“Well, our fake dating needs are over now, aren’t they? I’ve managed to suitably irritate your mother and you helped me move on from Hannah. And come tomorrow, we’re going to be back to battling it out for the Status lead. And like I said earlier, it’s not like we plan on dating.”
“But… I mean… We could…” I stumble clumsily and not just because Mina is now undoing my jeans’ top button and slipping her hand into my underwear. I grip her wrist to stop her movement and I manage to find a scrap of focus. “We could do this again, if you wanted?”
“Why would we do it again?” she demands giving absolutely no indication that even the remote possibility has crossed her mind.
I rack my brains for a better excuse than ‘because I want to’ for that would feel like revealing too much. “What about your sister’s wedding? Don’t you want me to be your date and help you with Hannah then?”
An incredulous expression wrinkles her face. “That’s literally months away. But even if the wedding was next week, I’m actually looking forward to going alone, holding my head up high and being proud to be single.”
“Proud to be single,” I repeat in a mumble.
“Yeah, besides, we’re both going to be bridesmaids so it’s not like she’ll be surgically attached to Sally the whole time,” Mina says. “And even if she was, I don’t care! I really don’t care!”
“I can see that,” I say quietly.
Mina looks up at me, her large honey-coloured eyes searching my face. “Doyouwant to do this again?”
I swallow and summon an inordinate amount of courage, but as I do, I know it’s now or never. I have to answer honestly. I have to try or this really will be the last time. “I know what you said earlier and I respect that, I do, but I can’t lie. It’s been a lot of fun, Mina. I think I really like you. So yes, I would like to do this again.”
Mina’s face becomes expressionless for a few seconds, as if she’s so busy processing what I just said, she isn’t able to form an opinion about it, and in those seconds, I have the one thing that I love more than anything in this world. Hope. I have hope.
But then her eyes narrow, her eyebrows fall and her mouth pulls to one side. “It has been fun, Charlie. And I certainly like you a lot more now than I did two weeks ago, but neither of those things mean it would work, you and me.”
“They don’t?” I ask, internally racing after that hope that is now starting to slip away.
“Of course not. I mean look at you. And look at me. We’re polar opposites. Not to mention the fact that I prefer fucking women and you prefer fucking men.”
I bristle with the need to correct her or berate her for putting words in my mouth but I feel it’s more important to not lose the thread of hope that is now getting thinner and thinner, and further and further out of reach.
“Forgive me for reaching for an overused tagline but have you never heard that opposites attract?”
“That’s a classic example of a trope being overused and not completely true.” She rolls her eyes.
“Do you really… prefer fucking women?” I ask, because if that is true then maybe I need to let this go.
Mina pauses and again it looks like she’s really considering the question and her answer. “It’s a credit to you that I’m not answering you immediately.”
Fantastic. So, she thinks I’m a decent fuck, I think sarcastically. How strange that this fact should be lifting me up but instead it’s dragging me down.
“Listen, this conversation is seriously killing the mood.” Mina shrugs off my grip on her wrist and continues to slide her palm into my underwear. She finds me only half-hard now but it doesn’t take long for my dick to respond to her touch as she grips and squeezes the base of me. Treacherous, disloyal penis.
“This is really the last time?” I want to verify because apparently, I’m a glutton for punishment.
“Don’t you think that will make it better?” She’s running her nose and lips along my neck while fisting me in earnest now and how I want to shove my trousers and underwear to the floor to give her hand more room.
“Better?” I ask in a croak. I’m not sure it could get better than what we did last night or this morning.
“Yeah, I promise to give you a fuck you’ll never forget.” Her teeth graze across my Adam’s apple, her hand moving even quicker.
“Wait!” I say, stepping back.
“What is it?” she says, wide-eyed.
I do my jeans up and then, as I straighten up, I hold out my hand to Mina.
“Charlie, what are you doing?”
“Asking you to dance?”
