As Andrea readjusts herself, I remove the condom and drop it outside of the door. “I liked you calling me,” she says. Another sign this was a mistake.
“I know. But I won’t make a habit of it; I don’t want you getting caught. There’s a reason you haven’t left…”
I trail off because I don’t remember the douchebag’s name.
“Ronnie.”
“Yeah, ’cause you haven’t left him.”
“I would if—”
I cut her off. She knows better than to start with this and if she wants to continue what we have then she needs to stop with all of this talk about us getting together. “Andrea, you know I’m not looking for a relationship right now. I have too much baggage and some really deep shit to handle. So please stop with the insinuations about us, okay?”
She nods her head and there is a little look of crazy written all over her face.
“Take a few days and make sure you can keep your emotions out of it and if so…call me. If not, thank you for everything. You are truly an amazing girl.”
Tears gloss over her eyes and it’s definitely time to leave. Leaning over, I kiss her on the cheek and get out of her car, walking the few steps it takes to reach mine. I get in without looking back and drive off. I don’t want to seem heartless, but I can’t give Andrea what she needs, and if I was with her, it would only be to fill the void in my heart that Arion left.
My phone rings, and it’s Amanda…again. I answer through the hands-free headset. “What’s up?”
“Nathaniel Jeffrey Wilcox, you better have a damn good excuse for not calling me back today.”
I chuckle at her attempt to sound mad. “You want the truth, or should I bullshit you?”
“What the fuck do you think?”
“Calm down, you know that fake ass mean doesn’t work with me.”
“It’s not fake; I’m pissed.”
“Come on, I was just going to call you. I got busy with…well, I got busy—”
She cuts me off, “You were with that skank again, weren’t you?”
“She’s not a skank. What’s your problem with her anyways?”
“I don’t have a problem with her, it’s just…I don’t like cheaters after what I went through with Savannah.”
“I hear ya. Speaking of which, have you heard from her?” I ask getting on the freeway.
“Yeah, she’s been up my ass.”
“Have you seen her?” I ask with irritation laced in my tone.
“Hell no, but she wants to.”
“I’m sure she does. Don’t let her guilt you at all.”
“I won’t. I promise. So how was the realtor?”
I exhale thinking how to handle answering the question.
“Nate, are you there?”
“Yeah, sorry. She was good.”
“Hah,” she laughs. “That’s it? She was ‘good’?”
I think about it again. Amanda is my best friend, she’s one of the only people in this world that I trust. If I’m going to tell anyone about today, it’s her. How can I say this without sounding like a creep?
“Just tell me already.”
“Okay. Being around Elania had my dick at half-mast all day, and the thoughts that crossed my mind as we looked at houses were not…gentlemanly.”
“Meaning?”
“I wanted to fuck her every which way, in every single room of every house that we saw. She’s un-fucking-believable.”
She chokes on something and begins to cough. “I’m sorry,” she says through a strangled gasp. “Give me a minute.”
“Please don’t say something smart,” I warn her.
“I won’t. I’m just processing this and wondering why you didn’t just fuck her and instead fucked that skank.”
“I don’t know. Elania’s not that kind of girl. She deserves more, and quite frankly, if I get to fuck her, I want it to be more than once.”
“Whoa…more than once? Shit’s serious. Sounds like you’re getting over Arion, maybe?”
“I don’t know about that…but I’m excited to look at houses again tomorrow.”
“Why tomorrow? You looked today. You got it that bad?”
“Uhhh, we ran out of time. We had lunch and planned to look at a few new ones that just came on the market. But we didn’t get to them, so we’re going tomorrow.”
“Lunch? You just met her.”
“And I was starving.”
“You’re always starving. It sounds like you went on like three dates with her already today. Shit’s getting super serious!”
“Why are you being such a brat?” I ask.
“I’m not, I’m sorry, it’s just Savannah has me stressed and I’m—”
“Taking your anger out on others?”
“Haha, I’m sorry. But it really is a big deal that you’re even hesitating from having a quickie with this chick…it’s progress, Nate. I just want you to be happy.”
“Enough with the sappy shit! Now, do you want me to pick you up and we can go hit the punching bags at the gym?” I ask her.
“You can pick me up, but what if we go out and have a few drinks instead?”
“I can do that, too.”
One word Amanda said rings in my mind, “progress”…am I making progress in getting over Arion? Maybe.