn’t spoken to him for three days and he didn’t know if he’d pushed her into a frame of mind where she would do something completely erratic.
“What time will you be back?” he asked apprehensively.
“Probably tomorrow morning.”
Dan:Morning? Did she say morning? That Brad guy could have had her five times over by morning.
Bob:One look at her and I can tell you that Brad is gonna be all over that. She’s fine as hell! And she’s wearing them wiggle, wiggle jeans, Dan. Someone’s gonna be burning up the sheets tonight.
Dan:And do you know who’s not gonna be getting any tonight?
Bob:Our boy.
Dan:Our BOY, Bob. He’s just gonna sit here all by himself, wishing it was him.
Bob:Well, we’re in the semi-finals and strategy is important at this stage of the game, so let’s watch him work through his options and see if he can convince her to stay.
Dan:Great idea. Lets’ start with option one: logic.
“Jasmin, we’re leaving tomorrow. You can’t go out drinking then get behind the wheel.”
“So we’ll leave later, or even the next day,” she replied with a nonchalant shrug.
“You don’t even know these people. You’re gonna jump into a car with a guy you don’t know, drive to a place you’ve never been to before, and—”
“Isn’t that exactly what happened with you?”
That threw him off. He actually didn’t have a counter argument, so he decided to stop beating around the bush and ask her what he really wanted to know. “Are you going to sleep with him?”
The question came out of left field and totally surprised her. “That’s really none of your business.” She read the scowl on his face and gave a tight smile. “As I said before, if you don’t like it, you don’t have to stay. Quite honestly, I don’t know why you haven’t left yet.”
“Same reason why you haven’t asked me to.”
He wanted her to acknowledge the reason. She hadn’t asked him to leave because they had something—something volatile, something toxic, but still something. For a second, her eyes flicked to his and he thought he might have gotten through to her, but she immediately turned away, making it clear that he hadn’t.
Bob:Well, option one just crashed and burned. Let’s move on to option two: force.
“You’re not going,” he said firmly. “It’s stupid and dangerous…You’re not going.”
She walked to the other bed, sat down and began pulling on her boots over her skinny jeans. “Really?” she asked with an unimpressed smirk. “And in which universe do you think you have the right to tell me what I can and can’t do? If I want to go to a party, I can. If I want to sleep with…whoever, I can. I don’t need your permission.”
Dan:She’s asking for it. She’s literally begging for it. Option three: the asshole.
