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The front door opened and closed. “Lola!” he screamed. “Lola?”

After a few moments, he started singing to himself. Like Lola, he had a habit of falling in love with whatever was on the radio at the moment.

She should go downstairs and greet him. She should help with the groceries, Venmo him for half or maybe all of it. She should ask him about the guy from the app that he was so excited about. She should look up where to get dinner and drinks and go dancing. She shouldmake an appointment for them to get waxed. She should express gratitude that he’d allowed her to come with him to this beautiful house in this stunning place.

She should, she should, sheshould.

The problem was that she was still so turned on. She had the girl equivalent of a boner. A lady boner? There was no cute name for what was happening to her body. She was not fit to be seen by anyone in this state.

She got up and closed the bedroom door as quietly as possible, careful not to put too much weight on her bad foot.

Back in bed, she lay on her stomach.

Her hand wandered back down between her legs. This time, she started slowly, lightly. She was still so sensitive from her first orgasm. With her mouth pressed into the pillow to silence her own groans, she traced gentle circles. Her thighs began to shake.

She was ready for the fantasies now.

In an alternate universe, she imagined that she’d knocked on Aly’s door and not dropped the bottle of wine when Aly opened it. Instead, she said, “Well, hi there, neighbor,” in a way that was totally calm and collected.

It was Aly who was unable to play it cool now. “Lola?” Aly gasped. Aly, who in this fantasy world was wearing a string bikini, not a one-piece. Her stomach was flat, her hip bones pointy. “Is it really you?”

“The one and only,” Lola said. “Fancy a drink?”

She was not sure why she sounded British in this fantasy, but she went with it, surrendering control to the vision playing behind her eyelids.

The scene continued. She made her way into the foyer. Aly took the bottle out of her hands and placed it on the table. “Actually, I hadsomething else in mind,” Aly ground out before pushing Lola into the door and pressing her entire body into Lola’s.

On the bed, Lola writhed, pressing harder into her hand. She could almost feel Aly’s torso thrust into hers.

Meanwhile, Aly let out a moan as they kissed, their tongues melting into each other. Aly bit Lola’s lip. Lola reached down and clutched Aly’s ass, which was mostly bare thanks to the cut of her suit. Aly was standing on her tiptoes.

“Lola, I want you,” Aly said and then brought her hands to Lola’s chest, softly teasing her nipples through her bathing suit. She felt the touch radiate out, chanting through her:I want you. Lola. I want. Want.

Lola pulled the string of Aly’s bikini top until it unraveled and fell to the floor. What did Aly’s boobs look like? She tried to imagine them. Perky, probably. Pink nipples. She wondered if Aly would let her touch them.

Aly pressed her pubic bone into Lola’s leg. Lola could feel Aly’s wetness through her bathing suit, and the feeling shocked her, turned her on. How novel, to have someone without a dick pressing their groin into you. She wondered if she’d ever experience it in real life. She wondered if she actually wanted to or if some things were better kept in fantasy, as fiction.

In bed, Lola gasped.

Her orgasm came out of nowhere.

She hadn’t even been trying to come, but she hadn’t been trying not to either. She’d been in another place entirely. A place where Aly was feeling her up, moaning with need for her. A place where… Her back arched. She was going to come for a third time. She hadn’t come three times in a row since the early days of her and Justin.

Not only that: it was the best orgasm she’d ever had. She felt it surging up and down her body, rocking her in waves of pleasure. She felt she was dying and being reborn over and over. She stuck two fingers inside herself to ride out the final wave, moaning into the pillow as her body did things it had never done before.

Lola had never felt this kind of desperate, feral longing for another girl. This was not the same as blushing because Coach Lisa tightened her ponytail in a certain way. This was something else. Something new. Something…terrifying. Of all the people in the world, did she really have to feel this way about Aly Ray Carter?

Lola fucking Fine, she said to herself.You will not harbor a secret crush on the girl who ruined your life. You will not.

As soon as she caught her breath, she fell into a deep, dark sleep.

She dreamed of volleyball practice.

Chapter 8

It took Lola a moment to realize that the sound of waves crashing on the sand was coming from the actual ocean outside her window and not from her favorite white-noise soundscape on the Calm app.

She opened her eyes and smiled. As if to greet her, a nearby seagull squawked loudly.