Page 25 of The Hookup Type

“I don’t know, Katie.” The Mario Kart music played repeatedly on the TV screen. I hit mute and prepared the speaker for Katie’s Drunk Betch playlist. “But if it helps my situation with Jaxon, I don’t want those worlds to collide just yet.”

I had yet to learn what the history was between Jaxon and Bryson. I knew they were friends, but the last thing I wanted to do was bring Jaxon up in conversation when Bryson didn’t even know I knew him.

As if she read my mind, Katie tapped her nails against the counter and pursed her lips. “Do you think he knows? Do you think Jaxon told him? I don’t think Jaxon would do that.”

There was a knock on the door, and we both jumped. I gestured with my hands that we needed to drop the conversation ASAP and yelled, “It’s open!”

Bryson strolled in with a case of Black Cherry Mike’s Hard in one hand and a case of Bud Light in the other. He wore a plain white shirt that popped against his skin and red basketball shorts. He kicked his shoes off and smiled down at me since I was still sitting on the floor. “What’s up?”

“You went with Bud Light, huh?” I stood up and flashed a flirty half-smile. “Decided you deserved better?”

“You had me feeling some type of way about them.” He walked over to the fridge to deposit the drinks.

“Can you hand me a Mike’s?” Katie asked.

Bryson tore open the box and rose slowly from inside the fridge. He bit his bottom lip and pondered his next move. “Kathy?” He pointed and handed Katie her drink.

“Katie, actually. But kudos for getting the letter right.” She took the bottle, popped off the top, and smiled. “And how well you found the apartment.”

“I remember bits and pieces of last weekend.” Bryson shrugged and made himself at home on the couch next to me. “What games do you guys got?”

He smelled like he had just gotten out of the shower. His body heat radiated off him and made me hot underneath my sweatpants. Since it was decent outside, we didn’t have the furnace on. I was tempted to open a window to get some fresh air, but his eyes connected with mine, and suddenly I found it hard to move.

“Katie and I were going to beat you in some Drunk Driving,” I offered and leaned in closer to him when I stood up to get a drink. He might have his cologne, but I knew for a fact that he thought my Night perfume by Victoria’s Secret smelled sexy. He told me right before he kissed me in the hot tub.

“Do you guys care if my friend Jaxon comes over?” Bryson asked his phone screen and then glanced over to me at the fridge. “He says he knows you from a class last year or something. He’s chill.”

If I had grabbed my drink prior to his question, I would’ve been cleaning my party foul off the kitchen floor. I wasn’t mentally equipped for this merge to happen so soon.

“Yeah, that's fine!” Katie answered for me and started the game. She raised her eyebrows at me and handed Bryson a controller, who was once again focused on his phone. “Let’s get a race in before he gets here.”

With just one look, Katie reassured me that things would be fine. I buckled up and trusted her instincts. I could tell she wasn’t sold on Bryson, but her demeanor shifted as soon as he mentioned Jaxon.

I pushed the butterflies in my stomach aside and focused on the man in front of me. They needed to chill the fuck out and realize that Jaxon told Bryson we knew each other from last year.

That was a lie.

The whole reason we didn’t sleep together was so that nothing changed between us. I trusted his instincts and agreed that our friendship wasn’t worth the risk. I just hoped that this wasn’t the start of him proving me wrong.

Chapter20

Jaxon

November 2015

It feltweird going to Maci’s place, knowing it was Bryson who extended the invitation. I didn’t even know if Maci wanted to see me. Our text thread had been pretty dry this week, and I would be lying if I said I hadn't been avoiding her. But I would also be lying if I said I didn’t miss the shit out of her.

I crossed the parking lot behind her apartment building and took a swig of my flask, which at this point in my trek, was only half full of Jack Daniel’s. I needed something to take the edge off while I tried to navigate this new territory.

Since I met Bryson two years ago, we have shared the common goals of hitting up girls, having fun, and keeping it casual. He’d been my best friend since I moved to BG. We knew almost everything about each other. I knew he wanted to be in accounting and work with Wall Street billionaires. He knew I wanted to be in sports management and work for my dad's agency. I knew his parents got divorced when he was young. Both remarried different people and then got divorced again. He knew my birth mom left when I was two, and I hadn’t seen her since my last court hearing.

We had a lot of things in common when it came to girls, but never once had one of us slept with someone that the other had a history with. It had been an unspoken bro code between us, and it was just easier if he didn’t know the whole story with Maci.

I jogged up the stairs to the apartment and took another swig of my flask. I had to get my shit together. I was well versed with Bryson’s pattern, and he wouldn’t keep Maci around long. I didn’t know why that bugged me so much since this wasn’t new information.

I did the exact same thing to the broads I hooked up with, and since I could never pull my usual on Maci, I had to stop things when I did. Neither Bryson nor I knew how to be in a relationship, and neither of us was interested in finding out how. She understood how I was with girls and soon, she would see that Bryson and I were very much alike.

There was a fit of shouting on the other side of the door, followed by Katie’s high-pitched laugh and Bryson screaming “No!” to whatever they were doing. I knocked on the door, fully aware of what waited for me on the other side. A few seconds went by before Maci answered.

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