fat kid in a candy shop no control.
Ares: Maybe we should just reschedule?
Ares: Yes, that’s the best option, I think. Maybe come see me afterward?
Ares: Not that I’m inviting you to my house for anything nefarious.
Ares: Unless you wanted to do something nefarious with me.
Ares: I’m done now.
I slapped my hand over my face and cursed myself.
Then I placed the phone back to my ear and said, “Texting him was a mistake.”
Calloway was already laughing her ass off.
She knew based solely on how long it took me to get back on the phone that I’d gone overboard.
My phone beeped during her guffawing, and I couldn’t scrounge up the courage to look at the message.
“He messaged me back.” I moaned, dropping down face first onto the bed.
“What did you say to him?” she asked, giggling now.
I gave her a recap of what I’d said, ending with a moan of embarrassment.
“Just look at the message,” she ordered.
I reluctantly propped myself up onto one arm, put the phone onto speaker, and cringed visibly as I went into the messages.
Hayes: Sorry to burst your bubble, but I’ll still be there as soon as I get off. Sadly, or maybe good, it is at El Sombrero. We have the whole back room. Wear the sweats. I’m going to be wearing mine.
He’d handled my awkwardness well.
“He said I can wear my sweatpants. We’re going to eat at the bane of my existence, and that we at least have some privacy so that I can embarrass myself in secret,” I said to Calloway.
She snorted.
“Wear the sweatpants,” she ordered. “He flat out gave you permission. And you’re going to overthink everything else.”
“What about my hair?” I asked curiously.
“You have two hours,” she said. “Go wash off the day. Put some of that shit in your hair that you leave in when you leave it curly and let it dry. Easy peasy. If he wants the real Ares, give her to him.”
If he wants the real Ares, give her to him.
I liked the way that sounded.
Too many times, on too many dates, I’d tried to be who I wasn’t.
Maybe Calloway was right. Maybe it was time to be who I was.
So that was exactly what I did.
“Thanks, Way,” I said softly. “Love you.”
Calloway giggled. “Let me know if you feel the same way after tonight. Call me the instant that you get home.”
After promising to do just that, I went ahead and took my shower.
After shaving every single inch of my body sans my arms and my face, I got out and got dressed in my sweatpants. I also put on a tight black tank top to go with the sweatpants.
The last thing to go on was a pair of tennis shoes.
After spending the majority of my day in heels, there was nothing I wanted more than to wear something comfortable on my feet. So tennis shoes it was.
Then I tackled the beast that was my hair.
By the time I was done, I had a little more than an hour to wait.
Which was, of course, when I fell asleep.
***
I woke up to pounding.
Frowning, I pushed up off my bed and walked blearily to the front door, shuffling my way there with unsteady steps.
Yanking open the door, I blinked in surprise at the pissed off face that was on the other side.
His face went from pissed off to blank in a matter of seconds.
“Were you sleeping?” he asked.
I blinked innocently at him.
“Of course not,” I lied.
How would he know?
I looked at my watch.
It wasn’t even six yet.
He was early.
His smile was swift. There one second and gone the next.
“You ready?” he asked, taking a step forward so that he was close, but not too close.
More like, I couldn’t close the door in his face if I wanted to.
I nodded. “I just have to grab my purse.”
He looked down at my sweats. “Those are cute.”
I looked down at myself, then looked over at him.
And nearly choked.
He was indeed wearing sweatpants.
He also filled out those sweatpants like nobody’s business.
“Ummm,” I hesitated. “Yeah.”
They were simple black sweatpants from Old Navy.
I’d bought them last year on sale for four dollars at the winter clearance