Page 71 of Pucking Your Best Friend

“Okay. Now that I know…”

“You can’t take it back.” Just like that shittysomething not too significantjust now!

Maddie sighed. “I’m sorry, okay? I just wanted to be…honest.”

Matt pressed his lips together and stared at the road ahead. “Great. Did you think about talking to me about it?”

“No, because, normally, I wouldn’t have done it with the guy I’m…”

“I get it!” he said harshly. “It’s no big deal what happened. Not worth mentioning. Not a dirty little secret. So, you probably posted it on Instagram with the hashtag#IBangedMattPayne.”

She was silent for a few seconds. Then she whispered, “No. That would be tasteless. It’s#MattPayneSexGod.”

He snorted and cursed his traitor body for the smile that wanted to show on his face. Shit, he was still angry!

How could she have talked about it so matter-of-factly?How?

God, and Saturday they were going to his parents’ house, since they had invited Maddie, too, and…fuck.

“It’s fine, Matt,” Maddie murmured, gently patting him on the shoulder. “Honestly. I’m sorry. I should have talked to you about it. I just thought we agreed there shouldn’t be any drama. And drama only happens when you have secrets.”

“Mm hm,” he replied.

He didn’t understand why she had ruined it. It could have been the perfect night. Ameaningfulnight that changed nothing.

He pulled away when the light turned green…and there was this little voice in his head whispering,could it have been, Matt? Could it have been a night that changed nothing?

He swallowed and dug his nails into the leather steering wheel.

Why the hell hadn’t he made up with Dax? It was obvious he needed help!

Also, how was he going to get through a weekend at his parents' house without Maddie telling them that their only son had done dirty things to her? Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. She would probably give a speech. Besides, there would be a seven-hour, awkward car ride together beforehand!

“Great. Just great,” Matt muttered.

Maddie didn’t reply. He had the feeling she knew exactly what he meant, though.

Chapter 18

Maddie slept most of the way to the winery owned by Matt’s parent, and for the time she wasn’t sleeping, she pretended to be asleep. Either that, or she was looking at her cell phone, which Lucy had bombarded with messages since last night. They were all similar:What exactly happened? Call me. Now!orOh, oh, you were kicked out of a restaurant? You owe me so much info, Maddie!Andyou’re lucky Leon was caught urinating in public last night. You two only got a small paragraph and he was on the front page!Maddie ignored it all. First, because Matt probably wouldn’t approve if she revealed more details about their night together, and second, because she had read the tiny article about her being kicked out ofVie en Roseand dismissed it as unimportant. And third, because things were already strained between her and Matt and she would only make things worse by talking about either topic.

It wasn’t strained because of the sex…but because of everything that had happened afterward.

She had lied. She knew Matt would have a problem with her telling Lucy and the others about their night together. She wasn’t stupid. She knew Matt. But she just didn’t know how to handle the situation!

She had woken up alone in Matt’s bed on Thursday, strangely content and dissatisfied at the same time. It was good that he had left. He had made a statement. And she...she had felt the need to make a statement, too. To show him that she could be just as casual about sex as he was.

Which was a lie, obviously, but Matt didn’t need to know that. And, yes, they didn’t want to make a big deal out of it. But how did you cope with a not-big deal, the details of which she had been rewinding and replaying in her mind for two days?

So, it had slipped out when Lucy had asked about news, because it was the only damn news she’d been thinking about all day! She’d hoped to portray it as a funny anecdote that they could laugh about someday.

But shit, Matt hadnotlaughed.

She’d never seen Matt truly angry, especially not at her. There had been a vein throbbing in his forehead and he’d almost broken the steering wheel.

Yeah, she’d known he wouldn’t be happy about her sharing news of their night together with friends. The thing was, if they kept it to themselves, it would become a dirty little secret, which made things even more contentious than they already were. And, for forty-eight hours, she’d been trying desperately to remove meaning from that night. To take the heat from it, so they could return to normal. By the time they finally drove up the winding gravel road to the large, stone manor between two vineyard fields and she recognized Matt’s mother in the distance, running happily toward them, a lump rose in her throat.

Oh God. His mother. She would immediately realize that they had been doing it! Mothers had an eye for that, didn’t they? Or was it the opposite, because mothers didn’t want to know about that kind of thing?

---