Page 36 of Puppy Love

Cam shakes her head, gesturing toward her dog. “I think he might kill me if I make him wait for dinner a minute longer.”

I let out a soft laugh, knowing all too well that nothing on the planet is more demanding than a hungry dog.

“How pissed was he last week?” I ask. For a second, I regret asking it. Things had just become normal between us, and I feel like I just unraveled all that progress in six words. But Cam just laughs, that dimple plunging deep into her cheek.

“Pretty pissed,” she admits. “But it was worth it.”

Her words shock me, only because I know she means them. I bite back a smirk, bowing sarcastically.

“My pleasure,” I say, now letting the smile on my face grow. “And yours, apparently.”

Cam laughs, her eyes rolling to the ceiling.

“As far as I know.”

My cocky smile drops, my brows pressing together.

“What?”

“Nothing,” Cam says, her jaw snapping shut as her face grows red.

I shake my head, stepping closer to her.

“Nope.” I cross my arms. “You didn’t let me get away with that, so I’m not letting you. Was that—” I suck in a breath, then swallow. “Was that your first time?”

If I am the asshole that took this woman’s virginity in a dirty storage closet, I think I’ll hate myself forever. Cam’s eyes widen, and she waves both her hands frantically in front of her.

“What? No! That’s not—”

“You said as far as you know.”

“I know, but not like that. Like—”

“Like what?”

Cam stares at me blankly, her face growing redder by the second. Her mouth keeps opening, as if she’s going to speak, but it simply closes each time she tries.

“Cam, if that was your first time, I am so sor—”

“I lied.”

Cam blurts it out like it’s been dancing on the tip of her tongue forever, and her eyes drop to the floor.

“I didn’t just get startled by the woman knocking on the door. I—” She swallows, and I feel the muscles between my brows tense. What? She what? “I’ve never been with a woman before. And it wasn’t some radical realization I just came to; I always knew I was bisexual. My cards were just all male up until that night. And I got out of a relationship last year, and the whole thing—well, yeah. So, I was supposed to be finding a one-night stand, and it was supposed to be with a woman. And I was scared. But it didn’t scare me because I was unsure, it scared me because I wasn’t. I knew I wanted it, and I never wanted something that I didn’t already have. That…sounded stupid. Okay, um…”

She fumbles over her words, her eyes scanning the floor like she’s reading a script she formed in her head.

“It doesn’t,” I cut in before she can reduce the meaning of it all. “Sound stupid, I mean. I get what you mean, I think. Like—”

I stop. Do I really get what she means, or is that just something I’m saying to make her feel better?

Usually, I wouldn’t care. In the past, the goal has always been to make people feel better, no matter what the cost was. But Cam isn’t like that. She doesn’t want someone to make her feel better. She wants someone to tell her the truth.

I like that about her.

“I could be wrong,” I say honestly, taking another step closer. “But, at least for me, it’s like…craving a food you’ve never had before. You know you want it. You know you’ll like it. But it’s strange to feel so confident about that when you’ve never tried it.”

Cam’s gaze flicks back up to me, the tension in her face slowly easing. I don’t normally open up to people. Not about things like this. But Cam just trusted me with a piece of herself so easily, and I can’t help but feel like I owe it to her to do the same.

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