Page 96 of The Fallacy of True Love
A bunch of texts shouldn’t have messed with my head. But it did, and the excitement that swelled within me stressed me out more than the thought of having to return to the function hall where the rest of the applicants were having lunch.
I’d go back in ten minutes when most of them were finished. For now, I was happy to hang out in my corner of the rooftop. The silence and solitude were a welcome change after the morning’s activities, which had us hopping blindfolded across the room while trying to pick out our team leader’s voice amongst the people shouting.
How that was relevant to me developing code, I’d never know.
I tapped at my phone, telling myself to go on and read the damn messages. Alonzo was just a guy, and I’d promised myself I would never let one of them hold any kind of power over me. Never again. Even if he was the first guy who made me want more.
Especially because he did.
I shouldn’t have said yes to either of his propositions—not to the one night and not to the remaining two. He already occupied more than enough of my brain space to begin with. After last night, I could still feel him inside me. All over me. My body was deliciously sore, and I found a hickey on the curve of my boob when I showered earlier.
I squeezed my thighs together at the memory of how thoroughly he’d?—
My phone rang in my hand. My breath caught in my throat only to release at the sight of the name on my screen. It was a guy. Just not the one I’d been thinking about.
Clearing my throat, I answered, “Eric.”
“Cam,” he said. “You’re on lunch break, right?”
“Uh huh. What’s up?”
“I just wanted to check how you’re holding up. You saw Lonzo last night?”
I saw him, alright. Every amazing inch of him. “You guys need to chill with this thing,” I muttered, thankful we weren’t on camera.
“So you didn’t hook up with him?”
The answer should have been easy. If it were any other guy, I would have said yes and let that be the end of the conversation. But with Alonzo, it felt wrong. None of the other guys had me wanting more than one encounter. When it came to him…
“Cam?” Eric’s voice brought me back to reality. “You still there?”
“Yep. How’s your work trip? You’ll be back on Friday, right?”
“Productive enough. And yes, I should be back as long as the weather holds up. You didn’t answer my question.”
“We—” I hesitated, torn between being honest to Eric and being respectful to Alonzo. “We did.”
He took a moment to respond. “Are you okay? I told you I still have friends in the city. I can contact them if you need anything.”
“No, no. I’m okay. Things are just complicated.”
“Yeah? I know a thing or two about that.”
“Damn right, you do.”
Clearing his throat, he said, “Speaking of complicated, I actually wanted to talk to you about another topic.”
His tone had me standing straight. “Are you finally doing it?”
“I have a formal event I need to attend next weekend, and I want to ask Nikki to come. As my date.”
“Yes! About time.” I slapped my thigh, wishing I could slap his back instead.
“I don’t know how she’ll take it. Knowing her, she’ll say something about Jo or work, so I was wondering?—”
“I’ll look after Jo and the café, no problem. Milo too, of course.”
He sighed. “Thanks, Cam. It might not even get to that point, but I want to cover my bases.”
