Peachy Keen (17 page)

“I like your sister,” she said with a grin.

I laughed. “She’s a pain in my ass.”

“Why?”

“She just worries me. She walks this line between reckless irresponsibility and normal, contributing member of society. I never know which side she’s leaning toward. Some days I think she’s on the right track and other days it looks like she thinks her life is just one grand party. I don’t know.”

Georgia made a little humming noise, smirking to herself before she touched her tongue to her curving bottom lip. “I think she seems kind of…fearless. I envy that.”

A strangled laugh flew out of me. “I don’t know what you’re implying,” I teased.

Her breathy laugh hung in the space around us and I continued to smile. “About what you said on the phone a few weeks ago…”

Fuck. Not a fight. I wanted tonight to be the memory of how we pushed past all of the bullshit and let the kind of feelings that never seemed real engulf us willingly.

“Georgia, I’m sorry. I wish I could—”

“Let me finish,” she pleaded quietly. “You were right. I pretend everything is fine and I do it a lot. Most the time I don’t even realize I’m doing it, it’s such a habit. When my parents were still together, they used me as the go-between. They both treated me like a friend—an ally—as things got worse and worse. It’s hard to see your parents in that kind of misery. I was just trying to be a good daughter. I didn’t want them to have to worry about me on top of all the other issues they had. Both of them knew they’d crossed lines in telling me details of their shitty marriage and while they never stopped including me in it, they always asked how I was doing,” she said, drawing in a broken breath.

I saw her lift a hand to her cheek before she looked out the window, hiding her face from me. My jaw clenched and I felt suddenly angry with two adults I didn’t know for things they unknowingly did years ago. Little connections started happening in my mind like a pinball making perfect contact with every glowing target. I’d just opened my mouth to speak when she turned to me again. Our eyes met for a moment and the glossy sheen across her irises made my chest burn in agony. I wanted to tell her she was perfect and that she never had to be anything other than who she really was with me.

“You told them you were fine. Both halves of your DNA constantly criticized the other? You were just a kid. That’s so unfair. I can’t imagine,” I let my racing thoughts slip out of my mouth. “You were always doing what you hoped would help save your parents’ marriage; no wonder you care so much about Danielle and Evan’s relationship. You’re fucking programmed that way.”

Shit. I would’ve given anything to take it back the moment I said it out loud. I shot her a pained look, terrified she’d tell the cabbie to pull over and let her out of the car. A few more tears spilled down her cheeks and she wiped them away, though she smiled.

“Jesus, I thought you were a marketing major, not psychology,” she said, her voice thick with the threat of more tears but a reluctant chuckle faintly woven in.

“I’m so sorry. I—”

Her voice slipped out as a whisper to the window. “I’ve never even told Danielle all of that.”

“So why tell me?”

“Because I needed to say it out loud. Here. Now. I need you to understand that when I’m with you, I really am fine…way more than fine. With you I’m not pretending.”

Traffic slowed to a halt and I reached over to put my hand on her cheek, reveling in her honesty, her beauty as she easily closed her eyes, and the words that surfaced in my mind when I gazed at her.

17.

One More Try

Georgia

A hand grazed the inside of my bare thigh and I let out a gentle breath. Rough hair scratched my shoulder blade followed by plush lips kissing my warm skin. My hand lifted to reach up to him where he spooned my backside, letting his fingers venture further up my leg to the place that craved his touch the most. His hot breath against my neck made me shiver and the subtle commands of his strong hand made me open my legs to him, letting him stroke me. My head rolled back against him as he sank a finger inside me and dragged his tongue just below my ear.

“Good morning,” I moaned.

Harrison laughed inaudibly, his breath steaming my skin in a few puffs, but he didn’t stop his invasion of my body. His thumb swiped against my clit, covering it in the wetness he encouraged and I gasped.

“Very good morning,” he growled in my ear.

I slithered my hand between us, reaching for his cock when I heard the sound of a cell phone vibrating on the nightstand. Harrison dropped his forehead to my shoulder and sighed.

“I’m surprised that didn’t wake you earlier. It’s been non-stop.”

