Page 2 of Necessary Roughness
She gave me another suggestive look, then wandered off into another part of the party.
“That was so sweet of her!” I told Jayden. “Ugh, it would be so much easier if I were gay.”
Jayden gave me a look. He normally presented as straight, but there was no way to hide a little sass as he said, “Girl, don’t even.”
“I just want to getlaid,” I whined. “I went all summer without sex, then got dumped a week before classes started.”
“I can’t believe he waited until the end of summer to break up with you. He should have let you know back in May so you could have enjoyed your summer break.”
“I KNOW!” I said a little too loudly. “Do you know how much sex I could have been having?”
“How much?” Jayden asked skeptically.
“Um. Well. I didn’t expect you to ask for receipts, but there was that guy at the ice cream shop who flirted with me. Then there’s Kyle across the street. He was only back from college for a week, but I might have made a move.”
“So the amount of sex you could’ve had is two,” Jayden said dryly. “Two sex.”
“When you say it like that…” I groaned. “The point is, I just want to get laid. Especially before the semester starts.”
“You and me both,” Jayden muttered, eyes scanning the party. “I don’t know why I came here. Aside from the dike you turned down, this party is a heterofest.”
“Then go stand somewhere else. You’re scaring away all the eligible men who might come up and flirt with me.”
Jayden gave me a long, examining look. “You’re a little sloshed, honey.”
“Exactly! I’m exactly where I was hoping to be. Sloshed, but not drunk.”
“I don’t want you to do anything you might regret later,” he said carefully.
“What did I text you two hours ago?” I demanded.
“You said something about…”
I held up my phone to show him the text conversation. “I told you I wanted to go out and get laid. I was one hundred percent sober and of sound mind when I sent that, and nothing has changed in the two hours since. Call me a train conductor, because tonight I want to getrailed.”
Jayden couldn’t help but laugh. “I love drunk Sloane.”
“Not drunk. Sloshed. Big difference.” I gave him a hug. “Thanks for watching my back. I do appreciate it. But go have fun on your own.”
“Promise me you’ll text me updates every half hour?”
“I promise.”
“If I don’t hear from you, Bryson and I are going to tear this house apart to make sure you’re okay.”
“I promise! Now go on. That guy over there has been looking at you for the last five minutes. See? My gaydar is pretty good, too.”
Jayden grinned, then smoothly walked over to the guy and started chatting.
I weaved through the house until I reached the backyard, where the line for the keg was. Once I had a fresh beer, I wandered through the party.
It was a strange feeling being single for the first time in two years. I could do whatever I wanted, withwhomeverI wanted. It was freeing.
I should have dumped Troy before the summer. There were signs in the spring that our relationship was doomed. We fought about the tiniest things. We were never on the same page on a subject. At the time, it was easy to blame it all on the stress of final exams, but now I recognized the issues with perfect twenty-twenty vision.
A man who looked exactly like Jayden—literally identical—came up to me in the living room. “How’s your night going?”
“Fine. Did Gayden send you to check on me?”
