Page 44 of Honey Pot

My phone rang at my side. Bobbi’s pretty smile lit up the screen, and I set it up so we could talk. “Hey.” I typed more notes into my document.

“Where’s Cael’s tape?” She asked without pleasantries.

“It’s—” I swallowed, “tainted.”

“What does that mean? Did the recording mess up?” Bobbi said, not really paying attention to the conversation as she worked at her computer on the other end of the FaceTime.

“No.” I leaned back in my chair and waited for her to look at me.

Her brown eyes widened in shock when she took in the blush on my cheeks and the smirk on my face. She set down her hands and leaned closer to the camera.

“Oh my god, you filthy slut,” she whispered.

Both of us broke out into laughter and I told her everything that happened in a hushed voice so that it didn’t float out of her cubicle. “So I have to schedule him for a new interview.”

“I’m actually very offended you didn’t send me that tape.” Bobbi crossed her arms and sat back in her chair. “I’m so lonely here.” She pouted.

“I’d never be able to look you in the eye again.” I shook my head, and her eyebrows rose in shock.

“So what now?” She posed the question I was dreading trying to answer. “Does that mean Clem and Cael are officially back on?” She said, dramatically whispering the Clem with her hands cupped around her face.

“No,” I said. “Absolutely not.”

Bobbi scowled and teased me. “Boo, I need theromanceportion of this Shakespeare play, Juliet.”

“It’s a distraction.” I shrugged.

“Yeah, I would be distracted with his tongue down my throat too,” Bobbi huffed.

“I haven’t kissed him. I won’t,” I admitted.

“You haven’t…” Bobbi looked confused. “Why the hell not when the boy’s been knuckle deep?”

“Cael doesn’t know what he wants and, frankly, neither do I. I don’t know who he is anymore, and I can’t just blow up the life I’ve worked so hard to create just because he’s really good at eating me out. Kissing him would only remind me of all those feelings. It’s too intimate. I can’t do it.”

“But you can if the spark is there,” Bobbi suggested. “Maybe it’s time to ask yourself what you want because I know it’s not that stuffy white-collar douchebag you call a fiance.”

“Ex,” I corrected. “But now that you mention him.”

“You haven’t thought about Julien the entire time you’ve been there, have you?” Bobbi’s smile was vicious.

“Is that cruel?” I asked.

“It would be if you’d left him with the possibility of the two of you reconciling, but you made it pretty clear that you weren’t ready to seal your fate in a blood pact.”

Bobbi was anti-commitment and strongly believed that marriage was a ritual, cult process and that signing papers meant signing your soul over to the devil, or the government as most called it.

“It just shows where your head's at, M.” She sighed. “Have you tried, I don’t know… having a conversation with him?”

“Every time I think about it, I just get upset.”

“Over what, the past indiscretions of two teenagers forced apart by their parents?” Bobbi scoffed. “You want to blame him, but you both stopped trying. Now he’s there trying, and what are you doing? Complaining about being eaten out three times a day by a man with the prettiest blue eyes I’ve ever seen.”

“Okay, okay, I surrender!” I put my hands up to stop her from berating me.

“Give the baseball edition of Justin Bieber a chance, he might surprise you. I haven’t seen you this happy in a long time. He’s clearly doing something correct.”

“It’s not what he’s doing now that scares me.” I pinned my shoulders backand brushed my fingers through the short brown locks around my face.

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