Page 26 of Who’s Playing You (In The Nick of Time #1)
SCOTTIE ANDERSON
I don’t know what overtook me when I told Nicholas yes via text last night. Maybe it was my gut literally hurling butterflies, woodpeckers, or even the kitchen sink at the sides of my stomach. It felt like some higher power was pushing me to accept.
To live.
To feel free.
To feel happy again.
Sure, this had the potential to fail so epically written all over it, and that was frightening as all hell. But the other side of that coin was something so exciting and amazing. So how could I but not take the chance? It was kind of a 50/50 thing… odds seemed good?
Or were they bad?
In either case, I had said yes. That made me invested. That made me willing to risk… something. What that something was, I’d find out.
In the meantime, I was going to see Nicholas tomorrow morning - at his house. And he was going to be naked. Entirely.
This all felt so intimate that it was kind of freaking me the hell out.
It wasn’t like I was worried about my virginal eyes, because - newsflash - they weren’t. I’d also seen plenty of naked bodies in my lifetime, many of which I’d studied and then drawn and or painted. It wasn’t a big deal.
We all had one - a body that was.
Some of us had better bodies than others. But each was a work of art in its own right.
And Nicholas’... well, his was a special kind of beautiful sin. I was actually quite excited to draw and then paint him. Every square muscled inch of him.
I’d grown quite inspired by his physique since I’d met him if I was being completely honest.
I’d even taken some of that inspiration into consideration on some late and horny nights where I was alone in my bed with nothing but my hand or my Clio that never did the job quite well enough.
In all fairness though, the toy did a better job than Earl had ever done. So in that respect, I’d upgraded.
What I’d been fantasizing about was just that though, a fantasy.
And even though Nicholas had given me certain signs and had now invited me away for a weekend, it all felt somewhat premature to be jumping to conclusions about his interest, and jumping into some hot-and-dirty sex with him, in my head that was.
I bet the sex would be phenomenal though. Probably every level of toe-curling. And he most likely had the stamina to keep up with me.
Imagine that!
Someone who could keep pace with me.
But again, I was getting so far ahead of myself in my very own fantasy world. I’d decided that aside from my world that was filled with nothing but daydreams and fantasies, when I was with Nicholas in the actual real world that I was going to work on my chill. I needed to calm down.
I needed to be natural .
Whatever the fuck that meant.
I’d grown to be wound so tight in the last two years, and I was overthinking absolutely everything.
I wasn’t able to live in the now and enjoy the little things, because my mind was too preoccupied thinking about all the other things that somehow - in the grand scheme of things - weren’t that relevant.
And it was with that thought that I had decided that I needed to chill the fuck out this weekend with him.
That I was going to just go with the flow and see where it led.
I was going to gauge how I also felt - how he continued to make me feel - and try to decide if it was all something that I was actually interested in or not.
Whether this “thing” turned into a simple kiss, a one-night stand, or something more - at the end of the day, I needed to make sure it worked for me and my happiness.
I was going to go with the flow.
As I let that thought wander into the world, my phone went off like a shot startling me half to death.
The screen lit up with a grinning face, and the name on the screen?
Prof. Praveen.
“Well, well, well, look who the cat dragged in,” I answered the call on a drawl.
“Yessss, it’s none other than me !!!” she sing-songed back to me. “But enough nonsense.”
“Umm, I literally just picked up the phone,” I began but she cut me off.
“Come downstairs. We’re at the Cock,” she said and then hung up.
What the hell?
But that was one of my best friends from school.
Professor Praveen as she preferred to be called, or just Praveen as I called her, was the head of the entire dance department at Stetson U.
She was the big kahuna, and her program was the absolute best in the tri-state area attracting dancers from all over the world to learn from her.
I grabbed my phone and keys while I hastily pushed my feet through my Birkenstocks, then ran out the door and down to the Caffeinated Cock.
As soon as I walked in the door, hoots and hollers greeted me making all of the staff and customers look at the crazy group who were being nothing but an annoying nuisance.
I swung my gaze to the window booth where all of my best girlfriends from Stetson U were congregating like a pack of hyenas who were now cat-calling me.
“There’s my sister-wife!” Mindy yelled her greeting at me, an inside joke obviously, while Brit rolled her eyes.
Steph and Sherrece were synchronized in their, “Hey girl, heyyyyy !”
“Took you long enough! Get over here, we have so much catching up to do,” Praveen admonished me.
“Geesh, calm your tits woman! You literally just hung up on me and I ran down here,” I said as I gave Mindy a hug, then Brit followed by Steph and Sherrece.
