“I read all your articles, you know. I never miss anything you write.”
“Seriously? Wow, that’s…well, thank you.” I feel a little awkward. I don’t even remember what Adam does for a living. “How’s everything with you? I thought you were in California.”
Our wine comes and both of us take tentative sips.
“I came back this year. I put in for a transfer. I had to get away, start fresh.”
Shit, I still don’t know what he does. We fumble clumsily through every conversation until we split the bill, which I have to fight to give him money for. “It’s not right, Adam. You shouldn’t have to pay for what our mothers schemed up. As a matter of fact, they should, don’t you think?” Both of us laugh. “We should send them an invoice.”
He drives us both to our parents’ block and parks his car on the corner. He stares out the front windshield for a while and I don’t want to slide out of the car right away, when he’s staring off like that, like he’s trying to figure out what to say.
“You were the one that got away.” His says the words slow and steady.
I clear the emotion from my throat. This is a man I once cared for very much. Someone I would have once given anything to hear a proposal from, instead on our two-year anniversary he told me he put in for a transfer to the California office of his company. I had just landed my job—no, my career—with the magazine. He said I could go with him, just leave my little writing hobby in New York and move to California with him. We could split the rent three ways with his other roommate, Claudia. Claudia worked in the California office too, they had met the summer before on a work conference. She could have been Julia’s twin.
There was no promise of commitment. There was just nagging and whining, and belittling everything that was important to me just so he could justify why his plans and his career and his choices were more important than mine. He also thought it would be fun that, when I did move out there, me, him and Claudia could all become more than just friends.
A new job and a threesome, please—that’s what his plans were.
I ended it that night. No tears. No grand emotional outcries. Both of us just chose what was more important to us at that time. It was really simple. I wished him and Claudia all the luck in the world—mostly her because she was going to need it.
“We were both too young and heading out on two different paths.”
“We’re both in New York now.”
He leans over and it’s like slow motion. My heart drums up to a quickening pitter-patter beat, and I’m instantly remembering how nice it was when we first started dating a lifetime ago.
Then his lips are against mine, and we’re kissing. This is good. I need this. This will erase any memories of Dex,ew why am I think about him right now?And maybe, just maybe I could insert Adam into my heart, where Nate is.
Adam’s hands are all over me. Up my shirt, in my bra, down my pants. He pulls his face away only once. “Tell me you want it. Say the words. I’ll give you whatever you need. You want me?”
I exhale a jagged breath and nod quickly, not able to find my voice. I’m still tipsy from the wine, but I’m excited to see if this could actually become something. I blink up at him and hiss, “Yessss.”
He’s across the console and my new skirt is up around my waist in an instant. His fingers are moving in jerky circular motions over my pubic bone, just above and to the right of where I need them to be.
“There’s a condom in the cup tray,” he whispers into my neck. “Put it on my dick.”
I do. He’s lines himself up with me but he’s still rubbing the wrong spot so I sweetly ask, “Can you move your fingers a little lower?”
He pushes into me and groans loudly. “Why, you don’t like your clit to be touched? That’s not going to work for us.”
He pumps in and out really, really slow.
“See, um, that’s the thing. You’re not touching my clit it’s—”
“Idoknow where a clit is.”
He slides out all the way and in all the way.
“I can’t wait until Claudia can lick it while I do this. Oh fuck, oh yeah.” He bucks up and grunts.
Did he just come? And say Claudia was going to lick something on me? “Wait, what did you just say?” I can’t believe he’s finished. He’s finished and still talking about Claudia. He rolls off me and back onto the driver’s side of the car.
My skirt is still up over my hips and I’m frustrated as anything. I look down at my lady bits and back up to him. “So that’s it?” I see red. I am so pissed off and I can’t even explain why. Emotions just bubble and boil up over the surface of my skin.
I’m not good enough for Nate. He’s fucking Julia. Dex is an asshole but he is the only one who has given my body an Oh in the last eight years. My mother is setting me up on dates. And Adam still thinks I’m going to have a threesome with him. And all of a sudden, I’ve spiraled from frigid Plain Jane to Horny Harlot in a matter of weeks.
Oh hell no.
