Page 34 of Just Enough

I laughed. “It’s all good. You can use a pen name when you publish so that you can be anonymous.”

“Will you stop?” She huffed. “Let’s get a few unsuspecting souls to read it is all…”

I smiled. I had her.

______

A couple months later…

“Jeremy’s words were, ‘When is she writing the next one?’”

“Heyy... I got a friend request from a Jeremy on Facebook today.” I filed that away to ask him about later. I didn’t like any of the guys I knew knowing Emily. “I wonder if that’s the same Jeremy?”

“It probably is.” I sighed. “You’ve made a fan out of him.”

I smiled when she laughed. “What about the others?”

I mentally started going through what everyone had been saying about the story after reading it. “Jessie said it was out there and ridiculous but in the best kind of way.”

“Well, that sounds good-ish.”

“Alexa said she liked it but didn’t love it.” Then I added, “But she’s into romance more than anything.”

“Ahhh,” Emily sounded disinterested in the idea of romance.

“What, no kiss-kiss, hug-hug, bump-bump, bend her over and hump-hump for Gorilla Ben?” I teased her.

“You just tainted my character, you pig,” she muttered. “I guess I’m not a girl when it comes to that stuff.”

Oh, you’re one all right,I couldn’t help but think to myself.

“You just haven’t had the right bedroom experience,” I told her.

“What a douchebag thing to say,” she muttered.

“I’m just saying, sex shouldn’t feel like a chore or an obligation in a relationship. You should want it,crave it. Hell, you should love it.”

“Not everyone cares for sex.”

It really crawled under my skin that she didn’t know how much fun touching and fucking someone you were physically and emotionally connected to could be.

Now I was sporting a stiffy below the belt and it had everything to do with the idea of having our bodies together—connecting every which way I could convince her to. A fucking explosion was what it would be.

I had Tammy, and I was centering myself around Emily’s made-up world. And picturing very bad things with her.

I was the biggest ass.

With this story, it pulled me right back into what I tried to stay away from with Emily. I didn’t even go home anymore for the simple fact that I was trying to keep a safe distance. After that kiss incident that nearly crippled me, I would have walked next door and ended things with Tammy right then and there if that kiss had meant anything.

Why the hell did she kiss me on the cheek after I kissed her forehead? I knew why I did it, trying to play it off as innocent. I was horrible and pathetic.

So, I played it safe far, far away from her where I wasn’t tempted to kiss her forehead again to see if she’d kiss my cheek once more—and how easily it could be to turn my head and meet her lips with mine when it happened.

Yeah… Nope.

Now, here I was fixated on her story and helping her. She placed me in a made-up worldwithher in it. They were the only characters in the book too, other than the people, animals, and villains they encountered.

She had me obsessing over her and what I always wanted with her without even trying. It was tiresome, but I couldn’t get away.

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