“You need to let that go.” I laughed and headed for the door. “It was definitely fifth.”
I couldn’t make the shower water hot enough. I needed it to tear at my skin harder, faster. Regardless of what I’d said to Arizona at her place, it was going to take a hell of a lot for me to forget last night for a number of reasons: One, it was hands down the best sex I’d ever had in my life. Two: Her soft pleas and moans were still playing through my mind on repeat. And three: I’d actually felt something while we were looking into each other’s eyes at one point, something that had never happened to me during sex before.
Shit…
Frustrated by the water, I turned it off and stepped out of the shower. I wrapped a towel around my waist and walked into my kitchen.
“Long night?” Josh set his newspaper down and looked up at me.
“Not really. Just stayed over at Ari’s.”
“Let me guess, she made you watch another one of those boring ass cooking shows and ‘allowed’ you to sleep on her couch?”
“Pretty much.”
“Ridiculous.” He stood up and followed me over to the fridge. “I need you to explain something important to me.”
“I thought you’d never ask,” I said. “It’s very true what your last ex-girlfriend said: You really can’t dress for shit.”
“Forget you, man.” He laughed. “I want to know how you continue to do it.”
“How I continue to do what?”
“How are you still ‘just friends’ with a girl?”
“Do you realize that you and I have this same exact conversation every six months?”
“I know, and I’m not knocking you and Arizona. I know you two are strictly platonic, I’m just wondering about this in general. Like, how do you never consider crossing the line?” He leaned back against the counter. “I’m only asking because since we’ll both be going to law school in the fall, and I think that’s what I need to pick up—a girl who’s just a friend.”
“They don’t sell friends in stores…”
“Come on, tell me. How do you do it?”
A memory from last night, one of Ari whispering my name as she came against my mouth suddenly crossed my mind. “You just go in having that in mind, and you should probably learn how to be a friend to her, too. Don’t make things sexual like you tend to do.”
“Right…Well, what if the girl looks like Ari, though? How does someone like me, someone with balls—unlike you, not act upon that?”
Ari’s face post-orgasm crossed my mind again. “You just…Don’t. I guess.”
“Okay, okay, okay.” He tapped the counter. “You. Me. The Bakery Bar. Tonight. Instead of a one night stand, we’re going to find me a platonic friend. The uglier, the better.”
“I’m honestly ashamed to call you my friend sometimes.”
“The feeling is mutual, buddy.” He grabbed a bottle of water and returned to the couch.
When I was sure he was deeply engrossed in his reading again, I poured myself an early shot of vodka and tossed it back. I was definitely going to need to be buzzed to keep my mind off Ari’s lips for the next few hours…
Or days.
Or…shit.
Again…
Track 13. The Last Time (4:56)
The sex was a mistake…Just a one-time mistake…
I repeated those words all morning long until I halfway believed them, until I made my way into the class I was currently stealing: Pastry Design.
I took an apron off the rack and found a seat in the back, waiting to see if there would be a no-show today so I would have a station to use, but to my surprise, there was one with my name on it.
In utter disbelief, I slowly stepped forward—running my fingers across the lettering to make sure it was real. Then I noticed that there was a note next to my name, so I opened it and read:
How ironic is it that the best person in the class isn’t really in the class at all?
This is only for the summer…
—Chef Brandt
PS—I want to talk to you about some other culinary programs that may be good for your future career…
I looked up and saw him nodding at me from the front of the room, a quick sign of approval.
Grateful, I took today’s assignment card out of the pocket, hoping it would be something intricate enough to keep my mind off of Carter.
Today’s assignment:
You are to make a soufflé using only the ingredients in your fridge.
Today’s theme is “Unrelenting Passion: Just One Night.”
I dropped the card to the ground.
Hours later, after my “professor” made me fill out a few applications for four of the top culinary programs in the world, I found myself walking along the shore barefoot—letting the warm winds knock at me left and right.
No matter how badly I’d tried to think about something else today, anything else, Carter’s rough touches, kisses, and caresses kept coming to mind. I guessed the dirty sex part about him was true, but a part of me couldn’t help but want to believe that last night was about a little something more than just sex.
No, stop it…Just sex…Just friends…