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“Nothing,” I said, pretending to look at the dress in the mirror, I had already decided that the canary yellow disaster looked like a cheap prom dress, but I needed something to keep me from looking at Anna while I figured out how to spin what she’d likely already figured out.
“Hales…” she said slowly. “What did you do?”
I unzipped the dress and tossed it with the no pile, not meeting Anna’s eyes.
“I, uh… I may have kissed James,” I said.
“You kissed him?” she asked, sounding unconvinced.
“Yeah. One night before putting the kids to bed,” I told her.
“And that’s all?” she asked, her eyebrow going up again.
“Well… then he kissed me,” I said, my fingers twisting in the fabric of the dress I’d just put on, which I needed her help zipping, but she was too enthralled by the conversation.
“Andthat’sall?” she repeated.
“And then… we hooked up and we slept together and then later that week we made out again,” I said quickly, like ripping off a Band-Aid, trying to get the words out so that they would maybe hit Anna less hard. Like she wouldn’t pick up on the “hooked up” and “slept together” part if I followed it up that quickly with the part about making out, though I knew that was wishful thinking.
“You what?” she squealed. “Oh, my God, Hales. I want all the details. Now. Please, girl.” She actually got on her knees on the bench in the room and put her hands together to beg me.
“Okay, okay,” I said, relenting with an anxious grin, my heart hammering against my ribs at the prospect of admitting this to another person, even my best friend who would likely understand better than anyone. “Well, you remember that party you and Kevin came to?”
“Oh, my God,” she gasped. You two fucked that night? You were still with Max!”
Her voice was much louder than I’m sure she intended, and it likely carried out of the stall and down the hall.
“Can you keep it down?” I hissed. “No, we didn’t fuck that night.”
“So that was when you kissed?” she asked.
“No! Will you let me finish?”
“Sorry, sorry,” she said quickly with an eager expression on her face. “I’m listening.”
“Okay,” I said, taking a deep breath. “Well, that night, Max was supposed to come with me, but he bailed that morning. Afterwards, I found out about the Switzerland thing, but either way, he wasn’t there. After the party, me and James were bothpretty drunk, and there was this thick, potent chemistry between us.”
“Oh, my God,” Anna said wistfully, like we were in some kind of romcom.
“But obviously, I was with Max, so I didn’t do anything, but holy hell, did I want to.”
“I bet,” she said. “James is absolutely delicious.”
“You have no idea,” I said, finally starting to get into telling the story.
“Hales, I have goosebumps. You better get to the good parts.”
“Well, the next day was when Max broke up with me to go do his new job overseas, and I was devastated,” I told her. “But James found me crying and comforted me.”
“And that’s when he kissed you?”
“Will you let me tell the story?” I asked her, and she mimed zipping her lips shut, though the scandalous smile on her face remained. “No, that’s not when he kissed me. He was just really kind. I mean, it was really awkward after I’d walked in on him masturbating after the party and saying my name, but—” Wait! You walked in on him doing what?” Anna cried out.
“If you don’t keep your voice down, I’m not going to tell you anymore.”
“Okay, okay,” she said. “But you totally didn’t mention that.”
“Sorry,” I said. “Those couple of days were so jumbled because of how upset I was that I kind of forget the order of things unless I’m really focusing on it. Yes, after the party I heard him saying my name, so I walked into his room and found him jacking off.”
