She gave him a look he couldn’t quite read—Dee, who wore her heart on her sleeve, whose face was an open book. “Sure.”
He followed her to the door, battling regret, resisting the urge to catch her hand, to call her back. Should he say something? Should he kiss her?
But then she left, taking all the warmth and life in the apartment with her, and it was too late.
Tim rubbed his chest.I can’t feel anything, he’d told her.
And now he felt too much.
Twenty-five
I floated into the apartment on an oxytocin high.
“Your face is all red,” Reeti said from the couch.
“Is it?” I asked vaguely.
Her eyes narrowed. “And your neck.”
My hand covered the tender abrasion on my throat.
“Oh God.” She bolted upright. “Tell me you didn’t sleep with him.”
“I...”
“Dee. The guy is an arsehole. You went there to tell him to fuck off. What were you thinking?”
I gaped at her, equally horrified, my brain abruptly reengaged. “I didn’t have sex with Gray!”
“Thank God.” Reeti collapsed against the couch cushions. “I knew you had more sense than... Wait.” She sat up again. “You were with Tim. You didn’t... You never had sex withTim?”
The warmth surged everywhere, my chest, my face.
“Youdid!” Reeti crowed. “I told you he was relationship material.”
“We’re not in a relationship,” I said automatically. Were we? Didn’t a relationship include dating? We’d never been on a date.
“Okay,” Reeti said. “So it was recreational sex. That’s okay.”
That didn’t feel right, either. But I wasn’t making the mistake I had with Gray, making assumptions simply because we’d slept together. At least, that’s what I told myself.
So I nodded. “We were celebrating.”
“Celebrating is good,” Reeti said encouragingly.
The apartment door opened.
“Hey. You guys are up late,” Toni said, heading for the kitchen.
“You’re home early,” Reeti said.
“Some of us have to work in the morning,” Toni said virtuously. She grabbed the carton of milk and chugged it standing in front of the open refrigerator.
Reeti made anOh no you didn’tsound low in her throat.
“Glass,” I said.
Toni wrinkled her nose, but she pulled a glass from the cupboard. “How did your thing with Voldemort go?”
