Page 56 of Ever After

He puts his hands up like I have caught him with something. “I trust you.”

If he trusts me, why can’t he sleep with me? He doesn’t want to get his feelings hurt. I know they already hurt. That’s why his walls went up. Another ping comes in. I drop myself back down to the bed and pull up her messages.

Lia: Come on! I’ll do whatever you want. I’ll clean the house for an entire month.

Lia: Don’t leave me to do this alone. Tell Jay I’ll make it up to him, too.

“What’s with all the smiling?” Jay asks.

My smile fades away when I see he is fully clothed. At least I could have eye fucked him while he was naked. “Lia wants to know if we would go on a double date with her. Apparently, she got dragged into this date by a coworker that set it up.”

“What’s wrong with that?” Jay comes and sits on the bed by me.

Feeling the bed dip in makes me imagine it dipping while he’s on top of me. Fuck. I cross my legs. I need to stop. My center is heating up. How long has it been? I haven’t had sex in months. This is torture.

“She says the guy is weird and keeps having horror dating experiences. Lia said she would go on a date with him because she felt bad, and her coworker took it seriously. She feels too bad to bail out now.”

“That’s fine. I don’t mind.”

“Are you sure it’s your last night here?” He leans in and kisses me on the forehead. Something about those foreheads kisses pulls me deeper into him. Does he know this and that’s why he keeps doing it?

Me: Fine. We’ll go, but you owe me.

Lia: Thank you! Thank you! Thank youuuu!

Lia’s date set up a reservation at Golden Corral. The cheapest buffet on the planet. The second we pulled up to the address where he told us to meet him, we both want to barf. I heard they cook the chicken on the same table they wash dishes on.

“Hell no. We are not eating here.” I turn around and look at Lia in the back seat.

“He was seriously going to take me here for our first date? What the fuck.” Lia slams her hand to her forehead. “What do I say?”

“Say you had food poisoning here once and can’t eat here ever since then. Where is this guy, anyway?”

Lia looks around the parking lot like she’s met the guy before.

“What’s so wrong about this place?” Jay questions.

“Jay, the dishwashers literally cook the chicken on the table they wash the dishes on.” Lia pretends to gag.

“What is this guy’s name?” I look back at Lia. She has a blank stare on her face. “You don’t know his name?”

She shrugs her shoulders. “I forgot.”

“And you feel bad he wanted to take you to the Golden Corral.” I look back over in front of me and see a guy coming our way with a mushroom haircut and huge ass glasses that are about to fall off his nose. His pants are hiked up to his chest. Poor guy, he probably has the biggest wedgie. “Lia, is that him?” I lift my chin up, pointing in his direction.

She moves over to the middle seat and looks in front of her. She looks at me, rolling her eyes. “Seriously, you think that was him?”

I shrug my shoulders. “I don’t know. You said he was weird.” I look back over in front of me and see he gets into a car and drives away. Well, that wasn’t him. “Could you call him and stop wasting more of our time?”

“Okay. Geez. Jay, what got your girl’s panties in a bunch?”

Jay looks over at me and rests his hands on my thigh. “She’s sexually frustrated.”

My mouth drops and my eyes go wide.

“What?” Lia throws her head back and laughs. I look back at her, scrunching my eyebrows, giving her the eye to shut the hell up.

“Trouble in paradise already.” She snorts.

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