Tara sighed. “Fine,” she said. “But only because you’re making me feel like I’m doing something totally fucked up—which I’m not.”
“You kind of are, a little.”
She tapped the screen a few more times and then looked at me, her eyes hidden behind her big sunglasses. “There,” she said. “I deleted them. But I can still hope that Michael saw them before I took them down.”
“You are crazy.” I laughed. “So, I have something to tell you, too. You are never going to believe who called me this morning.”
“Oooh,” she said. “I love games like this. Except ... I have no clue. Who called you?”
“Remember that guy from the party? Parker?”
Her eyes widened. “He called you?”
“Yeah.”
“What did he want?”
“He wanted to hang out. I guess my mother gave him my phone number. You know how she’s always trying to set me up on dates? Well, she’s taken it to the next level this summer; it’s like it’s her main objective or something. Anyway, she might’ve even given him my number at the party.”
“Wow! So, he actually called? How’d it go, what’d he say?”
“It was a pretty short conversation, actually. He basically asked me if I would ever be interested in hanging out.”
“That’s a start! What are you guys going to do?”
“Nothing. I told him I didn’t think I’d be able to hang out.”
“Wait a second,” Tara said. “You’re telling me that Parker called you and you turned him down? Are you out of your mind? Do you know how many girls would fucking kill to have the chance to go out with him? And you turned him down.”
I bit my lip. I should not have kept this thing with Graham a secret from Tara, but there was a good chance that once Tara knew, the rest of the world would know, too. She wasn’t into keeping things like that a secret.
“Maybe I’m just not interested,” I said. “You’re acting like he’s the world’s most perfect guy or something.”
“Duh! Because he basically is. I mean, you’ve seen how hot he is. He’s hotter than Graham. Well, he’s hot in a different way.” Tara looked at me closely. “Chloe!’ she exclaimed. “I think I know what’s going on here! You like Graham, don’t you? I knew you did after that day we went to the beach!”
My face had started to flush, which would be as much of an answer as if I’d just come out and said yes.
“Okay, fine.” I looked around even though I knew no one was within earshot. “But listen: you have got to promise me that you’re not going to say anything, okay?”
She nodded solemnly. “I promise.”
I hoped I could believe her. “We actually ... I slept with him.”
Tara’s eyes got so wide I thought they were going to fall out of her head. “You did what? Why am I just hearing about this now? You were going to keep this a secret from me?!”
“No, I was going to tell you, it’s just ... I don’t know.” I shrugged. “It just seemed like it might better to keep quiet about it. I don’t want my parents to know. If they find out I’m seeing the guy who gave me the tattoo, they’re going to flip out. They’ll be beyond pissed.”
“You’re right, they probably will. But who cares about that! You slept with him! That is so awesome! How was it?”
I couldn’t help the grin that spread across my face at just the mention of it. “Pretty awesome. He was so sweet!” And because she was Tara and would want to know, and because part of me had been wanting to talk to someone about it, I filled her in with some—but not all—the details.
“Well, listen,” Tara said when I’d finished talking. “I think that’s great you had such a good experience. I told you he’d be good in bed, right? I’ve got a sixth sense about these things. But anyway, I really think you should at least take Parker up on his offer. He wants to hang out with you. That’s awesome. And it’s not like you have to do anything with him—you can just hang out and see how it goes.”
“I’d feel weird about that, though,” I said. “I want to hang out with Graham.”
“It’s not like you two are going out. You’re allowed to hang out with more than one guy. Don’t think for a second that if a hot girl walked in to get a tattoo and then asked him he wanted to hang out, he’d turn her down. Guys only do that if they’re in like, committed relationships. Even then, some guys don’t.”
“I just think it would be a little weird to go from being the girl who wasn’t dating anyone to the girl who’s now hanging out with two different guys.”