Page 11 of Rebound

His coffee pot chirped at him at the same time his phone vibrated across the counter. He took a drink, then read Lara’s text.

Lara:Mister is doing car thing.Where do they sell curtains?

Ben:I hoped you would know.

Lara:I’m heterosexual, Benjamin.

Ben:Just come over then and I’ll figure it out.

Lara:I need to wash my hair.

Ben:I’ll see you when you’re here.

He left his phone on the counter and took his coffee into the living room. Collapsing gently onto his couch, he tucked his legs up beneath him and leaned against the arm while he waited for his streaming channel menu to populate on the screen. He put on something mindless because he didn’t want to get sucked in knowing Lara was on her way…or that she would be eventually. It didn’t matter, though. He could have put on the most riveting show on television and it wouldn’t have been enough to distract him from the memory of Thomas’s thick cock in his ass the night before.

Thankfully, Lara arrived before he could spiral too far back into the memory and he made her drive since she’d just bought a new Audi a few months before. She swore it had been a Christmas present, but he recognized the lie in her eye when she said it. Fact of the matter was, Lara had a lot more money than him, and her husband had more than both of them put together. She’d worked hard to have a comfortable life before meeting her husband, but she never wanted Ben to feel uncomfortable about the gap in their incomes.

After a quick stop at Starbucks, they pulled up to Target, which amused Ben to no end.

“Target?” he asked, pushing his sunglasses onto the top of his head. “That’s surprising.”

“Did you think I was going to take you to Ethan Allen?” Lara shoved her door open. “I told you to make a list of stores and you came up empty, so I’m just doing the best I can.”

Ben laughed and followed Lara into the store, taking a cart because he knew full well he was going to probably leave with a thousand things he didn’t need and not one single curtain panel.

“You look distracted,” Lara mentioned as they rounded the corner into the makeup section.

“Do I?”

She nodded and reached for a dark red shade of lipstick, which she examined and then returned to the shelf.

“I’m fine,” he said.

“Does this have to do with Cody?”

“Absolutely not,” he swore, crossing his heart. “But also kind of.”

Ben realized the official breaking point with Cody was so fresh he hadn’t had time to tell Lara about it. He gave her a quick rundown of the fight the night before, hoping she would drop it when he finished his monologue with an extremely convincing, “I don’t do cheaters.”

“Cool, Ben, but what about all the narcissistic abuse? Can we not do that anymore either?”

Beneath the weight of her question, his cheeks heated with shame and embarrassment. He rolled the cart to the end of the aisle, walking away from her before she could see his face. She ran to catch up to the cart, her fingers curling around the handle and dragging him to a stop.

“I only say it because I love you.” Her eyes dripped with sincerity and concern, and he sighed, shoulder-checking her into an end cap of Chapstick.

“I know. It’s…I just don’t want to talk about him. He was a bad decision and now he’s just a blip on the radar.”

“I believe you.” She covered his hand with hers. “So tell me what has you floating in another galaxy then.”

“Am I that obvious?”

“Did you meet someone else already?” she asked.

“Kind of. Not exactly.”

“Well.” Lara took the cart out of his control and headed toward the home goods section. “That sounds like it requires elaboration.”

“I was feeling a little sorry for myself last night, so I went on One-Night and had a hookup.”