“I’m not gonna say shit. But you know you gotta talk to Dylan. He’d fucking tellyou.”
He was right, and I hated that he was right aboutthis.
“Yeah, and I’ll tell him when I’mready.”
Ash stared at me. “This is bullshit.” He looked me over, slowly, from head to toe. I was wearing a short, tight, electric-blue dress, a date-night dress, and his eyes were all over it. He shook hishead.
Then he turned suddenly and started to stalkaway.
“We are friends, Ash,” I called afterhim.
He stopped and turned back to look atme.
I sighed. “Please, don’t be pissed atme.”
After all the stress with Jesse over the last year-and-a-half, I really couldn’t take it. It was one thing to blow Ash off over the phone, from miles away. It was another to see that look on hisface.
His eyes held mine for a heartbeat, dark eyebrows furling together. “I’m not pissed, Elle,” he said, his voice low and rough. Then he walkedaway.
I hadn’t even made it out of the hallway when Summer mowed me down. She grabbed me and yanked me into a bedroom, shutting thedoor.
“Holy shit,” she said. “You did it. You slept with him.” She was staring at my face, and she was expecting an answer. She hardly needed one. I knew she could read the truth in myeyes.
“Yeah. I slept with him. Repeatedly,okay?”
She backed off a bit, taking that in. “Wow.”
“Wow,what?”
“I’m just… surprised.” She was still studying me, reading my face, my body language. It wasunnerving.
“About what? You knew I was gonna sleep with him. You called it from dayone.”
“Yeah, but… I didn’t expectthis.”
“Expectwhat?”
Her pale blue eyes narrowed as she examined my bare legs. She crossed her arms under her chest; she was wearing a sleeveless black jumpsuit tonight, with a keyhole in the front that revealed a perfect swell of cleavage. She’d cut long bangs that framed her face, side-swept, with loose waves; kind of like Jacklyn Smith inCharlie’s Angels. She looked amazingly put-together, and I felt oddly like a total fucking mess standing here in hersight.
Why the hell did I come outtonight?
“You’re very defensive about him,” she noted. “And you wear shorter skirts than usual when he’s around. Like…wayshort.”
“Why wouldn’t I be defensive? Some of my closest friends think he’s a fucking asshole, and I don’t,okay?”
“Okay.” She stared atme.
I stared right back. “What? Just say it, okay? Whatever it is you’rethinking.”
“I’m just thinking…” Her pretty face crumpled a bit as she frowned. “I’m a bitconcerned.”
“Aboutwhat?”
“Elle. You’re fucking crazy abouthim.”
“So?” I almost shouted. “So what if Iam?”
“It’s just… sofast. I mean, you really want to blow up your entire life overthis?”
