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Okay. That response from Avery made her feel better.

Taylor

Here!

She texted Avery, as usual, when she got to Avery’s apartment on Tuesday night. When Avery got into the car, she just had to be casual, normal, not the way she’d been on Friday night.

The problem was, she couldn’t remember what “normal” was like between her and Avery. She remembered what it was like at the beginning, with Avery nervous and stressed out and herself amused. And she remembered what it was like at trivia, with them easy and comfortable, and, okay, fine, lightly flirting with each other. But was their fun, flirty interaction at trivia what “normal” was between the two of them? Or had trivia been a precursor to the midterm that ended in sex? Very extended foreplay, if you will. She wasn’t sure.

When did their relationship—their friendship—change from stilted and kind of awkward to relaxed and easy? Taylor couldn’t remember. She wanted to go back to the relaxed and easy version of their friendship, but was that possible without the flirting and the potential sex? It must be. She had that type of friendship with other people, and she’d never had sex with them!

She had to be friendly to Avery, but not too friendly. How did she do that?

What the fuck was she doing? She was completely overthinking this, and she never did that. She was far more likely to severely underthink something. For example, Friday night when she’d had sex with Avery. Maybe if she’d thought a little more about that, she wouldn’t be in this situation right now.

“Hey,” Avery said as she got into the car. “Where to?”

“Hey,” Taylor said. “Oh, we’re going to—” Shit, that had been a close call. She’d been so frazzled she’d almost told Avery where they were going. “Ha, you thought you’d get me that time, didn’t you?”

Avery grinned.

“I almost did. Nice save.”

Taylor shook her head at herself as she started the car.

“Did I wear the right clothes for tonight?” Avery asked her. She didn’t wait for an answer before she continued. “I’ve been trying to figure out where we could be going where I’d need to wear clothes I can get dirty in. First, I wondered if we were going to make wine somewhere, you know, do the foot-stomping thing, but it’s not harvest yet. I always roll my eyes at that, but also it looks fun. I could have worn what I wear to garden, but all of my gardening clothes literally have dirt on them, so I had to find something else. Anyway, I thought maybe cooking classes? We’ll see if I’m right.”

Avery was talking a lot more and faster than normal. She must be nervous about tonight, too. That made Taylor feel better.

“You’ll see,” was all Taylor said. Avery pouted that very cute fat-bottom-lipped pout of hers.

“Fine,” she said. “I’ve missed my chance to go upstairs to change, though, if I guessed wrong.”

Taylor glanced over at Avery’s outfit, but immediately she wished she hadn’t. Avery was wearing a thin gray V-neck T-shirt and jeans, which could be unremarkable, except Avery’s T-shirt was thin enough to be slightly see-through. When she was this close to Avery, and the sun shone down on her like this, Taylor could clearly tell that Avery was wearing a lacy black bra. Damn, that was so fucking sexy. What a fucking nightmare.

“You look fine,” Taylor said, and turned her eyes back to the road. She couldn’t look at Avery anymore.

But too late, she heard the harsh edge to her voice, one that she’d meant for herself, not for Avery. Avery must have heard it, too, because she didn’t say anything else. That should have been a relief to Taylor, that her nervous chatter had subsided, but the silence between the two of them felt awkward. And now she felt bad for snapping at Avery. It wasn’t Avery’s fault that they’d had sex a few days before; Taylor was the one who’d had the stupid fucking idea to give her a flirting midterm.You have to flirt with me—what the fuck was the matter with her? Talk about playing with fire and getting burned.

She had to pull herself together. If she was going to keep doing these flirting lessons with Avery, like she’d promised, she had to put on her fucking big-girl panties and deal. She was very attracted to Avery, she knew that, she’d known that since the beginning; now it was far more out in the open. Oh well, they would deal with this like adults.

Why was this such a problem for her? She’d hung out with plenty of people she’d slept with in the past, and it hadn’t been an issue like this.

Maybe because with Avery, unlike with all those other people, it didn’t feel like they were done. Yes, she’d told Avery they shouldn’t do it again, but she wanted to do it again. And again. That wasn’t Avery’s fault; it was hers.

She turned to glance at Avery again, who was staring straight ahead. She abruptly pulled over.

“Hey,” she said when she stopped the car.

“Hey,” Avery said. She hadn’t seen that stiff, unsmiling look from Avery in a long time. She didn’t like it.

“I’m sorry I was being weird,” Taylor said. “I guess I’m feeling kind of awkward, and I wish I wasn’t, and I snapped at you and I didn’t mean to.”

Avery’s face relaxed.

“Okay. It’s okay. Thanks for saying that. I’m feeling awkward, too. I just…I don’t regret what happened—”

“Me, either,” Taylor quickly replied.