Page 94 of Tempting Promises
I’ve had enough fuck buddies and non-relationships that went perfectly fine after we decided to call it off. We’re not all friends, but it’s not like her asshole sister either.
“So, how does it work?”
“How does what work?” I throw back, wanting to goad her a bit.
“Well, do we just pretend we don’t know what the other looks like naked? Do we talk? Do we go back to how it was before?” Charlotte shifts to look at me.
“I’ll never be able to pretend I don’t know what you look like naked, so that’s out. As for the talking, I’d like us to be civil and you to finally believe I’m not the monster Aurora made me out to be.”
She flinches, just barely, but enough I catch it. “I don’t think you’re a monster.”
That’s something, I guess. “No?”
She shakes her head. “No, you’re maybe a dick, but not a monster.”
I smile and wink at her. “You like my dick.”
“Ilikedyour dick. Past tense.”
“My apologies.”
The rest of the drive goes well. We get into Manhattan and Iswear I’m starting to itch. I miss the quiet, the fresh air, and the stars in the sky.
Charlotte, on the other hand, looks like a pig in shit.
Her smile is wide as she looks at everything going on around us. “I love it here,” she says, almost absently.
“Love?”
She turns to me. “What’s not to love? The sights, the lights, the smells, the sounds, it’s all magical.”
Okay, I’m convinced she’s lost her mind. “Oh, yes, who doesn’t love the smell of garbage?”
Charlotte scoffs. “Garbage? It’s not garbage, you idiot. It smells like food and people and a world where we move fast and get things done.”
“Don’t forget the smell of weed,” I remind her. Seriously, I’m going to get a second-hand high.
“Shut up.”
“You love it here?” I ask.
“I grew up here. It’s home. I know you think it’s gross, but to me, it’s where my parents wanted to raise us. Where is our hotel?”
I look at the address on my phone. “I had us somewhere else, and Faye vehemently refused. She put us at some place around 5thand 55th.”
She rolls her eyes. “Of course she did.”
“She said she owed us, I wasn’t going to argue.”
Charlotte smiles. “She does owe us. It would be rude to deny her the grovel.”
The way her smile widens at the end makes me want to pull the truck over and say fuck her stupid idea of calling this off, but that would be asinine because I don’t need or want Charlotte Sullivan.
I can find someone else.
In fact, tonight, I’ll do just that. There’s bound to be a lonely woman who needs a little excitement at this party tonight. I’ll be happy to show her why country boys are better.
“Oh!” Charlotte bounces in her seat as we drive down the street. “There! We just passed the absolute best pizza in all of Manhattan. We have to go there.”
