Page 112 of Zero Pucks Given
“Only with you,” I countered as we crawled into bed.
He leaned over and gave me a kiss. “I’m glad I didn’t let that deter me.”
“I’m glad you didn’t either.”
We shared a long look in the semi-darkness.
“So,” I said casually. “How thick are the walls in this house?”
“Good question.”
I raised an eyebrow at him. “You mean you never found out with your ex?”
Grayson groaned and fell back on his pillow. “No. I never found out with Gretchen.”
“Gretchen?Gretchen?”I sputtered a laugh.
“What’s so funny?”
“Grayson and Gretchen. You sound like siblings in a German nursery rhyme.”
“One of the many reasons we didn’t work out,” he replied. “You’re notreallyjealous, are you?”
“Only a little.” I pushed back the covers and straddled him in bed. “Since we don’t know how thick the walls are, you’d better not make any noise.” I grinned down at him with desire. “But I’m going to make that taskverychallenging.”
I slid down his body and went to work.
We never did find out how thick the walls were, but hedidhave to cover his mouth with a pillow ten minutes later.
*
Sharon’s TikTok channel never rose to the same level of popularity as mine, but she eventually had enough traffic to quitherjob that summer. “Kyle makes enough to cover our expenses for a while,” she explained to me over coffee one day. “He’s happy I quit. I think he was secretly jealous of all the customers flirting with me every night.”
“Secretly?” I barked a laugh. “He’s outright said so in front of me multiple times.”
“I think I’ll miss it,” she said wistfully. “I would never cheat on Kyle,obviously. But I kind of liked the attention, you know?”
“Oh yeah. There’s nothing more satisfying than men who are old enough to be my grandpa staring at my tits and calling me sweetheart.”
“So you don’t miss it?” she asked.
I smiled and shook my head. “Not even a little bit. Every day I wake up and I’m my own boss. I don’t take orders from anyone. Everything is on my shoulders—the responsibility, the successes,andthe failures. It’s the best feeling in the world.”
“Even better than having a rich and famous boyfriend?”
I rolled my eyes at her. “I don’t care about Grayson’s fame and fortune.”
Sharon gave me a look.
“Okay, fine, it’s kind of nice,” I admitted. “But it’s only a bonus. The icing on the cake. But enough about Grayson. When is Kyle going to propose?”
“Fuck if I know!” she exclaimed. “I’ve droppedso many hints. That boy is denser than a sandbag.”
I smiled and pretended like I didn’t have inside information on Kyle’s plans.
My apartment lease ended in August. I wasn’t fishing for anything when I told him I was considering moving into a bigger apartment,but Grayson responded by saying, “Good, I can recruit a few rookies to help you move your stuff into my place.”
And just like that, we’d moved in together.
