SARIAH: I have a confession to make. I really like you. It’s scary and I’m afraid of getting hurt again and the timing isn’t the greatest but…yeah. I like you. And I’m ready for us to meet.
Chapter Seventeen
Sariah
* * *
It had been more than forty-eight hours since I’d texted Rob and told him I wanted to meet, and I hadn’t heard a word. Not a text, phone call, smoke signal, or anything else. Just the worst kind of incredibly loud silence. It kind of hurt, but at the same time, it was a relief to know it wasn’t going to happen. He probably was probably some forty-year-old dude in his mom’s basement after all, and Mo and I would be laughing about it in a few weeks. Or whenever the sting of betrayal eased up. Right now, it felt shitty to have been used even though, technically, he hadn’t used me for anything but conversation and friendship.
I kept trying to give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he was traveling. Busy in work meetings. Dealing with the situation with his dad. But all of those things had been happening the entire time we’d been talking, and he’d never gone this long without responding to a text. Especially such an important one.
“Girl, who kicked your puppy?” Mo asked, perching on the edge of my desk.
“Huh?” I looked up, realizing I’d been lost in thought.
“You’ve been in a funk since yesterday. What’s wrong with you?”
“Nothing. Just stressed about the move and all that.”
“I’m sorry this is happening at the beginning of the playoffs and I’m going to be too busy to help for a bit,” she said, giving me a sad look.
“Oh, don’t worry about it. My brother-in-law and my younger sister’s fiancé have been roped into helping, along with my younger sister. My parents never volunteer but I know damn well Mom is going to insist on unpacking the kitchen and Dad will make a big deal out of setting up my flat-screen TV and stuff. And honestly, as long as my bed, the bathroom, and at least part of the kitchen are set up, everything else can wait. I can do it in the off-season when I’m not working as hard.”
“Well, a whole bunch of us are going out tonight and I think you need to come.”
I hesitated. “I still have so much to do, Mo.”
“I know, but you’ve been working like a maniac since you started here and you almost never do anything fun. I say we let our hair down for one night. I think both of us deserve it.”
“Let our hair down how?” I asked suspiciously.
She shrugged playfully. “I dunno. Shake our booties. Find a couple of cuties to hook up with. A good orgasm is the best way I know to relax.”
I laughed. “I can do that on my own. My buddy BOB takes excellent care of me.”
“BOB can’t go down on you,” she murmured. “Or kiss you. Or make your knees weak.”
“Those aren’t the same as orgasms,” I murmured, realizing how long it had been since anyone had done any of those things to me. My sex life with Theo had been a little bland, but up until I figured out he was cheating, there had been intimacy. Cuddling. Kissing. Human contact. I’d never been the type to sleep around, but a one-night stand sounded good right about now.
I was sad and disappointed that Rob had ghosted me, so maybe a casual hookup was just what the doctor ordered. Anything to keep my mind off of him and to keep me from drooling over Nash. I had a history with guys like him. When I’d been doing pageants and modeling, I was surrounded by all the beautiful people and a huge majority had been self-absorbed, petty, and two-faced. The ones I’d dated had been absolute nightmares and I’d vowed to never, ever date someone like that again.
So while on the outside Nash appeared to be everything I didn’t want in a man, he was breathtaking to look at and had shown me nothing but kindness since we’d met. The fact that we were friends made it even harder to ignore the growing attraction between us. My brain kept saying I wasn’t interested, but now that Rob was probably out of the picture, my body had other ideas.
“You just had the most wicked gleam in your eyes,” Mo said, watching me intently.
“Oooh.” Nash seemed to appear out of nowhere, making me jump as he leaned against the other corner of my desk. “What wicked thoughts are we having?”
“I’m trying to get Miss Works Too Much to go out with us tonight.”
Us?!
She hadn’t said a word about Nash joining us.
“No one should work too much,” Nash said. “So you definitely should come out with us. This is probably our last hurrah until the season is over. Coach is going to keep us on a short leash going forward.”