“I’ve sort of brought it up. I’ve suggested we try making love instead of fucking like he does every time.”
“Is he still hurting you?”
“He’s just aggressive. He doesn’t mean to hurt me.”
“Sweetie. Whether he means to or not, he shouldn’t do anything you’re not into. You should be able to communicate what you like and he should be able to respect those wishes.”
This, Marley was right about, but she didn’t want to lose what she’d worked on for a whole year. Gage could be a little rough during sex and sometimes a little selfish. Coming didn’t always happen for her and he didn’t always make it a priority to make sure it did.
He’d just get so consumed by what was happening that he left his marks and then she’d be sore the next dayin places that had no business being sore.
“Okay, I’ll say something tonight about it since we’re going to his place after dinner.”
“I like it. We can work on one thing at a time. If you’re really nervous about saying something, you can always have a friend on standby to come get you if you feel uncomfortable at all.”
“Oh, I don’t think I need that. I’m not afraid he’d hurt me on purpose,” she said without much certainty.
“Are you sure it’s not on purpose?”
She sighed. “No, I’m not sure. Can we talk about something else?”
“Sure, how about we talk about that guy you’re crushing on on your soccer team?”
She could feel her cheeks get hot and tried to ignore it.
“I’m notcrushingon him. I told you we’ve been good friends since high school.”
“Whatever you say. How’s it going playing with him?”
She couldn’t help smiling. “It’s going great! He’s really good, and supportive whether I do well or not, and he even passes the ball to the women on the team.”
Not all the guys do that even though they signed up for co-ed. Gage would say they probably only played co-ed to meet girls and cop a feel while playing.
“Oh, so you’re saying he’s a generousteammate? You wouldn’t call him … selfish?”
She narrowed her eyes at Marley.
“I see what you’re doing and you’re totally misunderstanding the situation.”
“So, is he good-looking?”
She didn’t want to but she could feel her cheeks heat up, hoping she wasn’t noticeably red to Marley.
“You know you’re blushing, right?”
Okay, so apparently it was noticeable.
“What the hell? Okay fine, he’s very good-looking.”
She pictured Avery taking his shirt off to change at the end of their last game and didn’t realize she was smiling. His upper body was hard to ignore, much like his smile.
What was she thinking? Stop! Bad Hailey.
“Are you sure you don’t have a little crush?”
“Argh! Marley! Why do you do this to me?”
“Do what?” she said with a grin that brought a twinkle to her eyes.
