"They're book characters." Charlie says.
A huffed breath escapes me before I can stop it and I shake my head. Of course. Fictional men who yearn, kneel and burn and have better manners than anyone on campus. Figures. If Ivy ever looked at me the way she speaks about books...
I bury that thought too.
"I just wish there was a guide out there that could teach you what to do, like step-by-step instructions."
Instructions? Instructions for what?
"He called me a lousy lay." It's not even the words that have my hand gripping harder to my keys but the way her voice shakes as she says them. The insecurity tingeing each syllable.
"Dick." Charlotte mutters. My jaw aches from how much I'm clenching it.
Fucking say their name, Ivy.
Everything inside me goes cold and for a moment, a long moment I stop listening.
I want him on the ice.
I want to see him folded into the boards, breath knocked out of him, questioning every decision that led him there.
"I don't want to be insecure about sex," Ivy says.
Sex.
The word shouldn't shock me. It does.
Hearing it in her mouth hits different than it should.
"I want to know what I'm doing."
My grip tightens around the keys. The metal digging into the soft flesh of my palm.
She had sex.
And it wasn't good.
And someone thought they had the right to make her feel small about it. It takes two to tango, asshole.
I hear a car door slam and I shift a little, looking through the window to see Leon's car pull in.
I narrow my eyes on it. "Fucking stay," I mutter. I can see him through the window, talking on his phone and I breathe a sigh. He won't be in for a few minutes at least. My phone buzzes with a text and I swear softly as I pull it out, replying to the team group chat about tonight, rolling my eyes at the influx of memes one of the guys sends through.
"I might have an idea." Charlotte voice is soft, thoughtful and I step slightly closer to listen clearer, forgetting about Leon for a second, my phone and the fact I should walk away now, before I hear something I don't want to hear.
"What if you find someone who can help you?"
"I'm not following."
"Like a friends with benefits situation, and the benefits would be that he show you the ropes and tell you how to do things."
I squeeze my eyes shut.
Fuck.
"Who better to tell you how to please a guy than a guy?"
It takes great enough to relax my jaw. My back meets the wall as my brain runs through the load of information, head hitting the plaster with a soft thud.
