10
Denise - Frilly Pink Dresses and Mystery Ramen
Ican’t believe I just let that happen. How could I let Ryder get me off, sitting outside at Connor’s place while Andrew waited for me in the house? That isn’t the way I would normally behave. It’s like I can’t control myself ever since Ryder told me how he feels.
That was the best orgasm of my life, though. I think I may have blacked out a little. And Ryder is an amazing kisser. My fingers touch my lips before I even know it’s happening.
“What are you smiling about?” Andrew asks from the passenger seat. Devon was right, Andrew was looking for me because he wanted to leave. So much for him making more of an effort. Of course, that may have had something to do with the fact that I disappeared with Ryder pretty much as soon as we got there.
“Nothing,” I say, before changing the subject. “I thought you were going to try today? I clearly did,” I say as I gesture to my ridiculously frilly pink dress and understated makeup.
“Yes, well, I didn’t say I wanted to hang around with those people without you.” He saysthose peoplelike they’re diseased or something. Maybe he’s afraid of catching tattoos. Or a personality. Heh.
I’m regretting calling Andrew and saying that we could give this another try. He doesn’t know about the pregnancy yet though, and I’m thankful for that. I want to see if we can compromise enough to have this baby as a couple or if we’ll be working out some kind of co-parenting agreement for when the baby comes.
“Sorry about that,” I lie. I’m glad I’m driving so I don’t have to look at him while we talk about this. Despite being great at business negotiations, I am terrible at lying. “I had some contract stuff to talk over with Ryder and just wanted to get it out the way.”
“Contract stuff?” Andrew asks. “Like what?”
“You know I can’t discuss that with you, Andrew. It’s confidential.” Plus that is not all what was going on and I’m definitely not telling him what really happened. I probably should feel guilty about it, but for some reason I don’t.
He huffs. “I don’t see why I can’t know. I’m your boyfriend, plus I signed the stupid NDA so I could come to these dinners with you. That should prove that I’m trustworthy.”
I shake my head; we’ve had this conversation before and I’m not doing it again. Hopefully he’ll just drop it and we can ride the rest of the way to his house in peace.
“You do look very nice today,” he says after a few minutes of silence. “Those earrings you’re wearing aren’t very dainty, but they’re not too bad.”
I release an exasperated breath. It took a lot for me to swallow my pride and get into this pink dress and the low heels. This is not an outfit I would ever have chosen for myself before, but I wanted to try and make this work with Andrew. He’s making it incredibly difficult with his nitpicking my earrings now.
“What’s wrong with my earrings?” I ask, rolling my eyes.
“Well, you know,” he gestures at them, “they look thick, and the hoops are so big. They look very rock-and-roll. Or like you’re one of those freaky people with gigantic holes in their ears.”
What the hell? Iamone of those freaky people with gigantic holes in their ears. OK, so they’re not that much bigger than a normal earring would be, but they are stretched a little. Has he never noticed this before?
I ignore his comments and keep driving. The sooner I can drop him off, the better. I’m getting a little irritated with him right now and if I want to take a shot at this, I need some time away from him.
I’m turning into the parking lot of his apartment building before he even knows we were going there. I pull up right in front of the door to drop him off, and he turns to look at me.
“Aren’t you going to come up? We could, you know…”
The last thing I want right now is to ‘you know’, with Andrew. Especially after the incident with Ryder out on the deck. I don’t think I could handle having a disappointing sexual experience so soon after such an amazing one. Plus, I need some time to sort all that out in my head before I do anything else with anyone.
“I have a lot of work to do tonight.” The lie comes more easily this time. “You’re still coming with me next Saturday?” I almost hope he says no.
“Umm, yeah? Remind me again?”
“It’s the engagement thing for Connor and Alex.”
“Right. Yeah, I’ll come with you. We’ll work out the details.” He leans over to kiss me and I give him my cheek.
“Oh, I’m not fully over whatever illness I had this week. I’d hate to pass it on to you.” Really, I just don’t want anything erasing the memory of Ryder’s kiss. My lips tingle just thinking about it.
“Oh yeah, that makes sense. Okay then.” He opens his door and steps out of the car. “See you soon?”
“Yeah, sure thing.” I drive away the second he closes the door. My body is just itching to get away, almost like it can’t stand to be around Andrew for another minute.
It’s going to be tricky to work things out with Andrew if I can’t even be around him. I need to try, though, for the sake of the baby. Right?
