Page 14 of Imperfections Forbidden
“Would that have made you feel better about him cheating on you?It wouldn’t make me feel better.”
“It wouldn’t make me feel better, but then I could understand it more.He didn’t even take a step down; he dropped down through the basement floor, like a sack of rotten potatoes.She wasn’t even smarter than me…she didn’t even have that going for her.”
“That goes to show you it doesn’t matter what you look like or how smart and capable you are.If a man is going to cheat on you, he’s going to cheat no matter what you have or don’t have.There’s no accounting for taste.”
“Why are we talking about Derek and that piece of street trash?She probably looks like a dried up California raisin now.”
“Ava, the point I was trying to make about that night is, you had vomit all over you, in nothing but a bra and jeans, and guys were still trying to talk to you.You were fighting and wreaking havoc in that dorm room like a raven-haired, blue-eyed devil, and you still looked like you were doing an ad campaign for a couture fashion shoot.”
“I was a little out of control.”
“Kicking over chairs and breaking anything made of glass that wasn’t yours.No one would have known the southern beauty pageant girl had that in her.The point is, you’re Ava Alexander, and you don’t take shit from anyone.You don’t run men down, they come to you willingly.”
“I am kind of badass when I need to be,” she muses, more to herself than me.
“That’s right!”
“Your brother and I almost had sex.”
“What?I have to hold on tight to the phone so it doesn’t drop out of my hand.“When did this happen?Is everyone having sex with each other?”
“Not everyone.We were getting all hot and heavy in my car that night, then in mid-kiss he stops and jumps out the car like it was a suicide mission.I haven’t heard a word from him since.”
Nick comes back, sits behind me on the couch, and runs his tongue behind the edge of my earlobe.I’m trying my best to concentrate on what Ava is saying to me.“Maybe you should call him and find out what happened.”
“I’m going to take your other advice.”
“You’re going to stop chasing him?”
“I didn’t say that.I’m not going to be so aggressive in my approach to getting Chris.”
Nick kisses me on the corner of my mouth with a loud smacking sound.I try to shush him away while listening to Ava.He gets out from behind me so fast I fall back on the couch with the phone still to my ear.Straddling me with his knees in the couch he tickles me until I start laughing uncontrollably.“Nick!Stop, please!”I shriek with him pinning both of my hands above my head.
“That’s what I’ve been trying to hear all day.”He grabs the phone, and I try to recover with him pinning my hands above my head.He puts it on speaker.“Ava, get off the damn phone so I can give your friend something to talk about.”
“Make sure you give her so much to talk about she starts speaking in tongues, like a holy roller in church on Sunday morning.Have fun, y’all, bye,” she says laughing, and hangs up.
“What am I going to do with you?”I lie back staring at his mouth.
“Anything you want after I have my way with you.”
“Are you going to let my hands go?”
“No.”
“No?”
He brushes his lips across mine, tracing their outline, licking his way down below the top of my neck while watching my pulse beat with each stroke of his tongue on my sensitive skin.
“You taste like vanilla chocolate swirl pralines.”
“What?Do you want to make me laugh at a time like this?”
“Yes.”
“If you keep saying things like that, all you’re going to hear is me laughing.”
He drops a trail of wet, hot kisses down the column of my arched neck.The laughter slowly fades as I close my eyes enjoying his mouth.
