Page 81 of The Wrong Game

Zach chuckled, lifting his coffee to me before he disappeared into the hallway. Once the door was shut again, Belle bounded back into the kitchen.

“HE STAYED THE NIGHT.”

I nodded, pouring us both our first cups of coffee. I added a little creamer to mine and a little sugar to hers, sliding one mug across the counter to her as I cupped the other in my hands. “He stayed the night.”

“And you’re not freaking out.”

I sighed. “Surprisingly, no… at least, not yet.” I took a pulse check. “I think the freakout part is coming, though.”

“Well, we will handle that later. But, for now, you’re smiling! And blushing. And, and…” Belle squeaked again, clapping her hands together. “Okay. I want all the details. Now. Start from the beginning. Andddd go!”

Belle followed me around the apartment as I got dressed and ready for work, and I told her all about the night before. She wouldn’t let me skip a single detail, as was par for the course with my best friend, and by the time we were locking up my condo to start the trek to work, she was fanning herself and I was ready to skip our morning meeting and go to Zach’s for a morning romp, instead.

“Wow,” Belle breathed, shaking her head once we were in the elevator on the way down. “I’m impressed. I can’t believe he licked your asshole.”

“Belle,” I whisper-shouted.

“What? No one’s in here,” she said, just as an older woman stepped onto the elevator with us. We both smiled at her, but Belle didn’t skip a beat before turning back to me again. “Did you like it?”

“Can we not right now, please?”

Belle smirked. “Oh, you liked it.” She shook her head. “Who would have thought. My best friend, an ass girl.”

“Belle!” I smacked her as the older woman glanced over her shoulder at us with a concerned look.

“I’m happy for you,” she said through her laughter, and then she schooled her features. “No, seriously. I really am. He’s a good guy. So, does this mean you guys are like… official?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. We didn’t really talk about it.”

“Well, are you exclusive?”

I thought about it, running over the conversations we’d had the night before. “Yeah. I’d say so.”

“So, then you’re boyfriend and girlfriend.”

“We didn’t really get that far.”

Belle rolled her eyes as we stepped off the elevator, pushing through the lobby doors onto the streets of downtown Chicago. “Ugh, dating today sucks. You never know what you are and what you aren’t. But, let me just be the first to tell you that you’ve got yourself a man, Gemma Mancini. And I like him.”

I smiled. “I like him, too.”

And I did. I liked hima lot. I couldn’t fight off the smile that seemed to be a permanent fixture on my face since I woke up. It’d been the most perfect night, and letting go of the control I’d had with my plan before was proving to not be as much scary as it was exhilarating.

Zach made me feel safe, he made me feel comfortable. It was like he knew all my biggest fears and how to handle them before I’d even told him.

I should have been scared of that. I should have been worried about how much I wanted to trust him, to let him in. But I couldn’t find it in myself that morning to care.

Still, Belle brought up a good point — we hadn’t discussed what happens next. I didn’t know what we were, what we weren’t, and my grappling self was ready to start being weird if I didn’t get some firm rules and boundaries established. I made a mental note to talk to Zach about it more later.

“But for real, don’t ignore my texts again.” Belle pointed at me. “What if I really needed you?”

“Oh, yeah, more like you really needed to benosy,” I said, pulling my phone from my purse. “Honestly, I haven’t even looked at this thing since we left the game. It’s been in my purse all night.” When I looked over the screen, I saw the missed texts from Belle and a few from the guy I’d blown off the night before, but they weren’t what caught my attention. “Whoa.”

“I know. I got a little needy,” Belle said, holding one hand up. “But, in my defense, I was half being nosy and half wondering if you were still alive.”

“No, no it’s not that,” I said, pulling up the notification that had made me pause. “Carlo’s mom called me.”

“Sofia?”