Bad Ideas (First & Forever 4)

She rolled her dark eyes and said, “That is literally the clumsiest attempt at changing the subject I’ve ever seen.” Even so, she handed over the large, gold envelope. Then she added, “You know you’re going to tell me eventually.” She was probably right about that, but it really wasn’t going to happen tonight.

Chapter 4

The next morning, I slept in much later than usual. Sundays were the one day all week I didn’t get up early and go to the gym, so even after I woke up I just stayed in bed for a while.

I’d slept really well and woke up feeling happy. Great sex could do that, apparently. But now I had so many questions. Of course, the biggest question of all was why the hell that had happened in the first place. We were hardly each other’s favorite person.

I also wondered what we were going to do next time we saw each other. No doubt it’d be painfully awkward, but would he act like it had never happened? That seemed a lot more likely than the two of us actually discussing it.

Eventually, I rolled out of bed and went to take a shower. As I stood under the running water, my mind wandered—straight to the night before in that conference room. I ended up jerking off while replaying every detail. It made me come so hard that my legs shook, and I had to lean against the tiles while I caught my breath and got myself together.

After that, I took a little extra time getting ready. I trimmed my beard, “borrowed” a dollop of that gel Lark had used on me, and made an effort to style my hair. It didn’t really work, but the results were slightly better than usual.

Then I got dressed in a T-shirt, jeans, and sneakers and jogged down the stairs. The moment my feet made contact with the ground floor, I heard someone in the living room say, “Oh yeah, Casey definitely got laid last night. You know that expression a pep in your step? You can totally hear it in his footsteps.”

I went into the living room and flinched. Lark, Kel, and Eliot were sitting around the gift basket, which was unwrapped on the coffee table. All of them had creepy, damp sheets stuck to their faces, printed with whiskers, snouts, and cat ears.

“Hi, Casey,” Lark said. “We decided to try out some face masks from the prize pack, but don’t worry. There are tons more for when we’re ready to do our whole-house spa day. Yolanda and JoJo went shopping, by the way, but you should join us.”

“Thanks for the offer, but I’ll take a rain check.”

I started to leave the room, but Lark called, “Wait!” When I turned back to him, he held out an envelope and said, “This was in the basket.”

“What is it?”

“A gift certificate for a haircut and color at a fancy salon.”

“Oh no, that’s definitely meant for you. I’m a barbershop kind of guy.”

“But it’s worth two hundred dollars,” he said.

“Then don’t let it go to waste. Have fun with it.”

As I left the living room, he called after me, “Thank you, Casey.” His voice was choked with emotion, and I suppressed a sigh. He made me want to adopt him and take care of him, which was pretty fucking weird since he was technically a full-grown adult.

After a quick breakfast, I cleaned up the kitchen and returned to the living room. I was planning to go into work early so I could read to Oscar, but I still had some time to kill. By now the face masks were gone, and my housemates were painting their toenails in Easter egg pastels.

As soon as I sat down on the couch, Lark asked, “So, who did you sleep with last night? Yolanda and JoJo are sure it’s someone you work with, but I said it could have been a random person you met on the hookup app.”

“Does it matter?”

“Yes, because we’re nosy,” Lark said, with total seriousness.

Kel asked, “Was it just a one-time thing?”

I almost said, “God, I hope not,” but instead, I went with, “No idea.”

“But you want to sleep with him again. I know you do,” Lark insisted.

“What are you basing that on?”

“You’re glowing,” he told me. “That must mean you really like this guy.”

“If I seem happy, it’s just because I hadn’t had sex in a while and I’m glad the drought’s over.”

All three of them looked skeptical, and Eliot said, “Nah, it’s more than that. You definitely should ask him out.”

“No, see, this is someone who’d never want me under normal circumstances. Not in a million years. He actually hates me, and I think he’s the most annoying person ever. But then in this odd, lust-fueled moment, we ended up having sex. I’m not really sure why it happened, but it was fun, and I’d be down for an encore. That’s it, though. It’ll never be more than a one- or two-time thing.” I was really hoping for two, because it had been incredible and I wanted more.