“No way,” I said decidedly.
“But why not?” Bailey pouted.
Because it would make me look like a naive girl, that’s why.
I had already compromised my dignity and my pride each and every time I cried out for his body. I had indulged all of his desires because I thought we’d made a deal: Every time I gave him something of myself, he had to tell me something about himself. And I’d believed that was the right thing to do.
I believed it right up until Halloween night.
“Oh, gimme your phone. I’ll do it for you.” Janel took advantage of my distraction to make a grab for my phone. I felt a moment of panic but came to my senses when I remembered that I’d never actually put his number into my phone.
I smiled victoriously because I knew Janel would be searching my contacts in vain. But then she waved the phone in front of me, the screen displaying the text messages I’d told her about, and I blanched. She scrolled up to the number and immediately called it. I lunged for the phone, but Janel got to her feet and fled from me like a gazelle.
“No!” I cried in defeat.
Janel put the call on speaker, and the sound of the first ring echoed around the living room. Bailey bit her lip, amused, but I immediately began to panic.
What was I supposed to say to Neil? How was I going to justify calling him now? I began to hope that he would hang up or just not even answer.
I leveled a glare at Janel. “I’m going to look like a child,” I said, reduced to a whisper by this juvenile, embarrassing behavior.
He always called me “Babygirl,” and now I was going to give him one more reason to continue doing so.
Bailey got up off the carpet and then sat down next to me, pulling her knees up against her chest. Janel remained standing with one hand on her hip, and her eyes rolled up toward the ceiling, bored with waiting.
Ring number four, and still nothing.
I was just about to breathe a sigh of relief—he wasn’t going to answer. Perfect! We could all forget about this moment of insanity, and I could come out of it untouched by any hypothetical embarrassment.
But fate was not on my side because, on the sixth ring, Neil answered.
“Hello.” His voice resounded off the walls, like he was right there in front of us. All three of us gave a stupid little start, and Janel quickly pushed the phone into my hand. She stifled a delighted laugh as the deafening silence settled in around us.
All it took was one simple five-letter word, and the authority Neil exuded had put a halt to my friends’ puckish mood.
I stared at the number that appeared on the phone screen and didn’t utter a single word. My lips fell slightly open. He was on the other end of the line; I could hear his impatient sigh while, meanwhile, I couldn’t breathe at all.
Interminable seconds went by. Seconds when I held my breath, seconds when the earth seemed to stop spinning. Even it was waiting to see what would happen.
I looked to Janel, completely embarrassed and totally unable to explain how his voice sent shivers of fear and pleasure through my entire body. I moved my thumb over the screen and did the first thing that came into my mind: I hung up the call.
I really just hung up on him.
Now I was truly acting naive!
5
My body was no longer cooperating with me.
Neil
I’d lost track of time between Jennifer’s thighs.
I held myself suspended above her, elbows on either side of her face, my body slick with sweat, my forehead pressed into the pillow. My breathing was thready, and I struggled to regulate it.
“You okay?” she murmured breathlessly. She looked worn out but sated. She watched me with concerned, heavily lidded eyes. Her lips were wet, and her plush breasts pressed against my chest each time she inhaled.
She was still embarrassingly wet between her legs, and that pleased me.
