Girl Crush(13)

“So, I just strolled up to your brother’s house after midnight and knocked on the door?” It hit me like a ton of bricks. I hadn’t even been nice to the guy. If anything, I’d acted just like his sister. Fuck.

She waved me off. “He doesn’t care. You got me to stop crying, and he got to stop listening.”

I yawned for the twelfth time in ten minutes. I couldn’t stay awake much longer. “You good?”

“Yeah.” She looked over at me with a gentle smile, but this one wasn’t filled with lust. Somewhere in those gorgeous, green eyes hung gratitude. “You want me to walk you down?”

I patted her on the leg. “Nah. It’s okay. I’ll let myself out. Call me tomorrow after you talk to Stella and let me know how it went. You can fix this if you want. Just give her some time.”

I closed her door behind me and softly padded down the back stairs, passed the unused bedrooms, bathrooms, office, and gym, and back to the foyer. Two steps before I reached the door, Collier stopped me.

“You going to be okay to drive home? I can take you.” Sleep deprivation wasn’t good for me. This guy actually seemed likable, which was a far cry from the asshat I’d met in the driveway.

“As much as I’d love to drive your 911, I’ll be fine.”

His laugh bounced off the walls, creating a symphony of sound. “Never gonna happen.”

“We’ll see.” My bravado shocked even me. It was way too late for arrogance, and I’d given up men. This was starting to feel more like Lent than a lifestyle. “Goodnight, Collier.”

“West.”

“Huh?” It was three in the morning, and I was confused.

“My friends call me by my last name. West.”

I bobbed my head in understanding, and he opened the door. I ducked under his arm. And, with a wiggle of my fingers over my right shoulder, I waved goodbye. He watched from the doorway and smiled when my Camaro roared to life. It wasn’t a 911, but she was still respectable.



*

My life couldn’t get any more high school. Coffee with Beck turned into coffee with Beck and a newly reunited Stella. Her girlfriend stared me down like I was the devil incarnate until she realized I wasn’t as gay as she’d originally thought…and that I hadn’t laid a finger on her lover. Beck started to feel more like a little sister, even though she was technically three months older than I was, and Stella was pretty chill once she took her knife out of my back. After two cups of espresso, I was bouncing off walls but seemed to have permission to continue hanging out with Beck. They’d agreed she would stay at Collier’s house until they were sure they’d worked out the kinks…which included Beck getting a job and holding onto it for ninety days. I wondered if she had run that plan by Collier before agreeing to it or just assumed he’d be down for her becoming a permanent fixture in his home.

I put the top down on the convertible and dialed my bestie, whose other half answered the phone. Jesus, today was not my day. “Giselle.”

“Hey, Trish. Can Veronica come to the phone?” I shouldn’t have messed with her. I knew better. But I’d had my fill of overprotective women. I wasn’t interested in fucking my best friend, and if I had been, Trish never would have met her.

“You know, you could be a little more respectful.”

“And you could be a little less domineering. If you don’t want to talk to me, then don’t answer Ronnie’s phone.”

“Or you could stop calling.”

“And you could go to hell, but beggars can’t be choosers. So how about you put her on the phone, huh?”

Just before Trish erupted in my ear, I heard the sound of muffled arguments in the background and knew Ronnie had intercepted the phone.

“Seriously, Giselle. Could you please not piss off my girlfriend every time you call?”

“What? Are you kidding me? If I wanted to talk to her, I’d call your house. I call your cell because it’s your cell. Why the fuck does she answer it anyway? It’s like she wants to make sure I know she disapproves of my calling.”

There was silence on the other end that went on longer than it should. I glanced down at the screen to see if she’d hung up, but the timer just kept ticking away. When she finally came back on the line, the background noise was gone.

“Shit. Sorry about that. I had to step outside to get away from Trish.”

“What the hell is going on with you anyway?”

“I don’t know. Ever since I told her you were chasing skirts, she’s been all in a tizzy about how much time I spend with you.”

Only Ronnie would have told her girlfriend that her best friend decided to give coochie a sampling. “So you created this issue?”

“Shut up. She’ll chill out when it dawns on her you can’t decide to be gay.”

“We’re back to that, are we?” I tried to lighten the conversation, but I wasn’t sure she bought it. “Would it help if we all got together so she could hear my horror stories of entering the lesbian community?”

“What now? I didn’t think you were meeting Roxie until tomorrow.”

“I’m not. Beck and Stella happened.”

“Who’s Stella?”

I filled her in on the drama surrounding my first non-girlfriend relationship, and that I now had a new playmate…it just wasn’t sexual. “Her brother offered to let me drive his car home.”