Sincerely, Carter
Page 22

“Forget I ever asked…” She tried to roll over, but I held her still.
“Do you remember any of what happened last night?”
“What do you mean any of what happened?” She looked terrified. “We did more than just kiss?”
“No…” I said, not sure how to feel about her not remembering. “Do you want to stay here for the rest of the day, or do you want me to take you home?”
“I honestly can’t feel my legs right now…” She croaked as she pushed her phone toward me. “Can you text Chris and ask him if we can skip tonight and go out tomorrow? I’m too hungover…”
“Being hungover means you’re incapable of texting?”
“I’ve texted your girlfriends before, and I didn’t complain…” She narrowed her eyes at me, handing me her phone.
I tapped her message box and noticed that Chris had sent her a shit ton of messages since last night. “Are you sure this guy isn’t the male version of Emily? He’s texted you damn near every hour on the hour since yesterday. You should probably read his messages first.”
She scooted to the edge of the bed, smiling and looking up at me. “Read them for me.”
“You owe me a hungover Saturday at your place, with breakfast. “
“Done deal.”
I clicked the first one.
Can’t wait to see you again, baby…
“You’ve known each other less than two weeks and he’s already calling you baby?”
“Just read them, without your unwanted commentary. Thanks.”
I rolled my eyes and clicked the next one.
You’re hot as shit, babe.
She smiled.
You’re beautiful as shit, babe.
She smiled again.
I can’t wait to see your—
I stopped. “I’m not reading the rest of this shit, Ari.”
“Please…”
I groaned.
I can’t wait to see your perfect ass tits and your warm ass mouth wrapped around my rock-hard cock…Can’t wait to devour your pussy…
Blushing, she snatched the phone away from me. “I didn’t realize there were sext messages…Those are private.”
“That’s the type of shit that turns you on, Ari? Private message about warm ass mouths wrapped around rock-hard cocks?”
“It’s called dirty talk.”
“It’s called an attempt at dirty talk…That’s not what that is at all.”
“It’s exactly what it is.” She narrowed her eyes at me, looking just as beautiful as she had last night. “Maybe if you’d done it with someone out of your plethora of girlfriends, your relationships would’ve lasted a whole lot longer.”
I stared at her, noticing how she was biting her lip, how I was definitely going to have to find a way to stay the hell away from her for a while until I figured out why she was suddenly affecting me.
“Are you just going to stare at me?” she asked. “No smart ass rebuttals? No comeback puns?”
“No…”
“Well, that’s shocking.” She bit her lip again, and to prevent myself from pulling her up and biting it too, I grabbed a towel from the edge of the bed. “I’m going to take a shower. I’ll talk to you when you’re not talking about warm ass mouths and cocks…”
Track 10. The Best Day (3:55)
I remembered everything about last night. Every. Goddamn. Thing.
The way his lips felt against mine, the way he looked at me at the party, the way he rendered me utterly speechless when he undressed me in the bathroom. I’d never been kissed the way he kissed me, never felt it in every vein of my being and been left yearning for more. Much more.
Still, a part of me wanted to remain in denial, so I’d done my best to keep thoughts of him at bay today.
I looked at myself in a full length mirror, debating whether I should wear my hair up or down. My rescheduled date with Chris was tonight and regardless of the fact that I could still feel Carter’s lips on mine, I needed to get back to reality. The one where we were just friends and had a shared drunken moment.
My phone buzzed as I decided to go with an up-do. Carter.
Has your pussy been devoured yet?
Laughing, I pulled my hair into a bun before texting back:
Not yet…Give it a couple of hours.
A couple of hours for him to start or a couple of hours for him to finish?
Both….I’m sure he’ll be down there a very long time. Something tells me you know nothing about giving and are all about receiving.
Something tells me that you don’t know me as well as you should.
Before I could even begin to comprehend what he meant by that, he sent me another text:
Have fun on your date tonight. Let me know how it goes later.
Thanks…I will.
He sent me a colorful picture of a skeleton lying in bed with the words “I’ll be waiting” and I laughed, now realizing that despite the amazing kiss we’d shared, and the outlandish sexual text he’d just sent, it didn’t mean anything to either of us. We were just friends.
Just friends…Just friends…
I put on another coat of pink lipstick, and heard a soft knock on my door. “Yes?”
“Arizona?” My roommate, Heather, knocked once more.
“Yeah?”
“You got a minute?”
“Sure, come in.” I leaned close to the mirror and plucked an errant hair from my eyebrow.
She stepped inside, smiling at me through the glass and I smiled back. When I’d first moved off campus and into our shared house, I’d thought that she and the rest of the girls would become some of my closest friends, but that never came to be. They were all majoring in medical studies, and since their schedules were practically the same, they tended to keep to themselves for the most part. With the exception of our early morning conversations around the coffee maker on the weekends, we always saw each other in passing.
“Me and the girls of the house wanted to give you this,” she said, handing me a pink gift box. “It’s a farewell present since you’re the only one who’s not staying in town after the summer.”
“But I’m not going anywhere for another two months…”
“Yeah, but everyone is always all over the place now that we’re working our residencies, and we can never all be here at the same time, so I didn’t want to forget.” She pulled a tiny blue box from her back pocket. “This one is for Carter.”
“Why does Carter get a gift? He’s not a roommate.”
“No, but we see him just as much as we see you.” She shrugged. “My boyfriend is downstairs now. I just wanted to give you that before we start watching our movie.”
“Thank you.” I was truly flattered. “I really appreciate this.”
“You’re welcome.” She gave me a quick hug and left as quickly as she had come in.
I untied the box’s bow and started to unwrap the gift, but Chris called me as I was tearing the first flap.
“Hello?” I answered.
“Are you ready or do you still need a little time?”
“I’m ready.”
“In that case, I’m at your door.”