Page 29 of Personal Foul
“You don’t have to stay with me if you don’t want on the trip. If you’ve got someone, I can rebook the rooms,” I say as I kick the engine into gear. But fuck I hope she doesn’t have anyone. Because I want this girl to myself right now, and having her alone for several days at a couple’s resort in the mountains? I might actually convince her she doesn’t hate me as much as she thinks she does.
“It’s fine. I don’t mind. As long as I don’t have to see shenanigans, and assuming you didn’t like… book the penthouse, and now I’ve gotta figure out how to sell a kidney to pay for my half of the room.”
“Yeah… I think it’s only going to be like $200 for your part. I’m happy to cover it though. It was my pick.” It’s a lie. The room was more than that a night, far more than that. But I’m not about to tell her, because I want her to go and enjoy it for once. Without the constant stress that surrounds her. If I can give her a few days off from it, it’s more than worth the money.
“I can cover $200. It’s not a problem,” she answers.
“All right. As far as the rest, I actually wanted to talk to you about that. Just not in front of them…”
She glances over at me, and I can feel her eyes on me as I drive. Trying to keep mine on the road even though I’m distracted by the fact she’s next to me. I’m not really prepared for this conversation, because it’s not one I’ve ever had before.
“Thank you, by the way for not saying anything to them. I just know they would all have big opinions about it, and I don’t want to hear them,” she says quietly.
“Right.” I stiffen a little because the tone in her voice makes me feel like she regrets it. And I’m about to do the thing I hate doing—talking about it. “Do you regret it then?”
I can see her look over at me abruptly again like she can’t believe I just asked that.
“No… but I… It’s awkward now, right? We had the whole frenemies thing down pretty well, and now it’s muddy. Now we’re frenemies with sexual tension or something.”
I laugh because it’s not a terrible description of where we’re at. “Fair enough. I had another idea though.”
“What’s that?”
“Frenemies with benefits?” I smirk.
She doesn’t answer for a beat, and I look over at her briefly. She looks pensive like she’s mulling it over.
“We could try it while we’re on the trip. We’ll be alone. They’ll be off doing their couple thing half the time and won’t bother to pay attention to us. So it wouldn’t be hard to keep it from them.”
I feel like a devil sitting on her shoulder, luring her to a fate she doesn’t deserve. But fuck, I want more of this girl. I want a chance to have her without worrying about our friends being downstairs or in the next room. I want a chance to spend time with her alone.
“Why?”
Well that was a new fucking question. No woman has ever asked me why they should fuck me before. I thought all of that was pretty self-evident, especially when she’s already tried it once. So I guess I need to figure out what her specific objections are because I thought I’d already covered them.
“Why not?” I turn the question back on her, and I hear a little sigh like she doesn’t love it.
“Because it’s a romantic couple’s resort, right? Won’t that be weird? Like we’re cosplaying some kind of fucked up relationship… or a hateship or something? And I don’t want to pile on after Liam and Waylon, but you’re more of the hit-it-and-quit-it than the return-for-more type Easton.”
“A hateship sounds pretty hot actually.” I try hard not to smile because I can tell it’s not the time.
“Be serious.”
“I am. And I’ve already come back for more. So I’ve already proven you wrong there.”
“I’m pretty sure that was just you wanting to be right about the vibrator.”
I let out a choked laugh.
“I already knew I was right. That was about you looking stressed and me wanting to help you relax.”
“What would this trip be about?” she asks just as we pull up to her house, and I put the car in park and turn to look at her.
“Testing the hateship out. I think it could be fun.”
“And when it’s over and we have to come back to reality?”
“We figure it out when we get there.”
