"No, I certainly do not," she said dismally.
"Well, I do," he said with a nod. "And I happen to know I would torture you."
Frowning, she said, "Wait, me? Why are we talking about me?"
Sighing, he said, "Fuck, I don't know. Don't talk to me anymore. Go to sleep."
Looking down at the half-empty bottle in his hand, she said, "That's starting to hit you, isn't it?"
"Go to bed," he said gruffly.
"Why did you say you would torture me?" she asked. "I thought we were talking about you dating…"
"Slip of tongue. I'm drunk; leave me alone."
"But—”
"Julie, go to sleep," he said firmly.
"I will go to bed when you do," she said stubbornly.
"I am not cuddling with you tonight, so you might as well not wait for me," he told her, his gaze floating back to the TV.
Sighing, she said, "I don't care, I'm still waiting for you to come to bed. Remember, you said you weren't going to disappoint me," she reminded him with a smile.
"I lied," he informed her. "I was just trying to piss her off."
"I know," she said. "But I'm still waiting. We will go to bed together. In the meantime, you can drink your beer and we can talk."
Tilting his beer up, he chugged the rest of it and sat the bottle down on the nightstand.
"Or," he said, standing up and unbuttoning his shirt, "I can go to sleep right now and shut you the hell up."
She watched, speechless, as he began peeling his shirt off right in front of her.
Damn, she thought tilting her head just slightly off to the side as she checked him out. To say he was well-formed seemed like a bit of an understatement. His body was lean and tan, and much to her viewing pleasure, he wasn't all furry—he had a nice smooth chest, with flat abs and a golden hue to his skin.
It wasn't right.
She knew she didn't look that good topless.
"Stop that," he said with a little smile as he walked over to the bed.
She met his gaze, saying honestly, "I think you shouldn't wear shirts."
"Thank you, I think," he said.
Privately, she also thought that anyone with a body that nice ought to be letting someone see it.
"I… definitely didn't assume that you were hiding a six-pack underneath your hoodie."
Shrugging, she thought he was flexing a little on purpose just to show off. "That's why there are gyms in Chicago."
So he worked out. That could explain some of his disappearances…. Or maybe all of them, she thought distractedly, because he was really pretty.
Aaron pulled back the covers and climbed in bed beside her.
Julie glanced at him, saying, "So… were you going to maybe reconsider the whole 'no cuddling' rule? I mean, we're both here in this bed, and it's kind of cold, and we've cuddled before without awkwardness… and if it helps, I'm not at all concerned with you being a psycho who enforces text message deletion."