Page 80 of Reconciling With the Rival

That’s exactly what’snotgoing to happen, because Leo and I barely tolerate each other. But a little hate sex and orgasms never hurt, did they?

“Oh, I’m so making sex pact shirts,” Grant says, and I know he’s one hundred percent serious about it.

“Grant, I swear—”

“Ella, I don't know if this is the best idea,” Hads tells me. “He sounds like he’s using you.”

“That’s the point, Hads. No strings attached, just sex. And no feelings, since we hate one another. It’s almost the perfect plan.”

“Are you complimenting him?” Paige asks, a smile on her face.

“No. I would never.”

“Well, you did that one time…” Hads tells me. “When we came over for your birthday a few years ago.”

Wow, it has been so long, I forgot about that. He did one nice thing for me at our internship, and that was it. It was a veryconfusing time back then—even more so than now. Not only had we had sex once, but he was still being the same old Leo he had always been. And then, he did something nice for me, and I thought maybe one day, we could be civil.

Then, he always did something that backfired. It was the weirdest case of whiplash ever.

“That was one time. He’s been horrible about five hundred times since,” I say as I slump onto the couch next to my girls. “Guys, what the hell do I do? He gave me until tomorrow, so I need to make a decision tonight.”

“Well, you guys have had sex all of two times. I say go for it and get some dick,” Grant says, and Paige and Hads start to laugh. “What?”

“You sound like us,” Hads tells him.

“Look, I’m all for supporting Ella, and she gets orgasms out of this. That’s a win-win.”

Oliver speaks up for the first time. “Yes, but she would be getting those with her roommate's brother, the guy she hates more than anyone.”

I was about to bring that up, but he beat me to it. “Thank you, Oliver. Great point.”

“No, this is not how we’re doing this.” Hads goes into the spare bedroom and comes back with a giant whiteboard. Is that where Oliver put it?

“Is that my whiteboard?” Paige asks.

“Yes,” Hads says. “My brother put it in there because you kept staying up late listening to true crime podcasts and making link charts.”

“Oliver!”

“Love, we are past that chapter of our lives, okay? And you needed to sleep at night instead of listening to those fucking things,” he tells her while running a hand down his face.

She only slumps further into the couch. “Fine.”

“Can we please get back to the matter at hand? I need help, you guys,” I beg.

“We’re making a pros and cons list,” Hads says as Grant grabs her a chair for the whiteboard to sit on. She draws a line down the middle and writes pros on one side and cons on the other. One is in red marker, one in green. “This is the best way to figure out what to do, Ells. I swear, we’ll figure this out.”

Leave it to Hads to make some sort of chart to help me figure this out. I truly don't deserve my friends.

“Okay, who has something for either side?” she asks as she turns to four of us.

“I feel like it being Leo is a con,” Oliver tells her, and I nod in agreement.

“It’s definitely not a pro,” I say to the room.

“The sex is a pro, right?” Paige asks, and I nod.

“Unfortunately,” I say. I’m not going to ever admit out loud that Leo Zimmerman is the best sex I’ve ever had, but he is. It’s why I’m even considering this. He not only knows what drives me crazy, but since we hate each other, the sex is fucking phenomenal.

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