I hugged Praveen last and she said, “I missed you girl! I haven’t seen you all summer, it sucked!”
“Tell me about it! How was India?”
Praveen’s beautiful face lit up, “It was amazing! I was sorry to leave, but I missed you all so much.”
Brit smiled over our group, “I agree. I love summer break and getting to travel and unwind, but I miss hanging out with you all. What did y’all get up to?”
We spent the next half hour catching up on everyone’s summer.
All the girls had taken off after the spring semester ended.
Praveen had gone to spend time with her family in India and teach at her old dance studio.
Mindy had been quick to jump in her car and drive to Arkansas with her husband and three sons to where her childhood house sat on the most beautiful lake.
Brit had been doing research at a couple rehab centers a few states over, while Sherrece had gone on a research trip to Australia and New Zealand.
And Steph? She’d spent the entire summer kicking ass in Phoenix because the City of Phoenix had hired her to revamp the entire education system in their public schools there.
It didn’t even need mentioning that my friends were kick-ass rockstars who were making a difference around the entire globe.
And hearing all about their adventures had me feeling so grateful to have them all back home in New Hope, while also feeling like I was suffering from a case of jealousy and FOMO… if FOMO was even a thing anymore.
Maybe I needed to subscribe to the YOLO philosophy or something, so I’d live a little. #bringYOLOback and all that gibberish.
“What about you? What’d you end up doing all summer?” Steph asked me.
“You taught that Summer I course, didn’t you?” Praveen asked me. “How was it?”
“Ehh, you know…” I began.
“It sucked , didn’t it?” Praveen said right away. “I told you! I told you when we were on winter break not to do it, that you should have come to India with me instead. Summer courses suck, no one wants to be here.”
“Well, consider my lesson learned,” I agreed with her.
Steph then continued, “But what else? What have you been doing with yourself for the last few weeks since the class ended?”
“I contemplated my very existence and purpose here on Planet Earth, before I came up with a plan for world domination.”
Brit raised her eyebrow at me, “Oh yeah? And how’d that work out for you?” Her dry sense of humor slicing through absolutely everything.
“Oh, you know… it occupied my brain for a good thirty minutes…”
“Figured,” she said and grinned.
“Please tell me you at least went out on a date or two,” Mindy picked up the conversation.
Sherrece chimed in, “Oooo yes! A hot date, one we can all live vicariously through you since we’re, you know, all married.”
Mindy tacked on, “Exactly! And besides, how ever will we become sister wives if you don’t get yourself a decent husband?
You were due for an upgrade which thank God you’re working on.
There was no way in hell that I was interested in swapping you for Earl !
” She said as she gave a full body shudder.
“You know, you two keep talking like that and people might get the wrong idea about the lot of you - and like - think you’re serious about the spouse-swapping and calling each other sister wives ,” Sherrece said.
“Meh, let them think what they want to think,” Mindy brushed it off.
“If you want me to think that you and Scottie are hanging up some upside down pineapples and swapping partners like one would do in some Jade Dollston novel - and maybe more - then mission accomplished,” Gina said as she reached our table. The girls all began laughing.
“Do you gals want to order any of the pastries before the afternoon rush comes in and gobbles them up?” Gina asked us. “I can also top you guys off, considering I have a feeling you’ll be here for a while.” And this is why Gina was the best employee at the Caffeinated Cock.
Her attention to detail was top notch. But better, she actually gave a damn.
I ended up spending the rest of my Friday feeling light as a feather and without a worry in the world, because I got to spend it with some of my favorite people.
My girl squad, the ones who I always missed so much while they scattered in the summer months, but whom I hung out with multiple times a week, sometimes every day, when school was in session.
It made me giddy to have them back. It felt like a missing puzzle piece had been delicately put back in place - in my psyche and soul. My New Hope soul sisters were back.
For those hours we sat at the Cock, we talked, laughed, ate, drank, and overstayed our welcome.
Gina and the staff didn’t care much, but when we were encroaching on their closing time, Gina gave us the look .
But by that time, we’d all caught the rest of the group up on our lives in the past three months.
I shared that I’d started up my workshops and that I was working on my figure drawing. I, however, left mention of Nicholas out of the conversation.
I just wasn’t ready for the questions that my girlfriends would inevitably ask me.
I wasn’t prepared to answer those questions, because I myself didn’t know the answers. But here was to hoping that I’d have some after tomorrow, when I’d see Nicholas again.
And boy, I needed to get my head in the game before I saw him again.