A lot.
“You’re into me.” I scuff the ground, lowering my voice as a man in a three-piece suit walks by. He dips his chin in greeting.
“Maybe a little,” she admits, and I straighten, wondering if this is what it feels like to have won the damn lottery.
“It was the oral, wasn’t it? That’s what convinced you?”
She’s laughing fully now, the sound warming my chest. Then she falls silent, and I hear the distant sound of waves crashing against the cliff face. “You didn’t text me for days.”
I wince and turn my back to the hallway, keeping my voice low. “I wanted to.”
She’s silent for a moment. “I thought you’d grown bored and moved on.”
“Bored of the girl who pulls a gun on me and orders me to jack off?” I’m smiling again, scratching my stubble. “Impossible.”
“You just had to bring that up, didn’t you? I’m embarrassed.”
“Why?”
“Well…” She hesitates, and I listen to the waves in the distance. “It’s not something other women do.”
“How do you know? Maybe women threaten me with weapons all the time.”
“Do they?”
I chuckle. “No, just you.”
She groans the cutest sound I’ve ever heard. Yup, I’m gone for this girl. She could ask me to rob a bank, and I’d do it without hesitation. It’s crazy how quickly and easily I fell for her.
“Who’s the guy?” I ask again, resting my forehead against the wall. I swear, if that Jackson guy is her boyfriend, I don’t know what I’ll do.
“It’s Jackson. My brother’s friend.”
“Are you dating him?”
“Would it bother you?”
“Fuck yes.”
“Why?”
The man in the three-piece suit walks past again, heading back to the ballroom. I meander farther down the hallway, just a few steps to get out of earshot. “Because I like you.”
“You like me?”
“Have I not made that clear?”
“I don’t know. Have you? I haven’t heard from you in days.”
I rub the space between my brows, wishing she wouldn’t bring that up. Of course, she wonders where I’ve been the past few days. It means she cares. And that thought does something strange to me. “Something came up.”
Damn, I hate lying, but what should I tell her? The truth? Oh, by the way, I didn’t text you because I was balls deep in another woman’s ass. Then it took several days and countless showers to stop feeling disgusted.
She’ll ghost me faster than I can blink.
“Something came up,” she echoes, unsure about my response.
“I had to do something for my father.”
