Page 20 of Doug

Yeah.

She’d promised him that, alright. But her promise was as close to a lie as Pixie had ever told in her adult life. It was time to admit, at least to herself, that she’d developed, in her mindand body, some weird-ass longing for Doug. Actual,physicalyearnings. And wasn’t that fucked up? She hadn’t had feelings like those for years. And since meeting Doug, she’d done her best to banish them to the farthest recesses of her brain, but… They refused to stay expatriated.

Was that it? Had she done something to give her inner thoughts away to Doug? Could he sniff out that she was actually physically attracted to him?

And…could they talk about it?

Pixie sighed. If they weretruefriends, they could. Friends talked abouteverything. She knew that, because she and Julie shared their deepest thoughts with each other all the time.

With Pixie’s friend, Julie, it was generally Julie worrying over the future and well-being of her son and husband. With Pixie, it was how hard she found it to navigate a world where she wasn’t quite sure—except for teaching—how she fit in.

Now she had something far more complex to hash out.

Suddenly, Pixie wanted not only to grab her classroom work when she went back to her hometown, she wanted to talk to Julie. Would her bestie have time on a Saturday?

Without hesitation, she picked up her phone and hit Julie’s number.

“Hey girl,” Julie’s bright voice answered chipperly, but it sounded like she was doing something brisk, like running or hiking.

“Hey Jules.” Pixie’s shoulders sunk down. She felt better just hearing her friend’s upbeat voice.

“What’s cookin’?” Julie prodded. “I thought you were at your sister’s this weekend.”

“I…” Pixie didn’t beat around the bush. She needed to see if Julie was available to talk, or if she was only—reluctantly—putting her work-out agenda on hold to chat. “Are you running right now?”

Julie laughed. “Yeah. On the treadmill. Which means I don’t need my brain-cells to avoid cars or cross streets. My focus is all on you, baby.”

Pixie went for broke. “I need to send something by you…regarding Doug.”

There was a snort. “Ah, the man who ghosted you. You want to egg his car? TP his house? If you do, I’m in.”

And that’s why Pixie loved Julie. The woman would step up to the plate, no matter the plan.

“Nothing like that,” Pixie giggled. “Kinda the opposite, actually. Don’t freak out, but he…” She cleared her throat. “If you can believe it, he came by Talia’s house last night. I saw him sitting in his truck across the street, so I went over and confronted him.”

“That’s my girl. Did you tell him to take his sorry ass back to wherever he keeps it?”

“Uh, no. I actually invited him in for supper.”

There was a moment of silence before. “Stop. I’m regrouping here. Give me a second.”

Pixie wanted to chuckle again, but refrained until she heard a deep breath.

“Okay. I’m back on-line. Did he take you up on your offer? Did he say why he was stalking you after ditching you?”

Julie sounded like her mama-bear-back was up. Pixie thought to calm her down.

“He actually wasn’t stalking. He’s aware of how nervous I get being alone, so he wanted to watch out for me, even if it was from the other side of the road. But yes, he actually ended up coming inside to eat dinner, and…he stayed the night.”

“What?” Julie’s voice went up several octaves. “You slept with Mr. Hot and Grumpy? Oh my God, Pixie! Halleluiah! You little vixen. I knew you had it in you. Whoot, whoot! Your dry spell is over!”

“No. No. It’s not like that. It isn’t… I didn’t…” she replied quickly.

Pixie suddenly and inexplicably was hit with a wrenching, delayed disappointment. She and Doug wouldneversleep together. He’d made that clear. He had a pervasive mistrust ofwomen, left over from something fucked-up in his childhood. And if she cared for him, even the slightest, which she did, she’d honor his boundaries and back off.

Why should that be so difficult? Suddenly, after sixteen happily celibate years, Pixie had an active libido? That was damned strange for a woman who hadn’t even liked sex when she’d had it with her one and only dickhead partner.

Pixie cleared her throat, remembering Julie’s question, and clarified things for her. “Doug slept in the guest room.”

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