Page 58 of Allured By Her

“Or maybe I’ll chop it off,” she said, studying the ends of her hair.

“Do whatever you want. It grows back,” I said, picturing Tenley with different haircuts.

“I’ve never had short hair in my life,” she said. “My mom would never let me cut it because she said it would make me look like a boy, so I just never did.”

“Ugh, that’s so annoying. I hate it when parents do shit like that.” I was glad my parents never had, but only because they hadn’t cared enough about my appearance. I could have shaved my entire head and they probably would have just shrugged.

“You could always start with cutting a few inches and go from there.”

“Hmm,” Tenley said, and I could tell she was lost in thought about her hair.

“Shane always told me that he didn’t like short hair,” she said. Typical. Some men were so fucking fragile.

“Sorry, I just keep thinking about all the things I didn’t do because he didn’t like them,” she said, giving me an apologetic smile.

“That sounds really shitty,” I said. First her parents and then her boyfriend? Tenley had been stifled for a long time.

“It didn’t feel like that at the time. It felt like a compliment somehow. Now I know it wasn’t.” She made a face and then let out a frustrated sound.

“Oh my god, I just realized I’m never going to have sex again,” she said, rubbing her face.

I definitely didn’t want to talk about this, so I didn’t comment.

“Not that what I had with Shane was mind-blowing by any means. We’d been together for a long time, if you know what I mean.” It seemed that Tenley had gotten on a tangent again and nothing was going to slow her down and I’d have to hold on for dear life.

“I don’t,” I said, wishing my wine glass wasn’t empty. The bottle was too far away for me to reach.

“Let’s just say that things can get stale, and if your partner is happy with the way things are, then you’re kind of fucked. And not in a good way.” How much wine had Tenley had?

“Uhhh,” I said, searching around for a way, any way, to change the current topic.

Tenley grabbed the bottle of wine and filled up her glass. I managed to snatch the bottle from her. I was going to need it, so I filled my glass with what was left.

“Shane was going to propose this year,” she said, which was better than talking about her sex life, but not by much. “At least he told me he was. He wanted to buy a house too.”

I remembered she’d been fighting with him on the phone about houses. I thought it was kind of interesting that they didn’t live together, even after being together for so long.

Tenley blew out a breath. “It doesn’t matter now. None of that shit matters now. At least I don’t have to get a divorce or find a new place to live.”

“Seriously,” I said, and Tenley drained her glass of wine, setting it down on her tray with a frown.

“I’m doing that thing where I only talk about myself again. I promise I’m not normally this self-centered. I mean, I am self-centered, but I can hold a decent conversation like an adult,” she said.

I knew how to get her to talk about something else.

“What are you reading right now?” I asked and watched as her face completely changed, like the sun coming out from behind the clouds.

* * *

Again, I stayed way too late at Tenley’s house.

“See you tomorrow,” she said, hugging me. This time I was the one who was surprised.

“Your hair still smells like coffee,” she said in my ear and a shiver went down my spine.

Her hair smelled like…some flower I couldn’t put my finger on. Probably something fancy and expensive.

Tenley leaned into me, letting out a little “mmm” sound that made a bolt of heat go through my body. I’d never gotten horny from a hug before, so this was a first.

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