“Yeah?” I say slowly, wondering where this is going.
“I kinda did and we’ve been hanging out quite a bit now and well, I know you two used to have a thing and if you’re weird about it, I’ll totally stop hanging out with him.” There’s another short pause before I hear her suck in a breath through her teeth and just before I can tell her to spit it out, the words come out in a rushed, panicked whisper. “But you should know that I kinda slept with him last night.”
My eyes bug out of my head as I throw myself to my feet. “FUCK, YEAH! Are you guys together now? Tell me you’re a thing?”
“What?” she breathes, her tone a million times lighter as though telling me that news caused the weight of the world to fall from her shoulders. “You’re not upset or anything?”
“No. God, no. Why would I be upset? Charlie is an amazing guy and yeah, he kinda hates me right now but I still consider him one of my best friends and if he really likes you and you feel the same, then I have nothing but love for you two together. I have Colton now and he’s … well, he’s everything I could ever want—”
“Are you in love with him?”
“I, uhh … umm …”
Shit.
“Oh, god,” she laughs. “You totally are. You’re in love with Mr. Money Bags.”
“Shut up,” I tell her. “I am not, I’m just … fuck. Okay, maybe I am. I haven’t really had a chance to sit down and define it yet.”
A loud, booming belly laugh tears out of her and I have to pull the phone away from my ear to avoid her laughter bursting my eardrum. “Girl, there’s no defining it. You either feel it or you don’t and I can tell by the way you look at him that you totally feel it, and the same goes for him. Colton Carrington is head over heels for you, Ocean.”
“How did this go from finding out how the hell you ended up with Charlie between your legs to my love life?”
“I … I really don’t know actually,” she says with a soft, breathy laugh. “We were just hanging out and then one thing led to another and before I knew it, I had my ass up in the air and he was giving it to me harder than anyone’s ever done before. It was …”
“Yeah,” I laugh. “Trust me, I know how good it was. Charlie has a certain set of skills that can make even the toughest criminal blush.”
“Right?” she breathes, the smile in her tone infectious.
“So, what’s the deal then? Are you two getting together or are you still figuring it out?”
“I don’t actually know,” she tells me. “I think we’re something but we could also be nothing. It’s complicated. It’s that weird in-between stage … I think. The last I heard he was still crushing on you pretty hard.”
“Nah, that was ages ago. He’s over that. I’ve not been getting those creepy ‘I want to see you naked again’ vibes from him anymore. He knows that me and Colton are solid and he wouldn’t stand in the way of that.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, of course. Look, Charlie is a lot of things but he’s no liar. Go and talk to him and he’ll be straight up with you and I can guarantee that he’ll tell you exactly what you’re wanting to know. What’s not to love about you, Drix? You’re freaking awesome.”
“So, what? Just go over there and ask him and be like ‘Hey, I know we fucked and all, but do you want to do it again exclusively?’”
“Umm … yeah? What have you got to lose?”
“Yeah, but what if—hold on,” she says, cutting off what she was about to say. “Someone’s at the door.”
I wait patiently as she goes to check who’s knocking on her door when her voice comes grumbling through the phone. “Well, well, speak of the devil and he shall appear.”
“Wait,” I say, listening intently. “Is that Charlie? Did he come to claim your ass?”
“Who are you talking to?” I hear softly, but the low, rumbly flirty tone of Charlie’s is unmistakable.
Drix’s guilty laugh comes through the phone. “I, uhh … got to go.”
“He’s so into you,” I boom. “Nail that bastard down and remember, once you’ve licked him, that means he’s yours.”
“You’re fucking gross, and for the record, I more than licked him.”
“Look who’s gross now,” I laugh. “Enjoy your fuck fest.”
I end the call and instead of climbing back into bed like a good little girl, I slip my phone into my back pocket and break out of the pool house.
I get halfway to the back door of the mansion when I find Colton walking out with what looks like an envelope in his hand. “Oh, hey,” he says, not having expected to find me out here. “Is your mom gone?”