Page 62 of The First Time

“You were?”

She leans back in her chair, and I get a better glance at her growing belly. It’s so adorable.

“Yes! I was totally taking a chance with Josh going. I thought there were two ways it could go. You two would end up killing each other, or…” she gives me a weird look.

“Or?” I drawl out.

“Or you two would finally see that you two have feelings for each other, and something would happen.”

My hands freeze with my burger halfway to my mouth as my jaw falls open.

“I know!” she shouts. “I’m the worst. I kinda was hoping you would come back and have this like huge romantic story about how the two of you had sex the entire time and how amazing it was. I’m lucky he didn’t ruin the entire trip for you with my stupid hopeless romantic delusions.”

I can’t contain my laughter. Her hopes for the trip is just so absurdly accurate.

She looks at me like I’ve officially lost it. “Well, I’m glad you’re laughing about it. I thought you’d hate me.”

I shake my head at the ridiculousness. I would never hate her. “No,” I laugh, “it’s not that. It’s just that you may not be as far off as you originally hoped.”

Her forehead scrunches. I can see her mind working overtime as she tries to put it all together. Then her hands slam down on the table. “Wait a minute. Are you telling me something DID happen between you two?”

I bite my lip, trying not to blush like a damn schoolgirl. “A lot more than justsomethinghappened in Italy.”

“Yes!” she claps with excitement.

“Shhhh,” I reply as I look around the house. “Look, I’d love to talk about this with you, but you have to promise me one thing.”

Her shoulders sink. “You want me to keep it from your brother, don’t you?”

“Look, I won’t ask you to lie to him. If he suspects and asks, you can tell him. But I’m asking you not to offer the information. I think that’s a fair deal, right?”

“Yes. That’s fair. I promise I won’t tell him unless he asks. Now, please, tell me everything. How did it happen? Who made the first move? Was it good? How big is he?”

“Well, it was this like, weird gradual thing that happened over the course of the week.”

She leans forward. “Ooh, like how? Did it start with a kiss one night under the stars?”

My cheeks redden with embarrassment. “It kind of started with me accidentally walking in on him when he was—you know,” I gesture with my hand.

She gasps in surprise. “Shut up!” she laughs. “You walked in on that? Did you run away mortified? Did you finish it for him?”

“Wrong and wrong.”

She contemplates my response. “What the hell did you do then?”

“I told him to finish while I watched.”

She inhales sharply. “You did not. I don’t believe you.” She throws down her fry on her foil burger wrapper.

“I swear, I don’t know where the confidence came from. It was like the old me slowly started to return.”

“Was it hot to watch?” she asks in a whisper.

I look around again to make sure Asher isn’t nearby. “It was soo hot,” I whisper back.

She eats a fry and does a weird dance. “I’m so excited. I wish I could drink alcohol. I feel like this conversation needs wine. Okay, so, then what happened?”

I tell her all about our kiss, the night he fingered me, and then our first night together. She grins the entire time while her eyes sparkle with joy. Every word that tumbles out of my mouth is met with contagious enthusiasm.

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