Page 46 of Unbossly Manners

I lay back on the bed, satisfied and discomforted all at once. Part of me was relieved, not quite ready to tackle that mountain. But why didn’t he want me to touch him? I tried not to take it personally, but it was a hard task.

While he was in the bathroom, I pulled my clothes on and made the bed. Then I sat on the edge, waiting for him. He came out in his boxers, his hair wet, his face composed.

“That was fucking amazing.” He sat on the bed next to me and smiled, enjoying the post-coital sensations I imagined still ran through his body.

“I’d say thanks, but I didn’t do anything,” I said. My entire body flushed.

He moved over and kissed my cheek. “You did more than you know.”

“When should we do this again?” I asked, and stood, placing distance between us, suddenly shy.

“I’ll check my calendar,” he said, all formal. “I’m going to order some takeout.”

“That sounds great.” My hand rubbed over my breast, remembering his touches. “I’m famished.”

He pulled his pants and an old t-shirt on. “This activity does build an appetite.”

“Best. Workout. Ever,” I joked, but I felt no humor.

He left without a glance back, and I slid back onto the made bed.

The muted horns of cars and sirens in the distance sounded through the closed window bringing me back into my body, the adrenaline slipping away.

My hand smoothed over the area of the bed Jackson had knelt on while his fingers had danced over my body, but instead of elation at what I now knew—I fucking loved sex stuff—I was filled with a strange void.

eighteen

“I am a sex god.”

I stood on top of Kat’s white acrylic coffee table dancing in my socks listening to my favorite genre of music, nineties hip-hop. Selena sat on the couch looking up at me like I’d lost my damn mind.

“You didn’t have sex,” she said.

I twirled, my arms up, and almost fell on my ass. It was a very small coffee table.

“Get your drunk ass off there,” she laughed. Selena had taught me the fun of dancing on tables and bars and now I did it whenever I could. She normally joined me but was despondent tonight.

“I’m not drunk.” I jumped down and plopped next to her. “I’m high on sex.”

“You didn’t have sex.”

“It was close encounters of the sexual kind.”

“He fingered you and he masturbated.”

I grimaced. “It sounds so crude like that. But it was amazing. I came. I fucking came.”

Selena hugged me sideways. “It’s a big day.”

I lay back and grinned, reminiscing.

“What was it like afterward?” Selena sipped her mint tea made with real mint leaves from one of the many plants I was meant to water while Kat was gone. I didn’t have the heart to tell her I have a black thumb and can’t keep plants alive. Kat and Evie had left two days ago and Selena had crashed with me last night after a fight with Fariha. Hence, her sour mood.

“He ordered takeout, we ate and watched reruns of Parks and Rec, then went to bed. He slept in Evie’s room. I slept in his bed.”

Selena knitted her eyebrows together. “I meant how was it between you. Awkward? Friendly? Loving?”

“We kind of acted as if nothing happened. Not in a bad way. But we aren’t in a real relationship. We’re not friends. I don’t know what you’d call us. It was just comfortable. No expectations.”

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