And you know who isn’t?Jonas!
Our host is many things—most of them bad, some of them good, and exasperating most of the time. But “sweet” isn’t a term anyone would use to describe him. It simply doesn’t apply.
Last night, when I went over to complain about the noise, I noticed a substantial erection his bathrobe couldn’t really hide.
Had he been having a bit of solitary fun, or had he been making out with someone?Who?Hyacinth? Melody? Tami? Was one or more of them in his room when I knocked? That would explain his sudden disdain for headphones and why he’d turned the volume up. Headphones can’t muffle the sounds of sex.
Like I said, they can have him.
On Sunday night in the library, I told him I had an issue with gratitude sex. It was a lie. My real objection was to having casual sex with a completely wrong-for-me macho man. A macho man who I can’t stop thinking about. And who a bunch of other women seem to be taken with even more. Or, at least, in a more outspoken way. I’d rather have no sex at all for yet another month than become Conquest Number Four in the “Ride Me, Jonas” Flying Circus!
Hyacinth, Melody and Tami can have him, including thefine eyes, charming manners, and stinky ideas. His physique is tolerable, I suppose, but not out of the common way. And not enough to tempt me.
Hey, snap out of it, Margot!You can pause Caroline for the rest of the day.
Let’s rephrase in my own words. The man is hot. His is a frostbite-inducing sort of hotness but it’s there. It’s undeniable. When I stood on his doorstep last night, all he had to do was reach out and touch me. The slightest brush of the back of his hand against my cheek like he’d done in the library, and I would’ve stuffed all my qualms down a memory hole. The consequences would’ve been devastating.
How do I protect myself from him?
For starters, I could stop pooh-poohing the solution that’s right in front of me. Here’s the plan: I take a much better man who’s really into me out of the friendzone, and I give him a chance to boot Jonas from my mind.
Hey, Jonas, I’m going to Peter you out!
CHAPTER17
MARGOT
Dad arrives clutching two bags full of wraps, salad boxes, and cans. Suddenly famished, I tuck into the food. While we eat, Mom and Dad tell me how proud they are with how effortlessly I handled my lines and interacted with my co-actors and audience members.
“You ashed your first major role!” Dad slurs with his mouth full.
“All that hard work paid off!” Mom exclaims.
Doreen dabs a napkin at her mouth. “Did I tell you I got a promotion?”
The three of us turn to her.
She throws her hands up in the air and grins. “Can you believe it?”
“Details, please,” Dad asks.
“I got headhunted by another bank, so I went to talk to my supervisor.”
“When was that?” Mom asks. “Well done,ma chérie!”
I pat Doreen’s arm. “Congrats!”
Dad knits his eyebrows. “Why are we hearing about it only now?”
“It just happened, Dad. Like, literally yesterday,” she reassures him without as much as a glance at Mom or me. “I’d never hide something like that from my old man, knowing how much the news would please you.”
Dad wipes his hands. “Go on, then. What did your boss say?”
“I told him I’d received an offer and I was mulling it over.” She puffs her chest out. “He said he’d do anything to keep me.”
Dad’s eyes twinkle. “So, you went ahead and asked for a promotion and a raise. That’s my girl!”
“And he agreed!” She beams. “Only six months after my previous raise. Is that cool or what?!”
