“K, I can’t even tell you, it’s been so hectic.”
“You can tell me, and you’re going to.”
I looked into the sky as though seeking divine inspiration, and when none came, I was on my own.
“Okay, so you know I’ve been doing this assignment with Xavier Cross?”
“Aha! I knew it!”
“Knew what? I haven’t even said anything yet.”
“You didn’t need to. I knew Obscenely Rich Stalker Guy was going to be at the root of whatever was bothering you.”
In truth, she would never know the half of what was bothering me, but I kept that to myself.
“How did you know?”
“You mean apart from the fact that I’ve barely seen you give another guy the time of day, beyond being nice to people for tips, the whole time I’ve known you? Yet this dude comes strolling into your life, and the bar, and you can’t control yourself. Other than that, he seems to be the only variable that’s changed significantly in your life lately, and you’ve been uncharacteristically off your game since he came on the scene. So, unless there’s something you’re not telling me, it’s pretty easy to do the math. Tell K all.”
I told her all. Well, all about Xavier, anyway. Something made me hold back about the Swan Club and the cars. It kind of made me sad that I couldn’t quite bring myself to trust her all the way, but it was what it was. When I was done, there was a loaded silence.
“Hello? Rocky to Kik. Is there anyone there?”
“Oh, I’m here. I’m just working out if I can come right here and not have you notice, or if I’m going to have to work myself over with a toy when I get home.”
“Oh my God, K, you’re too much.”
“Me? You’ve been having all kinds of stupidly hot, angry, hate sex with your arch nemesis, and I’m too much? Girl, you need to take a long hard look in the mirror, because one of us is too much, and the other is me.”
I guess she had a point. It was definitely one of the more outrageous phases of my life, which was saying something, given my history.
“You’re right. It’s a lot. It’s totally fucked up, and it’s screwing with my mind. I mean this whole assignment thing is a total head-fuck. Like, I see him, and he’s this arrogant, smug, douche of a guy—”
“Who also happens to be hot as sin,” she interrupted.
“Yes, he’s hot, but normally that’s not enough for me. I can generally look beyond the physical, to the person inside. Who a guy is should be more important than what he looks like.”
“But not with this guy?”
“No. I mean, yes... I mean, no. That’s not what’s going on here. He’s a dick—overconfident, rude, dismissive, bullish. Everything I hate.”
“Everything everyone hates.”
“That too, but then I listen to the messages for the assignment—” We’d exchanged a few more since the initial ones. “—and I see a slightly different side. He’s all of those things, but—and I’m aware that I sound like a world of clichés right now—there’s more to him than that. Then again, when I’m in his company, he pisses me off so much that I can’t figure out if I want to slap him stupid, or fuck him senseless.”
“Sounds like the sex always wins.”
“Yeah, kind of, with a little biting and scratching to make up for the fact that I basically hate him... but the sex is so good. I’ve never been one to let dick get in the way of thinking straight, but something about his dick and the way he uses it. The shit we do together… I don’t know…”
I didn’t... and I definitely didn’t know how to explain it in a way that didn’t make me sound stupid, superficial, and sex-starved.
“Yeah, okay. So, I’m going to go out on a limb and say this isn’t just about the D.”
“What? I literally just finished telling you how good it is. He is. We are together. It’s absolutely about the D.”
“Hmm… as much as I am totally going to go home and get off to the thought of the two of you, rough and tumbling—”
“Kik!” I swatted at her arm. “You can’t say shit like that.”