Page 5 of Every Version of You

There’s a good chance I’m a raisin at this very moment. God, my mouth is like a desert. My head has its own pulse and…I’m in Rafael’s bed.

Fuck me. I never drink like that. At least not since college. Why did I get white girl-wasted?

Opening both eyes, I confirm that he, too, is here with me. This certainly isn’t the first time we’ve fallen asleep in the same bed together, but with so many missing pieces as to why we’re in here now…yeah, that’s new.

Dragging my line of sight from his disheveled raven hair down his aquiline nose, slightly parted full lips, and Adam’s apple, I get to his bare chest and inspect the letter J tattoo over his heart—the one we share. And then I stop myself.

Wait, what am I wearing?

Popping the covers, I take a peek below and see I’m only wearing my nude titty cutlets and high-waisted panties. Sexy.

“Why are you in my bed?” Raf’s raw and gravelly morning voice scrapes out.

I quickly close the covers back over my chest and stare at him. “I don’t know. I wasn’t planning on staying the night. You don’t know why I’m in your bed either?”

He shakes his head slowly and we simply lay there, silently trying to put the scraps of memories together.

I narrow my eyes. “We didn’t…?”

“No,” he says quickly. “There’s no way we’d… No,” he huffs, then sits up in a flash and turns to open his nightstand drawer. He lets out a huge sigh of relief when he shows me a cellophane-sealed fresh box of condoms. “I’ve never had sex without one before. There’s no way I would ignore that step. It’s ingrained.” But then he drops the box and studies me. “Do you think we did?”

I shift my body weight around feeling for any soreness, anything out of the ordinary, and…nothing. “Other than my pounding hangover, I’m okay. Plus, I’m on the pill, so even if we did…”

“Which we didn’t.”

“Definitely not, because—”

“Because we’re best friends—”

“And that would be so—”

“Stupid.”

“Completely wrong.” There’s a long pause between us. “We should call Cora.”

Five seconds later, her sleepy voice answers. “Hello?”

There’s no point in sugar-coating the truth when I know I’m going to tell her about this sooner or later and Raf knows everything anyway. “Girl, why am I in Raf’s bed?”

“What?” she drawls. I hear a low snicker come from her side of the phone.

Marco clears his throat and speaks next. “I tried getting you a driver last night, but you refused and told me you were staying there. Raf said you could sleep in the guest room.”

“What are you wearing, Ang?” Jay asks, and I can hear the smirk through the phone.

“Um…that’s not important.”

“Oh, I think it is,” Cora replies.

“Thanks for your help! Please go back to your little love nest and we shall all forget about this as soon as I hang—” I ramble, then press the end call button.

Raf lets out a huge exhale. “Alright. Are you okay, Ang? Tell me the truth.”

“I think we’re chalking this up to be more than it is. We simply fell asleep drunk,” I say, but remember then that he almost kissed me. I have to get to the bottom of this. “What was the last thing you remember?”

“Did we take shots?”

“Yeah. You had me lick the salt off your hand.”

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