***
I walked inside my room and sat on the bed, waiting. I was hoping that Sally would come and find me in the bedroom as soon as she got back so that she could tell me what the hell was going on. I had a feeling Cody would bring Troy up and the fact that he’d arrived already. I knew she was most probably feeling bad that she’d caught me unawares. I was feeling pretty pissed off, but I knew I’d forgive her. I just had to figure out exactly what was going on first. Sally wasn’t a malicious person and I knew that, under other circumstances, I might have quite enjoyed the fact that she was trying to help me out. Only these circumstances were not the best. Imagine if my fake boyfriend ran off with my nemesis? Ugh, how embarrassing would that be?
I could hear the sounds of laughing from outside the room: deep male laughter, and Barbie’s high-pitched squeaking. I wondered if it was Troy or TJ who was amusing her. I felt irritated at the possibility of both. I felt that they were both betraying me in some way that was completely obvious to me, but would have been hard to explain to anyone else. I lay back on the bed and grabbed my phone and texted Sally.
What’s the deal with Troy? Why didn’t you tell me? I hit send quickly and waited for Sally to respond. I saw the initial dots showing that she was typing and stared at the screen, waiting for her answer. But then the dots disappeared and no response came and I started feeling annoyed. Why wasn’t she responding? Ugh! I just wanted to know exactly what she’d told Troy. What was his plan? I turned my phone to my Kindle and opened it, to try and distract myself from my annoyance. I opened it to the book I was currently reading, a romantic suspense called Sloth by Ella James. It was a real page turner, so I knew it would keep my mind occupied while I waited for Sally to return.
A bang on the door about an hour later woke me up and I realized that I’d fallen asleep.
“Sally, come in,” I said groggily as I sat up. I hated having afternoon naps because they always made me feel even more tired than I might have been before.
“It’s TJ,” he said as he opened the door, and I could see his eyes flying to me in the bed as I stretched my arms. “Late night?” He winked at me.
“Haha,” I said and rolled my eyes at him. “You were with me when I went to bed, so obviously you know it wasn’t that late.”
“I wasn’t quite with you.” He licked his lips as he walked towards me. “If I’d been with you, it would have been a much later night. And you would have been a lot more tired.” He paused for a few seconds and then continued. “From all the working out.”
“Really?” You like to play charades at night?” I said, deliberately misunderstanding him. “I know you have to move your arms around a lot, but I don’t consider that a workout.”
“That’s not the sort of workout I was talking about,” he said as he sat on the bed next to me. “I was talking about the sort of workout that had you on top of me, bouncing—”
“TJ Walker,” I almost screamed as my face went a bright red. “What the hell do you think you’re saying? You’re so inappropriate.”
“I was going to say that you were on top of me, bouncing around as we wrestled on the floor, like we used to do when we were younger.”
“We have wrestled twice in our lives.” I shook my head, my face still red as I remembered the last time we’d wrestled. It had been all innocent at first as we’d rolled around on the floor, and then he’d pinned my arms up above my head and straddled my waist. Everything had been innocent enough until I’d started wiggling around on the floor against him and then I’d felt something hard against my belly. We’d both frozen for a second and his legs had clenched around me, pushing his hardness against me for a few seconds too long. I had stared up at him, not understanding the funny feelings that had been passing through me and I’d grabbed his back and pulled him closer to me. That had seemed to frighten him and then he had jumped up off of me and pulled me off of the ground roughly, keeping me at arm’s length.
“I know. That’s a pity, isn’t it?” he said, his voice almost purring at me. “I’d love to have you pinned down right now, begging me for your release.”
“Begging you for my release?” I laughed. “I could get away from you quite easily.” I scoffed at him. “You’re not that strong.” I looked at his muscles and tried not to imagine how easily he could keep me on the ground.
“That wasn’t the sort of release I was talking about,” he said softly, running a finger down my cheek and brushing my lips.
“Oh,” I gasped as I connected the dots.
“Though I suppose your new man is doing that job now.”