Page 46 of Maybe You

Eventually, fed up with the silence, I shrug. “I’m just saying. If you don’t have anything better to do… do me.”

He still doesn’t say anything, so I let out an exasperated huff of breath.

“Look, it’s not that difficult. I’m asking you to have sex with me. While one hundred percent sober. Now all you have to do is give me an answer.”

He shakes his head and clears his throat, brow furrowing slightly.

“I’m just… I guess I’m just trying to figure out where you’re going with this? As in… What’s your goal here? Because I gotta tell you, I really can’t figure out the sudden change of heart.”

I roll my eyes. “The goal is to have sex. Simple as that.”

He’s shaking his head again before I’ve even stopped talking. “No. No. It’s really not. Did you lose a bet?”

“Fuck’s sake,” I mutter. “There’s no bet. I just want you to fuck me. You said you wanted to almost the minute we met. I’m giving you the go-ahead now.” I wave my hand toward him. “Let’s do it. Let’s fuck.”

I’m practically serving myself up on a silver platter here, but instead of taking me up on that offer, he just narrows his eyes at me. “Are you still drunk? Is that what it is?”

“Not drunk,” I say as patiently as I can, which by now is not very patiently at all. “If you don’t want to, just tell me.”

His frown deepens until it looks like he’s glowering at me. And maybe he is. I am practically demanding that he sleeps with me, and doing it in a pretty snippy tone while I’m at it.

I take a slow, deep breath and force a pleasant smile onto my face.

“I promise there’ll be no hard feelings if you say no. All I want from you now is an answer. Yes or no. It’s that easy.”

Instead of giving me that, he crosses his arms over his chest.

“What made you change your mind?”

I stare back.

“What?”

“What made you change your mind?” he repeats. “Because you sure as hell didn’t seem that interested in sleeping with me before last night, so what brought on the sudden change of heart?”

I look away from him then, because I can’t seem to hold his penetrating gaze.

“Nothing,” I say. “What? Are you saying I can’t change my mind?”

He lifts his chin an increment in challenge. “Why?”

“I just did!” I say, frustration coloring every word as I push myself up from my seat. “But okay, fine. You don’t want to anymore. I get the picture. Consider yourself off the hook. You can breathe easy or whatever. I’m not going to make you.”

I cross my arms over my chest with what I fucking very well am going to pretend is dignity and casualness.

Don’t want to sleep with me? Sure. Whatever. I’ve got plenty of options.

“Yeah,” he says slowly and, annoyingly, with all the dignity and casualness in the world. “Call me crazy, but I don’t think you just woke up and decided to take me up on my offer out of nowhere.”

I drag my fingers through my hair and huff in frustration.

“What does it even matter? The point is you made an offer, and now I’m accepting it. Come on, you made such a big deal out of what a heartless bastard you are, the least you can do is live up to the promise!”

I’m this close to stomping my foot on the ground, especially because he remains irritatingly calm.

“We all have our vices. Guess insatiable curiosity is mine.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake!” I growl. “You know what? Forget it. I’m taking my acceptance of your offer back. If you aren’t interested anymore, all you had to do was say so. A simple no would’ve sufficed.” I push myself up from my seat, the legs of the chair screeching on the floor. “But no, you had to make a whole big thing of this, and that’s not what I’m after. You don’t want me? Fine. We’ll just pretend this?—”

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