Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 126840 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 634(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126840 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 634(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
I watched Marcy closely.
She had a tough outer shell, but a gooey inner core. She was making a good show of hiding it, but I could still see she was shaken by what just happened and didn’t like it.
“Yes,” Kyra answered. “But Hell had Wendy’s last night.”
I pulled out my own phone. “I’m sure I’ll find something.”
I did, and Marcy was so upset, she deserted the mixologist duties she never shirked and opened a bottle of wine.
We all went on with our evening, pretending that didn’t happen.
But it happened.
And we didn’t talk about it (then), but I figured we all had the same worry.
Because that scene was so gross, it might have meant the end of a friend.
I was not one of those chicks who got belly flutters or bounced.
I was also not one of those chicks who grappled with the dating game and agonized over what was the right play to make in any given situation.
In other words, when I got home earlier than I normally would after cocktails with my friends (because, let’s face it, we weren’t in the mood), the normal me would not hesitate to call Core because I wanted to hear his voice.
This new belly-fluttering, bouncing me wondered if he’d think I was being too keen if I called him.
Furthermore, I wanted to talk out Bree’s bullshit, and since it had been about him, and she hadn’t been nice about him, I couldn’t share that.
Still, I wanted to hear his voice.
“Fuck it,” I muttered, curled into my couch and touched go on my phone.
It only rang a couple of times before he answered, “Yo, babe. All cool?”
No.
Though him sounding normal and happy to hear from me and not reticent and wondering why I was phoning when we had plans the next night so I needed to back off did make me feel a little better.
“Yes.”
“You home?”
“Yes.”
“Good night?”
No.
“We all had a fight with Bree.”
“What?”
“Bree was being…uncool and it pissed us all off. So much, Marcy and Kyra kicked her out. And I’ll share that isn’t our normal MO. We usually get along really well. And for sure no one has ever kicked anyone out.”
“It happens,” he said.
“What happens?”
“You grow out of people.”
For a second, I was stunned at his simple wisdom.
“Especially at your age,” he continued. “You start to get stuck into life. See what’s important, what’s not. What the road ahead of you looks like. And who you want on it.”
“Uh, do you know my age?”
“Yup.”
“How old are you?”
“Thirty-six.”
Just as I suspected.
“Does the age difference concern you at all?” I asked hesitantly.
“If it did, my dick wouldn’t have been in you twice last night.”
That made me start laughing, partly due to relief.
It also made me think of our second go around after we got back from Wendy’s, which of course produced a flutter.
“Does it concern you?” he asked.
“Not if you’re going to lay wisdom on me to make me feel better about the fact I’m understanding that I’m drifting away from a person who’s been an important part of my life for six years.”
“Glad I could give you that,” he murmured warmly.
“It’s not thrilling I’m losing a friend, though.”
“What happened?”
I couldn’t tell him that.
I boiled it down to, “She’s got different priorities in life.” With the theme of that, it seemed time to feel him out a little bit. “Tonight, she exposed that she thinks finding a man to give her the life she wants is where we all should be.”
“Think her getting wound up in that Greek exposed that, baby.”
Yes, it did.
“That’s not me, you know. If I want it, I’ll earn it,” I told him. Then I gave him the rest of it. “And I want a lot, so I’m willing to work hard to get it.”
“Watched you for a while, babe, and it isn’t lost on me you got goals.”
He seemed entirely unconcerned.
Good.
“What’s your last name?” I asked.
He chuckled and muttered, “She’s fucked me and she doesn’t know my last name.”
“Core,” I snapped.
“It’s Cutler, baby, and I don’t give that first fuck you took my cock before you learned my name,” he teased.
“You’re kind of annoying,” I told him.
“Don’t care you think that, as long as you keep taking my cock.”
I couldn’t help it.
I started laughing.
When I was done, with genuine feeling coating the words, he said, “Sorry you had a shit night with your girl.”
Man, he was good at this.
“Me too.”
It hung there between us.
We both got tired of it hanging at the same time. I knew when he asked, “Want company?” while I asked, “Wanna come over?”
I followed through with a semi-breathy, “Yes.”
“Gotta bring Nanook,” he warned.
“I’m totally okay with that.”
“Right, I’ll be there in half an hour.”
“Okay. Cool.”
“See you in a bit,” he replied.
“Core?”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks.”
A second passed.
Then another one.
After that, he said gently, “Sweetheart, I’m into you. Which means I want this from you. Your bad nights and your good ones and you wanting me with you. You got nothing to thank me for.”