After All(54)

"What?" I ask.

She nods at the couch before she starts getting dressed. "The iodine. Your couch."

I look over. It's no longer pristine white. The iodine from her scratches has left stains.

I shrug. "Worth it."

"I bet," she says with a smirk and I'm almost bereft when she's fully clothed again. I could have stared at her body for hours. "I have a feeling your house is so white and clean because you like the taboo of dirtying it up."


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"Only with you, my prickly one," I tell her.

She glares at me, sticking out her tongue.

"Careful," I warn her. "You go around showing off your tongue like that, I may have to put it to a better use."

She shakes her head. "Don't tell me you can go again."

"I can do a lot of things. I think with you, sunshine, I might just be able to go for days."

"Well don't get any wrong ideas," she says, her mouth turning down. "That wasn't really supposed to happen."

"What? The me fucking you senseless on my couch or you getting attacked by a three-legged raccoon?"

"Both."

I fold my arms across my chest and grin at her. "Hey, I can't promise neither of those things won't happen again. You might have just as bad luck with me as you do with animals."

She watches me for a moment, trying to suss me out. I'm not sure what kind of conclusion she comes to though because she just brushes her hair off her face, her cheeks still pink and flushed, and gives me a small smile. "I guess you should probably take me home. It's been a day."

I probably shouldn't feel all that disappointed, especially after what just happened. I mean, I'm used to loving them and leaving them and if this is what Alyssa is doing, I need to just take it in stride. I'm no better.

And yet I find myself wishing there was something I could do to entice her to stay. Funnily enough, there is. I almost open my mouth and tell her she's contractually obligated to have dinner with me.

But I can't do that. No matter what our arrangement is, in the end, I want to do what she wants, what makes her happy. If she wants to go home, I'm taking her home.

It isn't until after I drop her off that I realize that our fake little relationship is starting to feel more real than it probably should.





Chapter 11





Alyssa





"Pot cookie?" Carla asks me as she appears in my bedroom doorway, holding out a tray. As usual, she's biting into one. I don't know how she survives from day-to-day, just eating cookies and being high all the time.

And normally I would be turning her down unless we were spending the whole day together just hanging out in the apartment or day-drinking in the park or something. I tend to get quite paranoid if I'm around people.

But it's been a stressful week and I haven't been able to shake it.

First of all, there was the fact that I had crazy mad sex with Emmett at his house last weekend after I was molested by a three-legged raccoon. As mind-blowing as it was, it wasn't smart, especially considering it started up a case of the feels right after, the feels that I spent the next few days after trying to overcome and ignore. 

Second of all, there was the fact that I went out with Emmett three times after that, three whole times where I had to give the feels the middle finger and remind myself that everything we're doing is a lie. Even if the sex was real, it just complicates everything else.

And I had to remind myself of this while we went out to another fancy restaurant and he wore a slick suit that he looked absolutely delicious in. Then when we played mini golf together and he wore a tight white t-shirt that showed off every beautiful muscle on his body, muscles I knew intimately. Then when we went to the beach to play Frisbee, which he did while wearing just a small pair of shorts.

Totally unfair. I almost didn't survive. Not just the playing Frisbee part, because I got whacked in the head a million times by the villainous flying disc (some of which made for delightful photographs on the gossip sites), but having to act like his girlfriend and touch him when he's nearly naked really did a fucking number on me. I mean, the only way to prevent the feels is to keep my distance but I can't keep my distance because it's my job to be as close to him as possible.

Third of all, work this week just plain sucked. I don't know if it's because I can't wait to get out of there so everything is extra slow and boring, or that Will's still gone on the honeymoon so Ted was extra stressed, or that I tried to get it out of Casey that he was the one who took the photos and I actually believe him when he said it wasn't him.