Page 13 of Christmas in Comets Valley
She gave me an unamused shrug. “You probably don’t remember this, but yesterday you agreed to be my friend, and I wanted to see if you were still interested.”
My brain malfunctioned, and I stared at her dumbfounded and wordless once again.
I couldn’t decide if it was because of the hangover or the woman in front of me continuously knocking me off my game. Or that the woman who consoled me while I was weeping and complaining last nightstillwanted to be friends.
My bets were on the latter.
“You still want to even after…” I couldn’t let the words escape my lips.
“Yeah, might as well,” she replied offhandedly. “I don’t have very many anyway, and seeing as you spilled how shitty your life was—your words, not mine—I have a feeling you could use someone too.”
Great, now she was offering me a pity friendship. At this point, I was more worried about what Ihadn’ttold her last night. Had I told her about my hemorrhoid surgery two summers ago too?
“If you’re wondering if you told me about your hemorrhoid surgery… the answer is yes.”
“Fuck,” I muttered under my breath. “As much as I would love to be friends with you, unfortunately, for the sake of my sanity, I’m going to have to jump into the Grand Canyon.”
She let out a small laugh. “You probably don’t remember me telling you I had hemorrhoid surgery too. We kind of bonded over it last night.”
We bonded overhemorrhoid surgery?
“That’s just… fantastic.”
“Yeah, except for the part where I lied to make you feel better. The closest thing I’ve ever had to surgery was Lasik a few years ago.”
“I wish you would’ve kept up the lie.” I groaned, sinking deeper into the couch cushions.
“So… now that we’re officially friends, I also wanted to ask about cashing in your offer for a one-night stand.”
I’d never wished I could disintegrate until this moment. I was hoping I made that memory up in my hungover haze, but much to my demise, it was clearly reality.
“I initially said no because we were both intoxicated after breaking out the Scotch,” she started. “But now that we’re both sober, it doesn’t seem like the worst idea if you’re still interested.”
She stood up slowly from her chair, giving me a full view of her tall and lanky body covered by a black silk robe which cut off at her mid-thigh. And based on the way she tugged it tightly to her chest, it was easy to assume she had nothing on underneath.
She waltzed towards the coffee pot. “Want some coffee?”
Fucking A. That alone was enough to convince me to have that one-night stand with her.
“You’re asking me to fuck you?” I croaked out, disregarding the question about coffee, making sure I heard her correctly..
Not that I couldn’t believe someone wanted to have sex with me, but it wasn’t every day that women came up to me and flat out asked for it. Especially not after a Drunk Elliot episode.
Sure, I had a few girls on retainer back in New York that met my needs, but since moving back home, my sex life had primarily composed of my fist. And until a few minutes ago, that didn’t seem like it’d be changing anytime soon.
“Sure, why not? I’ve never actually had a one-night stand before, but I’m attempting to turn a new leaf in life… and I think a one-night stand would be beneficial in assisting with that.”
She made hooking up sound like a business deal, and I was ashamed to admit how much it turned me on.
That’s when it hit me. “Forgive me, uh, what was your name again?”
“Aera.” She raised her voice to be heard over the sound of the coffee maker pouring its contents into a mug.
The name sounded familiar, but I couldn’t place a finger on where I’d heard it before. Maybe she was in real estate? Then again, there were roughly eighty thousand realtors in New York City alone. So even if she was, the odds that I’d bumped into her before were slim.
“Aera, look, you’re beautiful, so please don’t let the next words out of my mouth make you think otherwise. But I’m afraid I’d be a shitty lay right now.”
“Ehh, it would be hard to be worse than my ex, so I’m willing to take my chances.”
