“Oh please, if all the sexy as hell guys around here can swear up a storm, why can’t I? I’m so over all the fucking double standards.”
True. Still, Ivy didn’t feel like discussing that her newly discovered sex life might have dried up as quickly as it had come. But since she couldn’t seem to divert the conversation, she’d have to change the subject. She pointed at Erica.
“Hey, didn’t you get engaged over the weekend? Does Anna know you are sitting here waiting for hot guys to walk by so you can ogle their asses?”
Erica looked from Wendy to Christine. “She’s deflecting.”
“She is,” Christine said, looking at Ivy as she spoke. “Could mean one of two things. One, it was bad. Or two, it was amazing, but it hasn’t happened again and now she’s worried that she did something wrong.”
“Hmmm. I’m gonna go with door number two,” Erica guessed.
“Oh, for Pete’s sake!” Ivy threw up her hands. “You guys are hopeless. Maybe I don’t boink and tell. Has that ever occurred to you?”
Wendy gave her an astonished look. “Boinkthe hottest guy in the gym and not tell your girlfriends about it? It’s simply not done.”
“Co-workers,” Ivy corrected on instinct, and all three women snickered.
“Cute,” Christine said. “She still tells herself we’re not friends.”
Ivy frowned, not appreciating the tone, but the truth hit hard, regardless. When had these women wormed their way into her heart when she’d made every effort to keep her walls up and not let anyone in?
Luckily, the firefighting quintet came through the doors at that moment, saving the day.
“Hey ladies,” the tallest one drawled.
When Wendy visibly melted against the welcome desk, Ivy rolled her eyes.
“Are you ladies planning on coming to fight night to cheer us on? It’s in less than two weeks, you know,” the dark, chiseled cheekbones one asked.
Christine rested her breasts against the countertop, leaning in suggestively, her boxer braids tickling her cleavage. “Is that an invitation, handsome?”
Mr. Chiseled had no problem propping his elbow on the counter next to Christine, homing in on her personal space. Not that she seemed to mind.
“Only if you want it to be.” He winked at her and she sighed.
Oh, for the love of Pete!Ivy thought as Christine and her firefighter eye fucked each other across the counter space. Next thing, they’d be fondling each other. She needed to get out of here before that happened. Picking up her bag, she made her way toward her clinic to prepare for her first client.
She determinedly did not look toward the back of the gym where Sean would likely already be in the ring prepping for a training sesh with the Casanovas.
Since Sunday morning and the cryptic phone call, she hadn’t talked to him. True, they’d both been busy, and he didn’t owe her phone calls or explanations, but still, she had thought that he’d at least reach out to her, especially given their…arrangement.
Yesterday, they’d made eye contact a few times, and Ivy got her ass whipped in his kickboxing class, but they hadn’t exchanged many words in two days.
She was trying hard not to stress about it. After all, he knew where to find her if he wanted. Clearly, he didn’t want to. Maybe he was already over it. Meanwhile, she couldn’t seem to think of anything else. Every time she had a free minute for her mind to wander, it wandered right back to her bedroom, and all the things they’d done in it. Try as she might, Ivy had not been able to recreate an orgasm that intense.
The thought of that being the beginning and the end of their arrangement was unacceptable. And yet, what the hell was she supposed to do? Strut up to him and demand sex? Ask him when he’d be free for the next booty call?
Is that what people in these situations did? Because if so, she really wasn’t cut out to be a fuck buddy. In hindsight, she probably should have done some research first.Hey Google, how do you become an expert fuck buddy?
The reality was, she didn’t know the first thing about enticing a man, let alone a man like Sean—alpha, ultra-masculine, testosterone fueled, confidently sexual—honestly, where did one even begin? She didn’t have what it took to keep a man like that on the hook. Not even for a string of emotionless sexcapades.
Disheartened, Ivy thought back to Tina. The voluptuous cookie-baking goddess, with her figure-hugging wraparound dress and D-cup breasts. Soft, curvy, sexy, and all woman. That was the kind of woman Sean deserved to have as a friend with benefits.
Ivy released a monumental sigh, the kind that clearly said,Hello, it’s me, I’m in the middle of the biggest pity party of my life. Please pass the Oreos.
She really wished she could have a do-over with how she’d nagged him about the phone call. Damned phone call. Was it terrible that she still wanted to know who had called and soured his mood? If she’d been intrigued before, she was desperate to know now. Everything had shifted after that call, and they hadn’t been able to get back on course since.
Oreos never magically appeared in front of her, but she could go for the next best thing. Grabbing her bag she walked back toward the doors.
