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The hot shower did help, although the ache in her neck still didn’t entirely go away. She rubbed some Tiger Balm onto it. More things to remind her of Patrick, yay. He’d recommended the pungent stuff, which she rarely used. Liam sold it out of his dojo, because it was really good for sore muscles. It also smelled awful, but she put up with it when she was really aching.
All the thinking about aching made her realize her nipples no longer were. They were basically back to normal, until she pinched them, and even then she only felt the remnants of their former soreness. Which, stupid enough, made her feel sad all over again.
Because she was already feeling sad now, she figured she might as well check her phone. One text message received while she was in the shower, but not from Patrick, of course. From Leigh.
The contents of the message made her forget her own drama.
I had sex last night.
Letting out a shriek, Lexie danced back and forth as she quickly hit the little green call icon. Fortunately the phone only rang twice before Leigh picked up.
“What do you mean you had sex last night?! You can’t just leave it at that! I need details, girl, details! With who? Oh my god, please don’t tell me Michael - either of them.”
On the other end of the line, Leigh was laughing her ass off, which made Lexie start giggling. It felt really good to giggle and feel happy excitement over something.
“No, not Michael or Mike,” Leigh said. She sounded happy but also a little anxious. “It was one of Mike’s friends. Just a one night stand thing... not even one night. One hour, maybe.”
“So, no walk of shame? Or did you take him home and then kick him out?”
“Well... there was a walk of shame back into the party.” Leigh coughed. “I ah... might have hooked up with him in Mike’s bed.”
“Oh my god...” Lexie cracked up at Leigh’s slightly embarrassed confession, which was also tinged with a kind of pride. It was so not the kind of thing she would have expected from Leigh. “What happened?! Tell me everything.”
“Well, Angel and I got to the party and I met Brian, his name was Brian by the way, and we were just chatting and he was flirting. It just felt good, you know? I mean, he was flirting with all the girls, he didn’t really single me out, but I started flirting back, and then he started focusing on me. I got pretty drunk, and then he pulled me back into Mike’s room and started kissing me. I pulled away and went back out to the main party, and I thought he’d stop being interested in me, but he just kept flirting and everything. It was nice, you know, having him pay that much attention to me. He was cute. Kind of alpha. Not, like, forceful, you know. He was totally okay with it when I pulled away, but he was really authoritative. Not barking out orders like the Doms, but bossy in a more vanilla way.”
“Yeah, I get ya,” Lexie said, hoping Leigh would stop explaining and get going with the rest of the story. She understood what Leigh was trying to say, there were plenty of confident, alpha-type guys who weren’t into kink. Hell, her brother Jake was one of them. Hmm... maybe when Jake got back she should introduce him to Leigh. That was a thought to hold on to. Well, maybe not right away. Leigh was definitely still rebounding, hardcore, if she was doing one night stands.
“So yeah. We started kissing again, in the corner, and it was getting pretty hot, and then he pulled me back into Mike’s room again... and well, this time we didn’t leave.”
“Was it good?”
Leigh giggled. “Yeah, I mean... I came. It was... different, you know? I’ve never had sex with anyone but Michael and, you know, there wasn’t any emotion involved, but it was nice. Good. Whatever.”
“So enthusiastic,” Lexie teased, rolling her eyes. Hopefully this would help Leigh realize Michael wasn’t the end all, be all. The fact that she was even willing to hook up with another guy, when (according to Angel) she never had any of the other times she and Michael had broken up, spoke volumes.
“Well, I mean, I think part of me was just curious. I was drunk, but I was thinking perfectly clearly. I can remember every single one of my thoughts. Like, I actually debated with myself if I was going to go through with it while we were kissing.”
“What was the deciding factor?” Lexie asked, curious herself now. “Just the curiosity, or something else?”
It took Leigh a moment to answer, and when she did, her voice was hesitant. “Well... every time Michael and I have broken up, it’s been about him wanting to date someone else. Even this time, I found out yesterday there’s a woman he met whom he wants to try to date. We talked about it and, yeah, I was pissed at him, but I didn’t have sex with Brian for revenge. It was more like... I feel like Michael always chooses his pride over me. I’ve always wondered, if I dated someone else, if I had sex with someone else, would he get back together with me even if he didn’t get the chance to have sex with someone else? That’s always been one of his biggest hold-ups, I feel like, the fact that all his friends have had sex with more than one woman and he hasn’t. The past times we’ve been on breaks… I’ve had the opportunity, but I never pursued it. I guess I was trying to show him what a good girlfriend I still was, how faithful I was.” Her voice was wistful, and then it hardened.
“I sometimes wonder if I would have kept that up if he’d actually managed to get together with someone else. Anyway. Then I met Brian last night, and yeah, I could tell he was a player, but he was also definitely interested in me. Even after we had sex, he wasn’t paying attention to any of the other women at the party, and he just hung out with me all night. It felt good, but I also wanted to know if Michael would get back together with me if he knew I’d been with someone else.”
“Wait... wait... hold up. Michael wants to get back together with you? And you’re going to tell him you had sex with someone else?” Lexie felt like she was very, very behind on the gossip. Obviously Leigh had been keeping a lot of things close to her chest. Probably because she knew her friends wouldn’t approve.
Not that Lexie disapproved of Leigh having a one-nighter. The girl needed to get a little wild. She’d been in the same relationship for six years and had no experience outside of it. But she definitely wouldn’t support Leigh getting back together with Michael. It wasn’t her decision to make, but she’d be skeptical about it, so she couldn’t blame Leigh for not wanting to share.
“He hasn’t said that, exactly, but he’s been kind of hinting at it,” Leigh said, laughing a little ruefully. “Maybe not so much now though. I already told him about last night. He ah... didn’t take it so well. He was pretty pissed.”
“Wow...” Lexie tried to find the right words to say. This was not at all a conversation she could have ever expected to have with Leigh this morning. “Okay... so, are you okay? You don’t sound too upset.”
“I mean, I was kind of expecting it,” Leigh said with a sigh. “That was part of why I did it after all. I definitely don’t regret it.”
“Did you get Brian’s number?”
“No. I’m so not in the right place to start dating another guy. Part of me is still hoping Michael gets over himself and realizes I’m the best thing that ever happened to him, even if I have had sex with someone else and he never has. If he did that, and came back without having been with someone else, then I’d know he really does love me, because he’d finally be choosing me over his pride.”
To Lexie it sounded like Leigh wanted Michael to prove his love to her, before he talked her into getting back together, but she could understand that. With the way Michael treated her, it was no wonder she needed the reassurance. Hell, Lexie was kind of trying to do the same thing with Patrick. Not that Patrick had ever treated her as badly as Michael had treated Leigh... but she wasn’t going to make Patrick jump through the same kind of hoops either. Good for Leigh for finally making Michael do so.
