Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 72362 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 362(@200wpm)___ 289(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72362 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 362(@200wpm)___ 289(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
“Did you seriously just give me break-up oral sex?”
He shrugs.
“You knew you wanted to bring an end to our agreement and yet you initiated intimacy with me anyway,” I say. “Doesn’t that seem sort of sketchy to you?”
“There’s no need for us to keep pretending we’re together and we agreed we were only hooking up temporarily, right?” he asks. “But I just…I wanted to thank you for today.”
“And oral sex says it better than a gift card, apparently.” My laughter is wholly lacking in humor. “Wow, Connor. You know, some people might be upset by that sort of thing. You springing this on me a full minute after making me come. But it’s okay. I see what you were trying to do.”
His smile is full of relief. The idiot.
I smooth down my dress. “You’re not concerned that if we breakup right now, people will think it’s because of that kiss? That you saw Ava moving on and this is just some last-ditch effort to get her back?”
“No,” he says. And that’s all he says.
“Do you want to maybe elaborate on that answer?”
Another shrug. No wonder he wouldn’t look at me earlier. There’s a lot going on in his eyes. So many emotions. He stands on the other side of the room to me with his arms crossed and his face set. To think, he was eating me like I was his last meal a moment ago. Now he can’t put enough distance between us.
“We could, ah, say we fought about something?” he suggests, pushing his hair back from his beautiful face.
“I don’t know if that would be believable. We’ve fought about several things and managed to work it out like adults.”
He frowns. “Well, if we’re fighting all the time, maybe we shouldn’t be together.”
“But we don’t fight all the time, do we?”
“You know what I mean.”
I don’t, but whatever. Time to stand tall and take the pain. It’s partially my own fault for getting carried away. For thinking his smiles and his honesty and the way he held me meant something. His acting skills have come a long way since we started. The man had me convinced today.
“Though this is all beside the point and you mean theoretically, of course,” I say. “Because we were never really together, right?”
“Right. It wasn’t real.”
“No.” I paste on a smile. “It’s not like us hooking up meant anything either.”
“Last night was great. But it was just a bit of fun, Blue.”
“So much fun. Probably best if you stop calling me that,” I say in my best calm tone. “We need to indicate to people that we’re no longer as close and trusting of each other as we once were.”
“Sure.” His brows descend. “That makes sense.”
“Now the agreement was that we would separate in a polite and civilized fashion. But given how into each other we were pretending to be just five minutes ago, we’re going to need a story to sell the separation. We want something believable, but nothing too harmful in the long term to either of us, reputation wise or whatever.”
“Sounds good.”
“I think we should say that you had an attack of the nerves and broke it off. That you weren’t ready for another relationship and were scared by how good we were together and wanted some space. How does that sound to you?”
“I don’t know…”
“There’s nothing wrong with needing time for yourself. Wanting to work out just what it is you’re looking for.”
“Yeah, but—”
“You don’t want to make me look bad, right?”
“No.” He grabs the back of his neck. “Of course not. Are you angry at me?”
“Why would I be angry?” I ask. “We both knew going into this situation that things could get complicated. Best for you to run away now and we can go back to being friends sometime in the distant future when things have settled down.”
“Run away?”
“Walk. Of course, I meant walk.” I fetch my cell and start typing. “Alrighty then…”
“What are you doing?” he asks. And I am not imagining the worry in his voice.
“Texting Ana Rosa. We met at the cook-off today. I think it would be best if we sent out an official sort of message and got ahead of any gossip and speculation. And she knows everyone and talks to everyone so sending the news out through her seems sensible.”
His mouth opens, but nothing comes out. Not a single word.
“How does this sound? So great to meet you today. You asked about dinner with Connor and me next week. But he decided he’s not ready for a relationship so we broke up.” I exhale. “And it’s sent. That’s done. Thank goodness it’s over, right?”
He grunts.
My cell chimes and oof. Ana Rosa doesn’t mess around. A string of messages soon appear on screen. Connor’s cell starts beeping a moment later. His forehead fills with furrows as his texts spiral out of control.