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He chuckles. “Is that all?”
“It seemed pretty important at the time.” I lean against the sink and stare at my reflection in the mirror. Not only do I feel different after taking this step with Cal, I looked different. My lips are swollen from his constant kissing and biting, my cheeks are slightly redder from his beard and my eyes are shining with excitement. I look like a woman in love. I look happy.
He doesn’t say anything at first but then he clears his throat. “For the first full hour I was here, I couldn’t get this morning out of my head. I’ve been actively trying not to think about you ever since.”
This morning I woke Cal up with my mouth on his cock, the sounds of my gagging pulling him out of the last few moments of sleep.
“We can have a repeat of that later,” I whisper. My voice is low and it’s my best attempt at being seductive.
“Fuck. You’re going to unman me, woman.” I can hear the smile in his voice. “I have to go though.”
“Okay. I’ll see you later.”
“I love you too.” He tells me just before the phone goes dead. I press my phone to my heart, those four words making me forget all about the thirsty redhead probably probing Aria for information on Cal. When I make it back to the table she’s gone and Aria is shaking her head at me.
“You’ve got to cut that shit out, Mads,” she snaps.
“What?”
“It’s like you can’t handle any woman having an interest in Cal. It’s selfish as hell, and frankly, you’re getting too old for it.” My eyes widen, not prepared for her to basically attack me as soon as I sit down. “Penelope is too scared to even mention Cal’s name because she thinks you’ll like manifest and murder her. You’re not his girlfriend, Maddie. Stop.” She pins me with a glare and I clear my throat nervously.
I’m not prepared to tell her the truth, which means I have to go to the opposite end of the spectrum. I swallow my pride and prepare myself. “You’re being really ridiculous, Aria. Your slutty friends are embarrassing and frankly, they make me uncomfortable.” I twirl a finger around a lock of my hair as I prepare to imitate Ashley. “We’re more than friends if you know what I mean…” I make a face and shake my head. “Ick.”
She puts a hand up. “I agree that was a little tasteless, but Penelope did nothing wrong. She was polite and sweet and you jumped all over her and therefore, Cal couldn’t be interested.”
“Cal wasn’t interested and you were trying to force it by bringing her to a family dinner.”
“You don’t know everything, Maddie.”
“Neither do you!”
She rubs her temples and closes her eyes. “Jesus Christ, I thought you’d grow out of this, but it’s getting worse, I swear.”
My eyebrows furrow and I narrow my eyes. “Grow out of what?”
“This crush you have on Cal.”
End this conversation, now. “Excuse me?”
“You think I don’t notice? That none of us notice?”
My blood runs cold. Fuck, did Henry say something? “None of us?”
“Me, Margie, Henry, Grant? We were all seventeen once too, you know. And we have seen a few things…” She points at me with her fork and I feel my hands starting to sweat under the table. I rub them on my jeans as a tremor shoots through me.
“So, what you all just sit around talking about me?”
“No, Madeline. We all think it’s harmless and that you’ll grow out of it. I mean obviously…”
“That’s really ridiculous, Aria. I don’t have a crush on Cal.” Because I’m full blown in love with him.
She blinks her eyes several times at me. “Well, whatever this weird claim you think you have on him needs to stop so that Cal can feel free to meet someone and be happy. You’re going off to college and—”
“Who said I’m going anywhere?”
“What? Maddie, you’re going away to school. You need the college experience, and schools are basically beating down the door to get to you. You’ve gotten early acceptance into how many schools? Not many of which are in Oregon.”
“I’ve gotten into some local schools.”
