Page 67 of Against The Boards

He went to say something, but his phone buzzed against the bedside table. I had vaguely heard my phone earlier when I had dropped it on the floor before Benny took my clothes off again.

We tried to ignore it, but the buzzing wouldn’t stop. I sighed and got off him.

Benny scowled as he scrolled through his phone.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Nothing. Noah was asking how you are because you won’t answer your phone.”

“Oh. He’s trying to be a good friend, and I’m ignoring him.”

“We can’t tell him,” Benny said.

I nodded in agreement. “I know. I love Noah, but he’ll tell my brother. He’ll feel like he has to.”

I chewed on my bottom lip and got out of bed. I pulled on my clothes and paused for a moment before I pulled on Benny’s Bulldogs sweatshirt again. It still smelled of him, and I had to admit I loved that. Wearing it made me feel like I was wrapped up in his arms. I shouldn’t feel that way about him; I was supposed to hate him. If anything, this was supposed to be a summer fling, but my emotions were already getting the better of me. I should have been concerned by how fast they had come on, but I was still too drunk on orgasms to think about it.

“Where are you going?” he asked as he sat up in bed.

I picked up my phone where it had fallen under the bed and scanned all the texts from Noah. He was just asking me if I was okay after seeing my ex-girlfriend. Noah Kennedy was the epitome of niceness, even if he was being a cockblock. I felt like a dick for ignoring him.

“Noah wants to know if we want to watch the game,” I said.

Benny nodded and got dressed while I walked out into the living room just in time to hear the knock on the door. I wasn’t surprised when I opened it to find Noah and Dinah at the door. Dinah was holding a casserole dish, and I knew her well enough to know it came from one of her brothers. Probably Frankie; he was the one who owned a pizza shop and usually mother henned her.

“Hey, my brother gave me extra lasagna. Did you eat?” she asked.

I wanted to laugh at that. Dinah complained about her Italian family with all their ‘hey, did you eat yet?’ BS, but she did the same thing and didn’t realize it.

I let them in and shook my head. “Not yet. It was a long drive back today.”

“You haven’t killed each other yet?” Noah asked as he took off his shoes and slumped on the couch.

“Nah!” Benny said as he walked into the room, now clothed. “I think feeding her helped.”

Dinah barked out a laugh, and I helped her find plates to dole out the food.

“Thanks for bringing this, D,” I said to her.

She nodded and stared at my face for a little too long. “Sure. I figured you’d both be exhausted after the drive.”

I nodded.

We were exhausted, but not for the reason she was implying. It was because we couldn’t stop fucking, no matter how much we tried. Okay, we didn’t try to stop at all. We didn’t want to.

“How are you?” she asked.

I spied Noah and Benny on the couch with eyes fixed on the hockey game on the TV. I imagined they were having a completely different conversation. I felt like I was being interrogated by Dinah. The tiny woman could be scary sometimes. I had to remind myself to school my features so my friends couldn’t tell that Benny’s cock had been down my throat earlier.

“Good,” I said.

She squeezed my arm. “Sorry. I would have gone with you.”

I shook my head. “You weren’t back from Winnipeg yet.”

“Still, I would have gone with you for moral support.”

“It’s okay. Benny went with me, and he scared her off.”