Page 86 of Hero Hair
I cradle the phone into my chest to hide it. “You shouldn’t be so nosy. You’re bound to see something you shouldn’t when you snoop.”
“You’re always sending weird ass pictures back and forth. What do they mean?” she asks, opening the passenger side door.
She climbs in, and I follow.
“Sometimes they mean nothing at all and it’s just to confuse the other person. Other times they mean everything.”
“How are you supposed to know which is which?” she asks.
I hear the accusation in her voice. We’re playing a game no one else knows the rules to.
I shrug and pull into traffic. “Most of the time we just know.”
“That selfie you sent on your very first date with him. Did it mean something or nothing?”
Okay, scratch that, now I hear accusation in her voice.
“Uh. That was something all right. I’m not sure what it meant, though.”
She scoffs. “You had sex with him that night, didn’t you?”
I laugh. “No. When? In the parking lot? You guys were at my house like little nannies!”
“I know you lied about something, Teala. I’ll figure it out eventually.”
This whole thing started with a stupid lie—a bet. It makes sense it should end with a final truth. “It started as a game, or so we thought. Play by your stupid dating rules and see what happens and then go to Vegas.”
“But?”
I shake my head, the smile falling from my face. “It was never a game, I don’t think. Even when we were hashing out the details of the stupid bet, I wanted him more than I had any right. He wanted something more significant, too. It was the perfect storm, I guess you could say. We both started the relationship on the same foundation and it grew on its own. We did wait until the proper amount of time to pass before we shagged it out—we followed your goofy guidelines. You should know that. Also, we paid for Vegas, too.” I shake a finger in her direction. “You can’t accuse me of cheating or lying.”
“I’m beginning to think normal rules are goofy. I might need to go serial for a while and see if that lands Mr. Right. You paying for Vegas is what made me suspicious. You’re never one to lose a damn bet,” Charlotte says, shaking her head.
I watch her in my peripheral vision as she thinks back to the beginning.
“I knew something wasn’t right. You were too perfect for each other.”
It’s insane that other people say this, but there must be some truth to it due to how much we’re told something similar. “Perfect is a strong word, Charlotte,” I say.
“And yet you’ve attained the pinnacle. I hope you’ll finally accept his love and run with it. You put up with a lot of bullshit to land this man.”
We pull into her drive. “It wasn’t bullshit.”
“It was and you know it. The men and the dates and the avoidance. We all saw it, Teala. It’s why we plied you with Vegas and trying something different to begin with. Look what happens when you listen to your friends!”
I take this moment to remind her how utterly annoying my friends are when they crash dates and act like teenagers.
“That’s part of the Teala package. Have a good weekend,” Charlotte drawls as she opens her door. She smiles in my face before she walks up to her door and I’m left wondering what the fuck her issue is.
I send Macs a photo of my ear and start for home.
No one else is here when I pull in and I’m surprised his friends aren’t in the yard, half clothed, and fully drunk. Macs is always doing one project or another, so the house always smells of sawdust or some type of building material. I open the door, and he’s waiting for me.
****
Macs has me pinned with his gaze. I drop one of the boxes I collected from my apartment on top of the bed next to the pair of white panties. He’s breathing heavy as he eyes me up and down like a panther stalking prey. You’d think I was naked, asking for him to bend me over and fuck me nasty for the way he’s looking at me.
“I missed you,” he says, walking into the room. With one hand, and more skilled ease than he should posses, he unbuttons and unzips his jeans. They fall to the floor and he steps out of them.
