Page 44 of Follow Your Bliss

How to lighten this situation? “Truth or dare?” I asked quietly.

She laughed nervously. “With that bag in the room, I’m kind of afraid to take the dare.”

“Oh come on! I wouldn’t—”

“Truth,” she said firmly.

“Would you like to borrow some of my clothes?”

She laughed out a breath she’d been holding. “To answer that question, no, I’m good. To answer the question Ithoughtyou’d ask, some of my friends signed me up for a sex toy of the month club for my last birthday, and my mom gives away all the duplicates she—”

“Rose, you don’t have to explain yourself to me. At all.” But now I wanted to know if her friends had done it as a joke. “But they weren’t being mean or anything, right? Like my brother—well, that’s how I currently have a Deck Daddy monthly calendar hanging in my office.”

She laughed. “No. They just know I like…never mind.”

I desperately wanted to know the end of that sentence, but she looked too tired and tried for me to pursue it now. “Look, I’m gonna get changed for bed, and I’ll leave a clean pair of shorts on the counter, in case you want them. And the room’s yours. I’ve got the sofa bed.”

She stood up. “No, no. It’s your parents’ condo. I’ll be fine on the sofa.”

“Absolutely not. I left your bag behind, and you solved my community room problem. I want you to sleep like a queen.”

“Thank you,” she said in a small voice.

“Of course.” I got up and went toward the door.

“Hey Jason.” Her eyes were mischievous when I stuck my head back in. “Asking for a friend. Where can I get a Deck Daddy calendar?”

Her gaze tugged at mine like a physical thing, all dark eyes and thick lashes. She sucked her bottom lip into her mouth, and I forgot how to speak.

A corner of her lips tugged up. “I could use one for my workroom. Y’know, like how mechanics hang up calendars with swimsuit models?” Her eyes sparkled with held-back laughter.

Several unwordlike noises sputtered out of my mouth, ending in “yeah, sure”—which didn’t answer her question at all—and I ducked out of the room.

Rose

I must’ve finally fallen asleep, because I woke up from one of my recurring can’t-find-a-suitable-toilet dreams needing to pee.

I climbed out of bed and twisted my black denim shorts the right way again. They’d been cutting me in half. While I washed my hands after availing myself of the facilities, I eyed up the soft, stretchy-looking athletic shorts Jason had left for me on the counter.

I had my new Deck Daddy shirt on, so I might as well complete the look. Slipping them on was as much of a relief as taking my bra off at the end of the day. Why had I tortured myself when I was aggravated with him for bringing the wrong bag?

Especially when he’d been so apologetic.

The soft blue light of his phone lit up the living area through the open slit of the bedroom door. The time on my phone said it was just after two in the morning. I’d barely slept at all.

I walked out into the living room. He looked up from the sofa bed, his face and bare chest bathed in blue light from his phone. “Hey, I didn’t wake you up, did I?”

“No, my bladder did. And I’m thirsty.”

He chuckled. “Water’s in the fridge. Help yourself.”

Cold bottle acquired, I sat beside him on the sofa. He leaned his phone toward me so I could see too. The storm was moving through the New Orleans area, so there wasn’t much news yet. Everyone who stayed was hunkered down waiting for it to pass and praying it wouldn’t cause too much damage.

“Can’t sleep, either, huh?”

He rubbed his hand across his short beard, which was a little shaggier since this morning. “No. Now that I’m a homeowner, this freaks me out a whole lot more than it used to.” He snapped his phone off, casting the room into the yellow light from the kitchen. “Want to watch a movie?” He turned on a lamp and knelt before the TV stand, opening the doors and pulling out stacks of DVD cases. “Jeez, my parents have shitty taste in movies.”

I laughed, coming to kneel beside him. “It can’t be that bad.”

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