“Don’t think too hard about what we’re doing. It’s easier to feel what you want sometimes. Please?”
“Why?”
“Because you might come to your senses.” He smiles wryly and opens the door. “I’ll bring you a towel.”
“Trust me, Kent. My senses want you as much as I do.” My common sense not so much. I wrap my arms around his waist and look up at him. His bare skin is still sweaty and it smears against mine. My breasts press against his chest in a way that makes me wish I wasn’t so sore. “Shower with me?”
He grabs hold of my face. “Kiss me.”
I try to move from his grasp but he won’t let me. “Kent,” I groan. “My mouth tastes—”
He cuts me off with a hard, rough kiss. I sigh into his mouth and give up fighting. I press myself against him and tilt my head to the side so he has no problem giving me his tongue. I want it everywhere. A door opens somewhere and people are in the hall but we don’t stop. I couldn’t stop if someone paid me. I push Kent against the wall and reach up to intertwine my fingers in his hair.
“Yow!” someone shouts.
The voice makes me break away. Sophie’s sleepy-eyed and wearing nothing but her bra and panties. James comes out of his room behind her in his boxers.
I gawk at her and then at James, who is red faced and messy-haired.
“You and I need to talk,” Kent growls, pointing at James.
James crosses his arms over his chest, raising one eyebrow condescendingly.
Sophie walks unashamed around James and Kent. She grabs my hand and leads me into my bedroom. Once she closes the door, she screams. I’m so confused I don’t know what to think. I quickly get dressed and then I throw some clothes at Sophie.
“Did you and James hook up?”
“Hook up? You mean, did James rock my world? Then yes. Yes he did.”
“But you have a boyfriend.”
“Yeah, so?” She puts my shirt on over her head and then sits on my bed. “I don’t love James and who’s going to tell my boyfriend? Not me.” She swings her legs back and forth. “So you and Kent?”
“I don’t kiss and tell.”
“You don’t have to. You’re walking funny. He knocked it out of the park.”
Staring in disgust at sheets, I choose to overlook her assessment. “Sam and Trevor had sex in my bed.”
“No wonder they left together so early. I was searching for the bathroom and found James’ room. He signed the panties right off me.”
“You know how to sign?” I ask, surprised.
“Yeah, I took it in high school. My stepdad’s deaf.” She shrugs like it’s no big deal. “Anyway. I gotta go. Shit to do. Can I give these clothes back to you later? Tell James to text me. I put my number in his phone.”
“Sure,” I mumble, confused. “I’ll walk you out.”
The living room is a disastrous mess. There are plastic cups and garbage everywhere. It smells like whiskey and burnt rubber.
Sophie grabs her purse off the kitchen counter and then leans over and kisses my cheek. “Thanks for the party. It was a blast.”
“I bet,” I respond dryly.
Her eyes are wicked. “See you at work.”
I don’t want to think about work. I don’t want to think about anything at all. I close the door, confused by Sophie’s actions. She smiles when she talked about her boyfriend and then she sleeps with James? What did Kent say about her? I can’t remember because I was drunk. I shake my head and choose to forget it. It’s her life. All I can do is hope she takes my advice when she needs it and hopefully she’ll get off my back about Kent.
I grab a change of clothes and waddle into the bathroom. The hot water feels good on my body. I wash last night off of me and shave quickly. After finding a bottle of aspirin over the sink I stare morosely at the mess the living room has become.
It’s driving me crazy. No, my thoughts are. There’s too many of them and I have no answers. Kent wants me to wait? What if at the end of the month he decides he doesn’t want what I want? I’m supposed to be satisfied with the heartache I know is waiting? I can feel it, like an ominous shadow waiting to swallow me up and take away this precarious pairing.