I stiffened and rolled in his arms, pushing away the sadness I felt when his fingers slipped out of me. “Is it mine or yours?”

He wore a slanted, sleepy a grin and smoothed one hand over the back of my head before he answered with a little chuckle. “Both.”

I sat straight up and clutched the sheet to my chest, reaching for my purse on the floor beside Harrison’s bed. He didn’t seem concerned at all that both of our phones were buzzing like crazy, but I was. I swiped at the screen of my cell and saw three messages from Danielle.

Mama D: Holy hangover, Batman.

Mama D: You want us to pick you up at the hotel or are you getting a cab here? Evan’s driving us home.

Mama D: Trying not to freak out. The hotel says you never checked in. Please be in bed with a guy.

“Oh shit,” I heard Harrison say beside me as he finally looked at his phone. I shot him a look and quickly typed a text message back to Dani.

Me: Sorry! I’m fine. Tell me where to meet you and I’ll get a cab there.

She told me they were waiting at the hotel and without a second thought, I jumped up and didn’t even bother opening my overnight bag. I shimmied into the dress I’d worn the night before and combed my fingers through my hair frantically.

“Déjà vu,” Harrison mumbled.

A sigh fell from my lips and I sank back down on the bed beside him. Pinning him with soft eyes, I chewed on my bottom lip before I asked, “What does your phone say?”

“Evan’s freaking out about where you are, asking me if I dropped you at the hotel like I was supposed to,” he replied. He smirked looking down at the screen in his hand. “This last one says ‘I hope you know I have no problem unleashing Danielle on you if this is your fault.’ If they only knew, right?”

My mouth puckered and twisted anxiously as I stared at him. “I’m not…ready to tell them yet.”

“I know that,” he said. His arms reached out and pulled me to him easily. With my ear against his chest, I listened to his heart for a moment; it nearly lulled me back to sleep. “We’ll figure it out,” he said before planting a kiss into my hair. He moved me away from his body and looked down at me. I don’t know what he saw in my face but it made him suck in a sharp breath. “But right now, you gotta go, so…”

I felt a twinge in my chest when we kissed for the last time after he drove me back to the hotel as my covert cabbie. I didn’t know how to handle the way I felt for him—the things I wanted—coupled with the deep-rooted need I had to protect other people’s happiness over my own. I just knew that I’d never felt this way before. I’d never wanted more than a night of fun, but with Harrison, I never wanted the nights to end.

“So where did you find this young man, Georgia?” Evan said from the driver’s seat. “Unless he’s not young…do you have a thing for older guys? I have so many questions!”

I rolled my eyes and scrolled aimlessly through my phone. “None of your business, Weston.”

“Oh, come on! Did you meet him at the party? Do I know him? I heard Harrison’s sister ran off with Theo for the night…you didn’t join them, did you?”

Before I had a chance to, Danielle backhanded Evan’s shoulder. “Evan!”

“God, you’re worse than a gossipy teenager. Sorry to disappoint you, but I didn’t have a three-way last night.”

Evan sighed dramatically. “Fine. But you didn’t answer my other question. Did you meet him at the party?”

The familiar twist of my insides reminded me how much I hated lying, even if it was only omitting the truth. Danielle turned around in her seat and looked back at me expectantly. I dropped my eyes to my phone again and saw a text flash upon the screen.

Harrison: You aren’t wearing any panties.

A laugh choked out of me and I looked up to the couple eagerly awaiting my response. “Um, no…I didn’t meet him at the party,” I replied, feeling proud of myself for the bit of honesty I was able to allow before texting Harrison back.

Me: I don’t know how to respond to that…is that a wish? Some kind of Jedi mind trick? Or do you actually believe that?

“One of these days, you’re going to shock us all and suggest a double date or—I don’t know—just be seen in public with a guy…in the daylight,” Evan teased.

Another smack sounded from the front seat of the SUV. Danielle shot me an apologetic look, and my phone buzzed in my hands all in quick succession. I opened the new message and mashed my lips together, suppressing a goofy grin when I saw the photo of my underwear on Harrison’s bed.

Harrison: These are mine now.

Me: If I’d known you had a thing for red satin, I would’ve gotten you your own pair for your birthday. Because I don’t think you’re gonna fit in those.

