Page 37 of She Used to Be Nice
Avery smiled, trying to keep their conversation playful. “That’s all me.” She was getting kind of bored. She didn’t want to talk about work. She wanted to talk about fucking.
But Jonathan continued, as though they were just friends catching up. “You kill it. Twitter’s the only social media I use, so I can’t judge your ability on anything else, unfortunately.” He took a long, unsexy sip of his soda. “Twitter’s fun. I debate with people on a burner account. I love pissing people off. Whenever someone says something political, I say I feel the opposite.”
Avery held back a groan. So he was one of those “devil’s advocates.” “Your stances on things change that much, huh?”
“Nah, I’m just a troll. In reality, I’m probably a centrist. There are two sides to everything, aren’t there? And both parties have equally terrible people anyway.”
Avery shoved her salad into her mouth. What she wanted to say was that sounded like a whole lot of both-sidesism bullshit, but she ignored the words coming out of Jonathan’s mouth and stared at his face instead. Jonathan was hot. Jonathan was stupid. Hot. Stupid. Stupid hot.
Avery folded her arms under her chest to accentuate her boobs. She was glad this skin-tight baby tee was tucked in the back of her closet at her parents’ house. Her tits looked incredible. She swallowed the last mouthful of her salad and put her fork down. Jonathan was never going to be her date to any weddings, ever, but she couldn’t believe she was still trying to have sex with someone whofor sure thought reverse racism was a thing. She was ready to get this over with.
“Well, I’m also a talented Instagrammer,” she said. “You should check us out there, too.”
Jonathan’s lips curved into a smile. “I’d be happy to check you out anywhere, Avery.”
His voice was husky and knowing. Avery narrowed her eyes, hoping he meant what she thought he did.
“Would you now?” she asked.
“If you’d let me, of course.” Jonathan scrunched his face in what appeared to be a moment of self-consciousness. “Sorry, was that presumptuous?”
“No, no, not at all.” Avery threw her crumpled napkin into her empty plastic bowl. Time to get out of there. “You mean, right now?”
Jonathan looked around. “I mean …” He shrugged. “Yeah. Sure. When else?”
Avery flicked her head in the direction of the parking lot, and Jonathan nodded in understanding. Then she got up to throw her trash in the garbage by the front door, with Jonathan following right behind. The silence between them was flammable as they walked side by side across the lot, Jonathan’s hand brushing against Avery’s hip and igniting the tension.
“This is me,” Jonathan said, pointing at a black BMW a couple yards ahead.
“If I cared about cars, I’d say this is a cool one,” Avery said.
Jonathan stopped walking, then pulled Avery in for a hug. She kept her face buried in his chest, enveloped herself in the linen fragrance embedded into his shirt, trying to find something to enjoy about this experience. When he released her, he kept his hands on her triceps, staring at her lips and licking his own with his tongue.
“Come here, you,” he said. And then he leaned down to kiss her. His kisses started soft and without tongue before morphing into something too sloppy and wet. But Avery didn’t care. Hewanted her. They were going to have sex and she wasn’t going to hate herself anymore.
A few moments later, he pulled away, a suggestive grin playing on his lips. “You know, there’s a walking trail around the corner. The parking lot is almost always empty …”
“We could be the rebellious teens we never were,” Avery joked.
Jonathan laughed. “Exactly what I was thinking.”
They climbed inside his car, Jonathan in the driver’s seat and Avery in the passenger side. A revoltingly masculine-scented Black Ice air freshener swung from the rear-view mirror. As Jonathan drove out of the parking lot, Avery leaned over the armrest from her seat to nibble on his ear, eager to get this done. He parked his car in the discreet lot next to the trail, unbuckled his seatbelt, and jumped into the back seat, pulling Avery with him. The back seat was tight, but Avery leaned into the closeness, letting Jonathan trail kisses down her neck, across her shoulders, and onto her upper back. He began to rotate her body so that he was behind her, but she tried to keep him in front of her by grabbing his head and kissing him.
“You taste amazing,” he breathed. “God, I’ve wanted to do this since high school …”
He tried to turn her around again by putting his hand on her back and bending her forward. Then her knee slipped off the backseat.
“Ow,” Avery whispered. She forced out a laugh. “Sorry, it’s tight back here.”
Jonathan put his hand on her back again. Avery’s heart galloped as he pressed himself against her. She could feel him getting harder and her palms getting sweatier. Forgetting where she was, she shot upright and banged her head against the low ceiling.
“Shit!” she shouted, rubbing her head.
Jonathan winced. “You okay?”
Avery massaged her head. Pain exploded from the tender spot on her skull. “I’m fine. I just … I just think it’s too tight back here for … for that …”
“I’ve done it before. Here.” Jonathan scooted Avery’s body backward and lifted her ass. She resisted.
