Page 32 of Green
7
Gemma
Am I dead? I must have choked on my own vomit and died last night, because this is not how I remember it feeling in my head when I was alive.
I stared up at the ceiling, because it was too much effort to close my eyelids again.
Oh God. Why am I being punished?
And then I remembered.
I slowly lifted up the comforter, very slowly sat up, and found that I was wearing my very tight jeans and bra. The black tank top that I had been wearing at the party was folded neatly on top of my dresser. There was a sleeve of crackers and a bottle of water by my bed.
Theo.
I raised my fingertips to my lips. Not because I felt like throwing up again, because I could still feel what it was like to move them over that man’s stubbly face.Oh crap—I licked his nipple!
I slowly, ever so slowly and quietly lifted myself out of bed and tiptoed over to the open door to close it. My thoughts moved slowly too, but my brain wanted to run. Away from Theo.Oh shit I totally dry-humped him.I could climb out the window, stay downstairs, shower and change there, then get out of the house without seeing him. I could stay with Chloe and Ethan overnight. Starting tomorrow I would be so busy with work it wouldn’t be an issue.
“You up? I’m making breakfast.”
Dammit.
He was calling out to me from the kitchen. How did he know I was up when he was all the way in the kitchen?
“I need to shower!”
No response.
I gulped down the entire bottle of water and managed to get to the hallway bathroom with a change of clothes, without raising my eyes from the floor. I could sense him in the kitchen, I could feel him grinning at me. It was infuriating.Balls!He must have cleaned the bathroom too, because there was no evidence of my tango with the toilet. What a sexy way to end the evening after finally feeling an erection against my thigh again after such a long erectionless stretch of time.
I couldn’t remember how to turn on the shower, but I couldn’t forget how big and hard he was.
For me.
Christ.
Twenty minutes later, I emerged from the bathroom feeling clean and vaguely human, wearing boyfriend jeans and a plain black T-shirt that neither hid nor accentuated my curves. I had decided to act as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened. It was the polite, Midwestern thing to do, and my fallback approach to any type of potentially stressful situation.
Oh for the love of shirtlessness will you just give a girl a break?
His bare back to me, as he mixed up an almond milk/avocado/raw cacao powder/MCT oil/pea protein smoothie in the blender, I could tell that he’d already been out for a run, already done his post-run stretches. He was golden and still a little moist, wearing running shorts and his fancy running shoes. I wanted to wrap myself around him, lick that salty perspiration off his skin. I wanted him to turn and run towards me, grab me and throw me down on the sofa so we could finish what we’d started. I also wanted to time travel back to the moment when I’d shut the patio door after Chloe and Ethan had left, so I could say goodnight to Theo and retreat to my room, alone. If I’m being honest, I would have preferred to do the time travel thingafterTheo had really given it to me on the sofa.
“Morning, Sunshine,” he said, nodding his head to the beat of whatever song he had last listened to. “How ya’ feelin’?”
“Super. Thanks.”
“Good. You need to thoroughly rehydrate. It’s a gorgeous day out there. Not too warm, not too sunny. Want a smoothie?”
“No thank you.”
He didn’t have a trace of hangover or awkwardness. “Scrambled eggs and turkey bacon are ready, gluten-free toast is almost up.”
I wrinkled my nose at the gluten-free prospect, and went to the fridge to pull out the butter that I would have to hide the toast under. I sat down at the counter, to shovel food into my face and stared at the plate.
“Orange juice?”
I shook my head.
