Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 99434 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 497(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 331(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99434 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 497(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 331(@300wpm)
She went radio silent for a full five minutes. Perhaps I’d pushed it too far. Teasing over text isn’t the same as in person. I raked my fingers through my hair and texted again.
Gray: Sorry. Was joking around.
Another ten minutes went by, but this time, I watched the dots jump and stop. Jump and stop. Jump and stop. Clearly, something was on her mind, and she had reservations about sharing it with me. I was just about to text again when her response arrived.
Layla: You’re ruining my chance of having a nice, normal relationship.
Shit.
I started to text back and then thought better of it. Instead, I hit call. She picked up on the first ring.
“Hey,” she breathed out.
One word, and I knew she was feeling more emotional than angry. I needed to tread softly.
“I missed your voice.”
“You missed it after a week?” she said. “You didn’t hear it for a full year and did just fine.”
I lifted my bare feet up onto the coffee table in front of me. “Ah. But I did hear your voice. I reread your letters every day. Pretty sure some of them are memorized by now. In my head, I heard your voice saying all the things you wrote in them.”
“Perhaps you should dig them out if you still have them. You can use them when you feel the need, rather than call me.”
I chuckled. “They were only a substitute because it was physically impossible to have the real thing.”
“It’s still physically impossible.” I heard the smile in her voice.
“Not at all. Just say the word, and I’ll be at your door in twenty minutes.”
She went quiet for a minute, so I teased, “If you’re debating it, I’m going to head over so we don’t waste any time on the off chance you land on yes.”
I didn’t expect the confession that came next. “I haven’t had sex since before I met you.”
“Why haven’t you?”
She was quiet for a few moments while my hopes ran wild. Then, “I didn’t want to.”
“Because you want to have it with me?”
“No. I don’t want to have it with you.”
“You don’t want to or you don’t want to want to. There’s a big difference, Freckles.”
More silence. “I don’t want to want to. I don’t even want to want to talk to you.”
That hurt like hell to hear. But it was understandable that she was afraid. I needed to earn her trust back.
“If it makes you feel any better,” I said. “I haven’t had sex since I met you either.”
From her tone, I pictured her rolling her eyes. “Poor baby. You’ve been free for three weeks and can’t find anyone to fulfill your needs?”
“Don’t fool yourself. Ass comes easy for me, too, Layla. But there’s only one ass I want, and that’s yours.”
I heard her breathing, so I knew she hadn’t hung up. Fuck it. Might as well go for broke. I hadn’t thought this conversation would be happening anytime soon. Sometimes you need to push open the door and run inside before it gets slammed in your face.
“Have dinner with me? Lunch even. Breakfast? I’ll take whatever you’re willing to give.”
“I don’t know, Gray.” She went quiet again. “I have to go. Text me Etta’s number, and I’ll call her in the morning.”
“Goodnight, beautiful.”
I waited until she hung up to move the phone from my ear. “She didn’t say no,” I mumbled to myself. Progress.
***
“Hello?”
I rolled onto my back with my cell pressed to my ear. Morning light streamed in from the small space where the blinds were missing a slat. That reminded me, I needed to toss those things, too. The slat had fallen off the first night my new bride and I had returned from the Dominican Republic, when a drunken make-out session had included backing her up against the window.
“Don’t tell me you’re still in bed, boy. You just wasted three years of your life. You should be up at the ass crack of dawn, raring to do things.”
Etta.
I rubbed sleep from my eyes with one hand. “What time is it?”
“It’s after seven in the morning.”
“Four in the afternoon is after seven in the morning, Etta. How about something more specific?”
She ignored me. “Are you free later?”
“If later means hours after seven in the morning, yes.”
“My door lock isn’t working.”
I sat up in bed. “Okay. Give me a few minutes, and I’ll head over.”
“No. No. I have the top lock on, and my neighborhood is still safe. The girls are coming over to play mahjong today. Why don’t you come over about four? I’ll make you your favorite meal.”
My mouth watered. “Gumbo?”
“And homemade peach cobbler if you stop at the store and pick something up for me.”
“I’ll rob a store if you’ll make me gumbo and peach cobbler, Etta.”
“Now now…I think it might be too soon for those type of jokes after getting out of the slammer. Never know who might be listening on the phones these days.”