“She’s not,” Ten assured him.
Noel and I glanced at him together. “How do you know?”
He snickered. “Because the picture on that phone was a fuzzy shot of what the Coach posted on the board in the locker room. And besides, I deleted all the pictures off Marci’s phone...when she was putting her clothes back on.”
My mouth fell open because that was the first I’d heard of this.
“You fucked her?” Noel exploded. “The bitch who ruined Aspen’s career? What the hell, man?”
“Hey, I needed a reason to get access to her phone. And I’ve learned they’re more willing to let you take naked pictures of them after you screw a dazed smile onto their face.” He shrugged. “Actually, the me-photographing-her-nude thing was her idea, but hey...she was handing me her phone, so who was I to say no?”
When both Noel and I continued to stare at him as if he was insane, he lifted his hands. “What? I did it for you, man.”
“You keep any of those naked pictures of her?” Noel finally asked.
Ten choked out an incredulous sound. “Really? You want to see her titties after what she did to your woman?”
“No, asswipe. I want to use them as leverage in case she had any more of me and Aspen that you didn’t get off her phone.”
“Oh. Well, I’m pretty sure I got them all. She was pissed as fuck when she realized what I did.” Ten shrugged. “And anyways, I’m already one step ahead of you. I forwarded the least flattering ones of her to myself and I’m already using them to keep her quiet.”
“Damn, man,” Noel murmured as we finished up our mile run. “Thank you.”
I was a little impressed that Ten had gone to so much work for Noel, too. He had his annoying moments, and a lot of them, but he could always be counted on in the friend department. Which made me feel kind of crappy.
I hadn’t done anything on that level to help Noel. In fact, now that I thought about it, I wasn’t sure if I’d done anything for him at all.
The whole idea still had me bummed when I went to pick Cora up later that evening. It was my one night this week I had off work to be with her, and of course there was a frat party she wanted to attend. So I planned on having a miserable evening, watching her drink and dance with her friends while I listened to all the jocks around me brag about how amazing they were. I wouldn’t even have Ten there to keep me any company because he had to work, and Noel had stopped attending parties when he’d hooked up with Aspen and taken in his younger siblings. None of the other guys I worked with had ever done the frat-party thing. So yeah, I planned on being bored and abandoned most of the evening.
When I arrived at Cora’s apartment, I was already antsy and uncomfortable about spending an evening surrounded by...people. But then Zoey opened the door for me, and my anxiety level went through the roof.
She had her hair up in another perky ponytail, and she was wearing glasses. She looked freaking adorable in glasses.
I swallowed, unable to say a single thing.
Then she smiled, and suddenly, I couldn’t blink either.
“Hi.” She sounded so happy to see me, my chest expanded with pressure. It felt as if someone was blowing up a balloon inside my ribcage. “Come on in. Cora’s in her room....” She paused and cocked her ear as if she wanted me to finish the sentence.
A grin broke across my lips. “Changing?” I guessed.
“Exactly.” Leaving the door open for me to make myself at home, Zoey turned away. As she did, her ponytail breezed past me, stirring up that mysterious smell. I started to step over the threshold when it hit me that the smell came from her hair.
“What kind of shampoo do you use?” I blurted out the question before my brain could tell me not to.
Zoey stopped walking and turned back slowly. “I’m sorry?”
Oh, crap. Her eyes narrowed suspiciously, letting me know good and well she realized I’d been smelling her.
I gulped, and motioned wildly with my hand to her ponytail. All the while, my face kept getting hotter and hotter. “I... you...when your hair whooshed past as you turned away...I didn’t mean to—sorry.”
She must’ve realized I wasn’t trying to make a pass at her or anything because her shoulders relaxed and her lips loosened into a smile. “Oh, well, it’s, um...wild cherry and jewel orchid, or something like that. I can’t really remember. It’s supposed to be for curlier hair...” Plucking at her ponytail to show me just how curly her hair wasn’t, she shrugged with a rueful grin. “But it’s my favorite scent, so I use it anyway.”