“I shouldn’t have avoided you.” She broke the silence.
“Why did you? We had a good time.”
“Maybe a little too good.” She shifted her shoulders.
“Come here.” He sat down next to her, surprised at how solid the sofa actually was. “It’s only just warming up in here. Get some heat from me.” She leaned against him and he felt her relax.
“I was good then?” He couldn’t resist. He was discreet, but he had enjoyed more than his fair share of women: owning a bar and playing guitar were strong aphrodisiacs, the feedback he’d received had been favourable. But he needed to hear it from her.
“You were pretty okay,” she said.
He’d been more than okay if her noises had been any indication.
“So why avoid me?”
“Because you wanted it to happen again,” she whispered, as if there was anyone to overhear.
He nodded, putting his fingers through her hair, half expecting her to tell him to get the fuck off her. “I do want it to happen again. But if it doesn’t, then I’ll have to live with it.”
“Your next line should be, ‘but can you livewithoutit?’”
He laughed. “I wasthatgood?”
“Scott, yours was the first penis I’d seen in fuck knows how long.” She rested her back against his chest, sliding round the sofa. They both still wore their outside coats, the hut not warm enough to take them off and at some point soon they’d need to get moving, else she’d start to stiffen up even more.
Speaking of stiffening up: his dick remembered Sunday night and Monday morning and hoping for another round. He shifted, trying to make himself more comfortable, without disturbing her. “I hope it didn’t disappoint.”
“You really are fishing for compliments.”
“You avoided me. I thought you were embarrassed.”
She gave a little laugh. “I didn’t know how to act with you. I should’ve messaged you or something or rang, I suppose, but what do you say?”
“How about, the other night was great, would you like to go for dinner? Or, the other night was great, but I think we should leave it at that? Just answering a call would’ve been good, or sending a message,” he said, still annoyed. No one pushed his buttons like Keren, apart from possibly Jake.
“I know. I acted like a sixteen-year-old,” she said. “It’s changed everything.”
“Has it?”
“We’re speaking civilly for a start.”
“Is that a bad thing?” He massaged her scalp, hearing rain start to fall outside. The fire was in full force now and the hut was warming up. He had no urge to go out in what looked like a heavy downpour and he didn’t think that would do her much good.
“No. It was weird. I missed you so much when you stopped being a friend to me,” she said. “I had no idea what I’d done. You came back from university and within a couple of weeks you were goading me and arguing. I was so glad to get away from Severton that September.”
“Take your coat off,” he said, moving back from her.
She started to slip it off, wincing. “This is going to hurt tomorrow.”
“Yep.” He did what he could to help her. “And you’re going to need a new bike.”
She groaned. “I think I’ll leave that for a while.”
“I’ll give you a month. The first thing you did when you came home from university that first Christmas was go biking.” He sat with his back to the arm of the sofa, moving so she could rest against his chest again. “I wish I’d spoken to you back then. I was embarrassed and I had no idea how to be friends with you.”
She laughed quietly. “Let’s agree to move on. A start over. Arguing optional.”
“I think it’s an essential,” he said, his hands smoothing over her arms. “Otherwise our friends will want to do a psych eval on both of us.”
