Page 30 of Soothed By Daddy
“I’m trying to figure out why you think I’m in a relationship with George.”
Tye looked at me as if I had grown two heads, carefully set his pole down on the ground next to his lawn chair, took off his ball cap, and threaded his fingers through his hair. Classic hot-as-fuck move. Tye was straight, but I wasn’t dead. He was a good-looking guy, but he didn’t do a damn thing for me. The only thing my mind could focus on was George and that shithead ex of his.
“Are you telling me you’re not dating George?”
“We’re friends. We’re tight, but no, we’re not dating. Just friends”
“George is the only guy you ever talk about. You have dinner with him multiple times a week. You hang out with him every weekend. You go shopping at farmers’ markets with him. You’re fixing up his house. I mean, you haven’t said it, but I’m pretty sure you’re hooking up with him because I gotta tell you, the last couple of weeks, your attitude has been significantly better, but you’re telling me you’re not dating him? Are you doing all those things with some other guy named George?”
“No, that’s him.”
“This may be the first time in my entire life that I’m not the clueless one. So thank you for letting me have that, but you’re still a dumbass.”
“I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about, but I promise you are still the dumbass.”
“Nope, because I’m not the one who’s in a relationship and doesn’t even fucking know he’s in a relationship. You’re dating George.”
“No, I’m not. We’ve talked about this. George and I, I mean. I told him off the bat I wasn’t interested in a relationship. Don’t want one with him or anyone else. We’re friends with benefits.”
“So why the fuck do you care if he’s with his ex then?”
“Because he’s an asshole.”
“The problem with friends is when they date assholes, you gotta sit there and swallow.” What he’d said took a second to sink into his brain, and then it hit him. “I didn’t mean it like that.”
“But I like to swallow.”
“I bet Chris does too,” Tye said it with a deadpan expression that I hadn’t known he had in him. He was bringing the fire today, and it was all directed at me.
He wasn’t wrong, and that really annoyed me too. I was the one who had been so adamant that it wasn’t a relationship, so I believed I had no right to question George’s decision to spend the afternoon with his cheating ex.
Tye let me stew before he spoke up. “I know you said it’s not a relationship, but you’re sure as hell acting like it’s one. I’m guessing George has gone along with your no-dating thing.”
“Yeah, he has.”
“Is that still what you want?”
“You ask a lot of fucking questions.”
“Then I won’t ask questions. I’ll just tell you that you’re still the same dumbass. If you don’t want a relationship with George, that’s fine. I guess, even though you’re already in one. Anyway, you don’t get to get mad when he goes off with his ex. If you don’t want him and you tell him that enough times, he’s goingto believe you. And when it finally sinks in that you really aren’t dating or ever will, he'll go find someone else for real.”
“I never said I didn’t want him.”
“Every time you remind him that you two aren’t dating, you lose a little part of him, even if he doesn’t show it.”
“You don’t even know him.”
“No, but I know you. And I know that I haven’t heard you talk about anyone but him for months. It’s nonstop. How fucking smart he is, how his house is amazing, and how everything about him is the best. It kinda of seems like you want to be dating him even if you say you don’t.”
“I came here for the fish.”
“But you’re not fishing. You’re staring at the water.”
“That’s because you want me to murder a worm.”
Or snap the pole in half when one more thought of George with Chris wedged itself in my mind.
“Circle of life.”