Harrison: Stroking my ego won’t work. Consider the panties collateral until I get to kiss you again.

I stifled another laugh and sent a final text to Harrison. I was about to open my mouth when I heard Evan speak up once more.

“Man, I wish you’d tell me. I just gotta know who could put that kind of dopey look on Georgia Trenton’s face.”

My eyes flicked up to the rearview mirror where he’d been spying on me and I showed him my middle finger with a sugary smile. Maybe I’d been all wrong about what Evan and Dani would think of us. Though he was a complete smartass and had a way of getting on my very last nerve, Evan seemed to care about me, as though his love for Danielle somehow made him my family, too.

Regardless, I wasn’t ready to share Harrison’s name. I needed to get used to the idea of having him before I could share him, never mind come to grips with all the things he made me realize about myself. My eyes had been opened in so many ways to so many things—all because of Harrison. The revelation of just how much my parents’ divorce had fucked with my brain continued crashing over me in waves. When we got home, I was half-tempted to call my mother and father up for a reaming ten years overdue, but decided a workout was a better use of my frustration and didn’t.

I hadn’t been to the gym in a few months and the women seemed genuinely glad I was back. I took a hip hop cardio class and let endorphins scatter away the debris that filled my mind.

Even though I probably wouldn’t be quitting my job with a resounding fuck you to everyone in my office for the career change Harrison and I had planned over coconut rum, I still loved the way that striptease class at Desire made me feel. Making a habit out of my workout classes needed to be a priority since a part of me knew deep down I wouldn’t be dancing at the clubs any time soon.

***

For weeks it’d been hounding me. Swarming me. It wouldn’t go away. It was a feeling I knew well but hadn’t suffered from in a very long time. I was distracted, restless, irritable, and even a tad wistful.

I was fucking horny.

I was hard up for some sex and it was taking over my life. It had been almost three weeks—nineteen days—since I’d been with Harrison on his birthday. I couldn’t remember the last time I went so long without a little action. I couldn’t think at work, I couldn’t watch anything on TV without fantasizing. Remembering that Danielle had spent six years in this state made me shudder.

I glanced at the clock; it was approaching one in the morning. With a deep breath, I let my hand slip into my pajama bottoms, hopeful that a little imagination and my fingers would do the trick. At least make me fall asleep, for Christ’s sake.

Minutes ticked by and nothing happened. I huffed and reached over to the third drawer of my nightstand.
Time to bring out the big guns.
It had been a while since I’d called up my battery operated boyfriend for a date, but desperate times called for desperate measures. Pushing the button on the end of my sizeable pale purple vibrator, I snaked it between my legs, placing it flush against my pussy and pressing it a little harder against my clit.

I grasped at another deep breath and shut my eyes as the buzz rippled through me. The image of Harrison spreading my knees apart so he could run his tongue along my pink flesh popped into my mind and I started to feel a little something building. Then, as if on cue, the buzz faded to a tiny hum before ultimately going silent. Dead battery.

“You’re fucking kidding me,” I muttered.

Reaching into the drawer again, I dug through the random notebooks, bottles of nail polish, and accessories trying to feel for little rolling AAs but came up empty handed.

I flopped back against my pillows, flooded with shame the instant I considered ducking into the bathroom to grab my Sonic face brush to try and restart the magic. Instead, I picked up my phone. Any other time in my adult life, I would’ve solved this problem days ago by picking a gentleman (yeah, right) off my roster to come play ball. Scrolling through my contacts, I saw the names that had been satisfying me—or trying to, anyway—for the few months before my trip to Desire. Joe, Conner, Sean, and Isaiah were all nice and of course hot, but the thought of even shooting a simple text to one of them made me fret.

It felt like cheating.

Fuck. Harrison and I hadn’t come to any kind of conclusion of what we were or what the hell was happening. I hated the mere idea of asking him
what we were
. Those were the kinds of conversations that’d kept me out of relationships. Why should I have to ask? When Danielle and I met in college, we never sat down with each other and said, “Okay, so can I call you my friend in front of other people?” or “Where do you see this going? Can you see us being friends a year from now?”