Page 49 of Outside The Wire

“Not rules. I just don’t want to fuck this up.”

“Maybe you’re fucking it up by waiting too long.”

“Is that a thing?” I asked.

“Well…women get accused of it all the time,” she huffed.

I nodded, trying my best not to laugh at how sexually frustrated she was. “I see. So, you want to turn the tables on me.”

“Something like that,” she said, narrowing her eyes at me.

I kissed her softly, brushing my thumb along her jaw. “I promise you this, next time there will be a much happier ending.”

“I’m holding you to that.”

I kissed her one last time, then grabbed my coat and headed out before I changed my mind and broke all the promises I made to myself about doing things differently this time.

12

HOLLY

“Son of a bitch!”I shouted after I hit my head on the edge of the table.

Noelle came running around the corner, bending over to look at me where I was sprawled out on the floor. “You know, yelling at the table is never the answer.”

I pressed my hand to my head, already feeling a lump forming. “Crap, that really hurt.”

“What exactly are you doing?”

“I was trying to rearrange the display.”

“Under the table?”

“It looked weird,” I grumbled.

She nodded skeptically. “Tell me about it, sister. What’s really going on?”

“Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I sat down here to work out some shit because the little tables were where they were supposed to be and the chimes were dangling all weird, and then the candles didn’t match with the potpourri. I just wanted to make it look perfect!”

“And you decided to fix it all by shimmying under the table and wiggling your ass.”

I growled at her, not finding her brand of humor particularly funny today. “I was trying to move the stuff in the back so I could move the stuff in the front, and when I was crawling out, I hit my head.”

“I see. So, what’s this really about?” she asked, resting on her haunches as she propped her elbow on her thigh and rested her chin in her hand.

She knew me so well. When I was frustrated, I cleaned, organized, or redecorated. I couldn’t help myself. I had to stay busy. And right now, I was the epitome of frustrated.

“It’s Asher.”

“Uh-oh. Bad mood again?” she frowned, nodding in understanding.

“No. I wish it were that,” I grumbled.

“I’m not really following. Is he not being nice? Because I’ll kick his ass. I brought my travel kit. I swear it, I’ll stab him with needles!”

She could be so damn dramatic. I crawled out with her help and got to my feet, brushing myself off. “No, the problem is that he’s perfectly sweet.Toosweet.”

“Okay?”

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