Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 103530 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103530 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
“Funny. But there’s nothing crotchless in this drawer. And I’m not sure you’ve ever seen someone wear crotchless panties because it is not a flattering look,” I informed him. I used my free hand to smoosh my lips together horizontally between my thumb and forefinger, then said with much difficulty, “Imagine this, but lower.”
He laughed. “Learned that at Victoria’s Secret?”
“No. They only sell good girl panties. Now, are you going to pick something out for me, or what?”
“Are you going to make it worth my while, or what?” he countered. I lifted an eyebrow to indicate I was listening, and he went on. “I’ll pick out a pair. Then you’ll put them on and let me watch while you make yourself come in them.”
That flush I hoped he wouldn’t see returned with a vengeance, over my whole body.
“No,” he said suddenly. “No, this was not the point of calling you today.”
The flush faded, replaced with cold disappointment. “Then why were you calling?”
He let out a long, embarrassed sigh. “I’m calling you because my mom says I have to call Scott and I need to know if he’s still mad at me.”
“That’s truly pathetic, dude.”
“I know.” He sighed again. “He hasn’t called me, and I haven’t spoken to him.”
“He’s been worried about you.” So worried, I felt super guilty not giving him updates about Matt’s recovery. But how could I do that without revealing that Matt and I were still in touch?
“Worried enough that he hasn’t called me since the wedding?” Matt shook his head. “Nope. He’s pissed at me.”
I rolled my eyes. “He thinks you’re pissed at him.”
“How do you know?”
“Because he’s my brother and we talk to each other. He’s a wreck. He thinks he lost his best friend and his wife-to-be in the same day.” There was only one way to motivate Matt into contacting Scott. “I’m not going to do anything sexy with you until you sack up and call him.”
“How am I supposed to do anything sexy with you after I talk to your brother and apologize for doing sexy things with you?”
I’d already thought about that. The inevitability of admitting to Scott that things between Matt and I hadn’t ended. “Don’t apologize for it. If he brings it up—and I don’t think he will because he hasn’t said a word about it to me—say you regret hurting him. But be honest. If he brings it up, you have to tell him we’re still talking. It feels gross to keep lying, even by omission.”
“That’s a much better plan that ruining our friendship via perpetual avoidance,” he admitted, if reluctantly.
“Thanks. It’s part of my own plan.” I might as well be honest with him, since I was encouraging him to be honest with my brother.
“Oh yeah? What’s that?” Matt asked.
“I’m hoping he does ask you about me, so I don’t have to be the one who has that conversation.” I was being honest. “Do what you need to do and call me back tonight.”
A tiny part of me worried that they would talk about the I-fucked-your-sister of it all, and things between Matt and I would be over.
And that was the last thing I wanted.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
(Matthew)
I held my breath while the phone rang. I shouldn’t have been nervous to call one of my oldest friends, but we’d never gone this long without at least talking over Discord. I’d been skipping out on World of Warcraft, claiming my pain meds were making me too woozy.
Maybe Scott had been skipping out on raids, too.
The call rang several times, so I was braced for voicemail when it connected. I wasn’t braced to hear Scott’s grim, “Hey.”
“I’m sorry,” we both said at the same time.
“What do you have to be sorry for?” I asked, chuckling. “I’m the one who ghosted you right after the worst day of your life.”
“I’m trying not to think of it as the worst day of my life,” Scott said, but in our two decades of friendship, I’d never heard him so beaten down. “And you didn’t ghost me. You were attacked by a bear. Because of me.”
“I was attacked by a bear because of me,” I corrected him. “It was my bright idea to fly the damn thing in.”
“It was Lauren’s idea. She’s the one who pushed for it.”
“Then this is clearly Lauren’s fault.” Glad to have that out of the way. “How are you doing? Have you spoken to her?”
“She sent me an email.” Scott scoffed. “Like we were ending a business transaction. If you printed this thing, it would have been pages—”
“You didn’t’ print it, did you?” I interrupted. I wasn’t sure I could help my friend if he was so far gone that he was printing emails like an eighty-year-old.
“No, I didn’t.” He wasn’t very convincing. “But it was all bullshit about how she’d known for a long time that we weren’t going to work out and then she got swept away in the responsibilities of planning the wedding… There were so many opportunities for her to step off the bus. We had long conversations about communication being the most important thing in a relationship and wow, she threw those back in my face.”