Page 30 of The Emerson Effect
I jog up to my room and grab some clean clothes before hopping in the shower. Once I’m clean, dressed, and ready, I head out to my car. With no destination in mind, I start driving. Somehow, I end up on Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica. Makinga decision, I find a parking spot and head in the direction of the pier. The bright lights and screams from the carnival rides beckon me, the perfect distraction from my turbulent emotions.
After walking around and absorbing the sights and sounds, I stop at a food cart and buy some cotton candy. The sticky, sweet concoction lightens my mood as I munch on it, and I can’t help but think Twila would get a kick out of this place. Stopping in front of the ferris wheel, I hold up the cotton candy and snap a selfie. Then I send it to Twila with a short text.
Me:Wish you were here.
I hope she sends back something flirty so I can screenshot it and use it in a video. Yeah. That’s it. We have a working relationship, and theonlyreason I want her to text back is for BingBang.
Sure, Emerson.
Great. Now I’m having internal arguments with myself. I guess as long as I don’t start having them out loud, I’ll be okay.
I leave the pier and head down to the beach where it’s less crowded and quieter. A minute after I hit the sand, my phone chimes in my pocket. All thoughts of my questionable mental health flee as excitement ripples through me. As soon as I open the text, my entire body goes rigid.
And I mean myentirebody.
Daisy:I wish I could taste that spun sugar on your lips.
Holy shit. Twila came to play. And as my mind spins a vision of her licking her tongue against my lips, searching for leftover sugar, my cock gets harder. I push the heel of my hand against the bulge as I try to kick my brain back into working order so I can reply something as equally flirtatious.
But before I can come up with a single word, my phone starts to ring with an incoming video chat. Taking a deep, calming breath, I turn so the brightly lit pier is behind me and answer the call.
Twila’s face fills the screen, and her cheeks are pink as she nibbles at her bottom lip. My face must come into focus on her own screen, because she releases her lip to greet me.
“Hey. Was that too much? As soon as I sent it, I regretted it. Shit. Just delete it, and I’ll come up with something else.”
“No,” I blurt before she can say anything else. “I mean, no, it wasn’t too much. It was perfect.”
“Are you sure?” she asks. “We haven’t even met in real life yet, so it seems a bit premature to be…saying stuff like that.”
It’s really fucking cute that she’s so worried about the logistics of a flirty text.
“No one knows how long this thing has been going on. For all they know, this could’ve come after months of texting each other.”
“But we’re playing this like you have a recently developed crush on me, Emerson. And here I am, being super forward right off the bat.”
I don’t want to delete that text, because damn, if it’s got me this worked up, knowing it’s not real, it’s going to drive our viewers crazy. It’s fucking gold.
“Okay, how about this?” I say, eager to reach a compromise. “I’ll screenshot it, but I won’t post it until we both feel comfortable with it.”
“Okay,” she says slowly, then nods and repeats the word more firmly. “Okay. I trust you.”
Those words make my chest clench and my mouth curve up into a smile I can’t contain. Twila smiles back, and my chest clenches again.
God, it feels good to have her trust. Almosttoogood.
So much for keeping this a business-only “crush.” I can’t deny it, anymore. At least, not to myself.
This crush is becoming very,veryreal.
SEVENTEEN
Twila
“Hey, thanks for letting me come over.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Joey says, grabbing my wrist and pulling me into her apartment. “You can come over anytime you want. You have a key, for Christ’s sake.”
“I’d never abuse the power of the spare key,” I say dramatically, and we both laugh.
