Page 40 of Cocky Player

Realization covered her one single second at a time and her face made a hundred different reactions in those few seconds.“Crap.I like him.”

I laughed and stood from the couch.“I’m getting a refill.Enlighten me why this is a bad thing?”

She sighed heavily, the overdramatic kind of sigh that only Gina could make loud enough to be heard by our neighbors.While I refilled my wine, I did my best to encourage her.

“You know, this isn’t the worst thing in the world, you liking a guy formorethan sex alone.What’s the harm….and what are you doing with my phone?”

I’d walked around the corner.No wonder why she went silent as I talked to the kitchen cupboards.Gina was no longer overcome with her own emotion, but she was grinning at me like a cat who’d had a taste of milk and craved more.

“Why do you have my phone?”I repeated, my steps slow.

“Oh, because some superstar football hottie just texted you and I was—” I snagged the phone from her as she finished — “curious.”

“You are a brat.A major brat.”I managed to set down my wineglass without spilling it despite my shaking hands.Gina could have already sexted the man, sent a shot of boobs from an old Tumblr account for all I knew.

“Gina,” I groaned and opened up the text string.“You are so off my Christmas present list.”

Hey.The one that was sent over an hour ago I hadn’t responded to yet.But now there were more.

Home from dinner?How’s your family?

And then Gina’s response…

Oh hi there handsome man o’ mine.Got some yummy dessert for me?I’m starving for something sweet.Maybe salty.

She had to be kidding me.“Are you for real right now?”I glared at her while she so innocently sipped her wine and shrugged.“I might hate you.”

“You don’t.”

I didn’t.I couldn’t.But good grief, this girl.She’d do anything to keep a conversation off herself even it meant throwing me under the bus.

Three dots appeared in the reply side and I hesitated, then debated, and quickly typed.

That was Gina.Ignore that insanity.Bitches be crazy.

The dots disappeared and I sank into the couch cushions, psychotically watched as three more appeared.Vanished.Re-appeared.Oh God.He had no idea what to say.My mind quickly whipped up a hundred more apologies that would make me seem neurotic.

Thank God.Finally showed up with an emoji of someone wiping sweat from their brow.Thought you’d jumped straight to sexting and I wasn’t sure how to proceed after thinking of you with your family.

I chuckled and sipped my wine.Crisis averted.

“We’ll finish this conversation with that nameless tattoo guy later,” I told Gina, giving her a scolding look as I grabbed my phone and wine.“I’m going to continue this in private.”

“I did it to help you since you hadn’t responded to his first text and I figured you’d spent the last hour debating how to sayhiback, you little nutcase.”

I slammed the door on her and laughed.She knew me too well.

“That wasn’t helping!”I shouted back through my door but she couldn’t hear me.She was already blasting pop music from the music app on our television.

It took a few more seconds to decide.Texting I could do, but Connor’s voice through the phone was like dark melted chocolate, smooth and rich.

I dialed his number and he answered almost immediately, chuckling.“You know, it’s pretty immature to blame someone else for your own texting faux pas.”

“Shut up.I can’t believe she did that.”

“Gina seems…fun.She’s your roommate, right?The girl you came to Glitz with?”

I shuffled the pillows against my headboard and settled against them, kicking my feet up and turned on the television in my room to drown out Taylor Swift’s new album blasting from the living room.

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