Page 17 of Jack

“No problem,” I said.

Casey smiled her same appreciative smile that made me depressed on her behalf and turned to walk back to her car.

I shook my head, unsure if Shelby truly had been that delusional, or if her inflated ego wouldn’t allow her to let people believe she was anything but my girlfriend. When I compared her to Ava, I wanted to cringe and go back in time and erase all of our contact.

Ava. I felt the same dopey grin hovering on my lips and made every effort not to let it slide into a full-on smile. I was definitely making plans with her this weekend. The fact that it was Monday filled me with irritation, but I needed to get a handle on my response to her. Not hooking up with her until the weekend would be a good exercise in self-discipline.

I could still text her. Yes, I should definitely text her. She would probably become skittish if I didn’t contact with her before the weekend and then just expected her to let me fuck her. Texting her was the only choice that made sense.

I decided to ignore the fact that I’d never texted a girl to have a conversation in my life. I’d texted girls to find out when and where we were meeting up or if I was running late, or something. However, Ava was different, and if I was going to exorcise her from my mind and my dick, I needed to change it up a little.

Ignoring the small dart of pleasure I felt when I thought about texting her later tonight, I tried to figure out what the fuck I was going to talk about.

****

Chapter 11

Ava

It was Thursday night of the weirdest week of my life. Jack and I were having a casual sexual relationship that, so far, featured no sex. However, it had featured a lot of sexting. Jesus, sometimes, I would just look at my phone and flush. Jack definitely wasn’t shy. In school, we carried on as friends and tried to be casual. However, during the day he kept up a steady stream of flirtatious and sometimes outright obscene messages. Some of it made me laugh, a lot of it made me blush.

I needed to check in with Hannah to see if she’d caught on to anything between me and Jack. Though, she’d been so wrapped up in Nikolai lately, she probably wouldn’t notice if my hair was on fire.

I was lying in bed, holding my phone, waiting for him to start texting me. He always texted me around bedtime, usually ten or eleven.

It was eleven thirty, so I was surprised he hadn’t texted yet. And disappointed in a way I didn’t want to admit to myself.

I felt the phone vibrate and swiped it open to see a message from Jack, heat flushing my cheeks, my heart pounding in excitement. This was bad, so bad, and I hadn’t even had sex with the guy yet.

Jack: You still up?

Ava: Yes, I am a night owl.

Jack: Good to know

Ava: Lol, not like that. Well, maybe like that ;)

I had progressed in my sexy banter since we’d started talking through text, feeling more confident because he was so responsive to it. I saw the three little bubbles pop up to indicate he was writing something, but it was taking a while, so he must be writing a lot. My curiosity mounted as I waited.

Jack: You often make comments like that. Comments that refer to a lack of sexual experience, but you haven’t given me any indication you’re a virgin and you referred to another guy in your past. If we’re going to have sex (no if, WHEN we have sex) I need to know how much experience you’ve had. Can you explain?

I stared at his question, a completely reasonable one considering the context of our relationship, and felt my heart pound—this time with anxiety. I always had this response when I thought about Chad, my ex.

Ava: Okay, this is kind of a long story. Can I call you?

Considering the question, I was surprised by the long pause. After about two minutes, I started to text him to forget it, when my phone rang.

“Hello?”

I heard a chuckle. “Why did you answer the phone as though you didn’t know who was calling?”

I laughed, feeling my tension drain away. “I don’t know. It was how you answered the phone, I guess, before we all could see who was calling.”

“So, what’s your long story,” he prompted.

“Right, this is weird to tell. I’ve never really told anyone the whole thing. I think I just wanted to forget about it.”

“Okay, take your time,” Jack responded with such surprising sensitivity, I felt tears spring to my eyes. God, I was already crying, and I hadn’t even told him one word of the story yet.

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