Page 23

“How did you leave it?” Max asks. “With Audrey.”

“No number. No promises to get together again. She’s not in the right place. They just broke up.”

“I gathered that from the fuck-you song she sang.” Max chuckles. “I would have never imagined she had it in her.”

“While she was bringing down the house her sister was at her and Shae’s place cleaning it out.”

Max’s eyebrows lift to her hairline and she laughs. “No shit. I can’t decide if that’s cowardly or a power move.” She flips off the light switch and pushes past me.

Huh. I hadn’t thought about it like that. It’s a good question. I turn and follow Max. There’s no way I’m going to fall asleep anytime soon.

“Wanna smoke and play Zelda?”

“Migraine.”

“Shit, Max, you should have told me.” Max has suffered from migraines since high school. The best the doctors seem to be able to do is give her medicine to stop it before it starts. It doesn’t always work. “Do you need your medicine?”

Max strips down to her boy shorts and sports bra and climbs into bed. “No, I took it when the aura started. I just need a dark room and my bed.”

“Let me get you a cold washcloth,” I say.

In a couple of minutes I return with the cloth folded in a rectangle. Max has put on an eye mask while I was gone. I sit on the bed and put the washcloth on her forehead.

She gives me a wan smile. “Thanks, Toni.”

“You’re welcome. Anything else?”

“I’ll be fine in the morning.”

“Call me if you need me.” I lift the washcloth and plant a kiss on her damp forehead.

There’s a small smile on her lips and she hums in response.

I pick up the dirty sheets and duvet and close the door softly behind me. The sheets do smell like sex. I smile as I walk into the kitchen to start the laundry. A glance at the oven clock shows it’s only been about thirty minutes since Audrey left. Seems longer.

I’ve wanted to see you like this for a while.

“Oh my God,” I mutter, remembering how Audrey’s voice caught at the end, how her gaze raked over my body as if she was committing every inch to memory. How my body lit up in response.

That’s happening now, too.

“Move. I need to move.”

I start the laundry and potter around the kitchen, cleaning up. Trying my best to not think about Audrey. But how could I not? I’ve had a lot of good sex with a lot of women, but I’ve never felt so consumed by someone in my life. I can feel how her hands slid down my body even now, caressing my breasts, trailing lightly over my stomach to my legs, and down to my inner thighs. Her gaze, intense and hungry, on my cunt. The way she took me in her mouth. Her bedroom voice when she said, Come for me, Toni.

Christ, it wouldn’t take much for me to come right now.

I look around the kitchen and am surprised to find it’s spotless. How long have I been daydreaming? I sit at the kitchen table and open my laptop. Email alerts pop up in the top right-hand corner of my screen, one from my sister, no doubt reminding me about being at work bright and early on Monday. I ignore it and open my browser. I click on the search bar, my fingers settle on the keyboard, and I pause.

Audrey Adams. With a name like that how can you not be a successful, high-powered woman. It would take less than a minute to google her and find out everything I want to know. She’s a consultant so she’s sure to be on LinkedIn and have a website.

I sit back and drop my hands to my lap. What do I want out of this? To see her face? Yes. To find out more about her? Absolutely. To reach out to her? OK, yeah. I do.

But, I can’t.

Audrey made it clear that this isn’t the right time for her, that she isn’t interested in dating. She set a boundary, and finding her on social media and contacting her would cross a line and breach any trust she might have in me. That’s not who I am, though my stomach is revolting at the thought of never seeing her again.

I think back to the women who had reached out to me after I made it clear that I wasn’t interested in anything more than a night or two of fun. I’d always been nice, or tried to be, except to the ones who would just not leave me alone. I’d always thought they were pathetic and desperate, talking to me about our connection and how they’d never felt that way with someone else. Now here I am, struggling to stop myself from doing the same thing.