AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Save whatever excuse you’ve conjured up during your walk over. I know you too well to know that you don’t screw men in the middle of an open parking lot in your car. And sex on your desk in the same office that your father or Phil Carlton could have walked in on at any moment without at least locking the door? That’s ballsy, even for Lake and I, and we love finding new places to do it.”
She’s right. I wouldn’t do that.
I hang my head a little in embarrassment.
“I know… I know, it’s just—"
“I’m so proud of you,” she beams.
Huh?
“Uh… come again? You're proud of me?” I ask cocking an eyebrow and straightening my spine now that it seems I won’t be getting a lecture today.
“You’re branching out—you’re taking risks. Albeit a little bigger risks than I would, but beggars can’t be choosers over here, so I’ll take it.” She smiles. “I knew you had it in you, but I’ve never seen it. The old Penelope would never do this, even though this is exactly what you’ve pushed Autumn, Isla, and me to do, and we all ended up with the right guy. I was wondering when you would do the same thing for yourself.”
This isn't exactly the “I told you” I was expecting.
And the right guy?
Slade isn’t the right guy… not even close.
“You act like I live in a convent and never date.”
“Oh please…” Tessa says, testing out her coffee by taking a small sip off the white paper to-go cup. “You’ve been playing it safe since we met.”
“I don’t date safe guys,” I argue, but I didn’t even convince myself.
“For a girl who reads on the kinky side of the bookstore, replacing the dust covers on her dirty books when she goes on vacation with her dad, and has a password combination to her reading tablet that’s harder to crack than the damn nuclear missile launch code, you sure date some squares.”
My jaw drops, and my eyebrows furrow as I let out a dramatic gasp. Mostly for theatrics, but Tessa gives me a lifted brow in return as if to tell me to prove her wrong.
I can’t believe she’s calling me out about my dating choices and suggesting that having sex with Slade, the man who single-handedly ended my dreams in public places, is within the realm of sane.
“The guys I’ve dated over the last couple of years have been nice,” I tell her.
“The damn kiss of death,” she mutters against her coffee cup and then takes another small sip.
“What?”
“Nice… you said nice. There is no guy on this planet that wants to hear that he’s “nice”. You might as well tell him that his pecker is tiny. He might actually survive that humiliation better.”
Ok, now she’s just plain not making any sense.
“So, you want me to date jerks instead? And by the way, Slade and I are the furthest things from dating.”
She chuckles as if I’m an adorable little toddler who just mispronounces the word ketchup to catsup.
“No, honey, you and I are the furthest thing from dating. Though if I were a dude, you’d probably be my type. I have a thing for blondes with blue eyes,” she teases after describing Lake Powers, her fiancé.
“Yeah, well, I’m not six foot four.”
“Good point. I like them tall. You wouldn’t make the cut.”
“Hey, that’s mean,” I shoot back, though I’m not insulted in the least.
I like my men tall, too.
“Hypothetically speaking… of course. Now explain to me how you ended up going from wanting Slade dead to screwing him on every surface in your office. Not that I don’t already know how this story goes since I lived it.”
