“Whoa, slow down, Lo. You’re gonna vomit.” She laughs.
“Okay.Nowcoffee,” I say, tossing the empty bottle into the trash.
“So, wanna talk about the elephant in the room?” she says, my back turned away from her. I insert a pod into the machine and press start as the beautiful, delicious-smelling espresso starts pouring out. Ahhh,heaven. This is probably what heaven smells like, I think.
“The … what?” I ask nonchalantly, turning to face her with a blank expression on my face. Lydia, however, is not dumb. We’ve been friends for a long time, and she knows when I’m feigning ignorance.
“Lo, come on, babe. You are a lot of wonderful things, but inconspicuous is not one of them. Plus, you’re not exactlyquiet. I mean, these walls are paper—”
I gasp and cover a hand over my mouth. I’m sure my cheeks are as red as the blood that has ceased to flow through my veins.
“Lydia!” I half yell, half giggle.
“It’s okay, Sloane. Relax. I won’t tell a soul.” She winks. “And you needed a good soul-shattering orgasm, anyway. You were getting kinda crabby,” she jokes, tossing a grape into her mouth.
“Oh my God. You aretheworst.” I laugh back.
“Mhmm. You love it. Anyways, was it?” she asks.
“Was it what?”
“Soul-shattering.”
“Lydia!”
“I mean, it sure sounded like it was soul sha—”
“Nope. Done. This conversation is over.” I giggle, grabbing the bottle of oat milk out of the fridge and adding some to my coffee. I take a sip and moan dramatically.
“Mmm. Nothing quite assoul-shatteringas that first sip of coffee,” I say.
She rolls her eyes before adding back, “Whatever. You aren’t fooling anyone, Lo. Not me, and not the guy who had you screaming his name. Riven, was it? As in,ProfessorRiven?” There’s a look on her face that says she’s proud of that one.
I nearly spit out my coffee. “Wow.” I laugh, because what else would I possibly expect from her? “Way to bury the lede, Lyd.”
“Now that names are out of the way,” she says, resting her head in her cupped hands like a kid waiting for the plot twist in a story. “Are you guys like … dating now?”
“You are shameless, you know that?” I say back, shaking my head at her absurdity. “But no. He disappeared this morning. No text, no call, no note on the pillow,” I say, although I get the feeling he isn’t a “note on the pillow” kind of guy.
“Oooh. I see. Maybe he … had somewhere to be?” she says, trying to soften a blow that she already knows is gonna hurt like a bitch.
“Eh, whatever,” I say, walking to the sofa and plopping down, cross-legged. “It was fun.” I shrug one shoulder.
“Oh, babe.” Lydia comes over, sitting down to face me. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” I say into my coffee cup. “Yes,” I say again, looking up at her. I don’t know who I’m trying to convince. Her, myself, or the two warring idiots that are having a standoff in my brain about whether this is a good thing.
“You dodged a bullet,”one of them chants at the other, halo raised.
“You’ll never find a man who can feed all of your desires like that one can,”purrs the other, leaning against a pitchfork. I roll my eyes.
“I am fine, Lydia. Really. Like you said, I needed a good orgasm, and that’s exactly what I got. We barely know each other. We were … lost in the moment, having fun,” I say, finishing my coffee. We don’t owe each other anything. Well, I might owe him a fewthingsafter that, but I’m not even sure he’d be interested. I still don’t know why he left.
“You know what you need?” she asks, excitedly, standing up and bouncing on her toes like a child.
“God. Do I even want to know?” I ask, looking up at her.
“A night out!” she exclaims, grinning widely with her arms stretched out. She’s got quite a flair for the dramatics. That doesn’t sound like a half-bad idea. I have been stressed with this story, the frequency stuff, and now the professor.
