Making Up (Shacking Up 4)

He does that thing where he grabs his hair with both his hands and tries to pace, but there’s nowhere for his huge body to go in the narrow hall. Now, he looks defeated. “Okay. Yeah. I get it. I’m really sorry.” He jams his hands in his pockets. His hair is a crazy mess. “I don’t do one-night stands. It would’ve been a lapse in judgment on my part.”

“Yeah, looks like a lot of those seem to be happening around here.” I open the door and wait for him to step out into the hall. “I’ll talk to you later. Maybe.” I close the door before he can respond and flip the lock. I look through the peephole. He’s still standing there.

He clasps his hands behind his neck and does some weird jerky thing while he repeats fuck several times in a row. He makes a fist, and for a second I think he’s going to knock. I don’t see how he can fix this since he screwed my sister and then me, but something strange happens in my chest as I watch him walk down the hall, away from my door. A few seconds later he’s back. He grabs the doorjambs and shakes his head, griping to himself that he’s a fucking idiot. Once again he lifts his hand to knock,his expression determined, but his phone rings.

“Motherfucking fuck.” He pulls it out of his pocket and shakes his head, looking up at the ceiling. He brings the cell to his ear. “Hey.” This time he disappears down the hall and doesn’t come back.

I turn around to find my sister standing at the end of the hall, leaning against the wall, eating a chocolate pudding cup. “So that’s kind of crazy, huh? Like what are the chances we’d ever hook up with the same guy?”

“You’re not helping, Nev. I gave that guy my virginity, and now I find out he’s slept with you too.”

“Whoa, wait, what? Since when were you still a virgin?” she asks with a mouth full of chocolate pudding.

“Since until last night.” I brush past her into my room. I’d like a few minutes to have some kind of breakdown over this, but now it’s twenty after eleven, and I’m never going to make it on time if I take the damn bus.

She follows behind me, her shock evident in her high pitch. “Why didn’t I know that?”

“I don’t know. It’s never come up.”

“But I’m your sister, I should know these things. I just . . . wow. I figured you slept with that douchebag what’s his name back in your junior year of high school.”

I head for my closet. “He broke up with me because I wouldn’t sleep with him.”

“What a dick.”

“Seems like I’m good at finding those.”

“I’m so sorry, Cosy, but to be fair, I’ve slept with a lot of guys, and he has a sweet car, so I guess it’s not that wild, right? I mean, yeah, totally unexpected, but I can see how it would happen.”

“Are you trying to make me feel better or worse?”

She sets the chocolate pudding cup on my nightstand and sighs. “I know I can’t take it back, but I would if I could.”

“But you can’t and neither can he, so I guess that’s that.”

“It doesn’t have to be.”

I shoot her a disbelieving look. “I can’t be with someone who’s been with my sister. That’s just . . . twisted.”

“Was it good?” she asks.

“What?”

“The sex? Was it good?”

“Was it good for you?” I shoot back.

Nev raises one bony, bare shoulder, her expression somewhere between remorse and sadness. “I must’ve been pretty wasted because I can’t remember, which I guess is too bad, since Gary is pretty hot.”

“It’s Griffin, not Gary,” I snap as I flip aggressively through my shirts, looking for an STW one. I yank it off the hanger. “And yes. It was better than good. It was fucking amazing. I came during sex the first time I ever had it.”

“Seriously?”

“Seriously. And he was incredibly sweet and attentive, and now it’s all fucked up!” Dammit. I’m on the verge of tears.

Nev takes me by the shoulders. “Hey, listen to me. Banging in a Tesla was on my bucket list, and he fit the profile. He never called me. There wasn’t a second date. You and I both know I’m a party girl and someone’s arm candy and that’s it. It’s obvious this guy is digging you. I mean, look at all the effort he’s putting in. Don’t let his lapse in judgment with me ruin what sounds like a great first for you.”

I hate that my sister talks this way about herself. I hate that she thinks this is all she’s worth—a fuck in a pretty car with a pretty man.

“It’s weird, Nev. And awkward.”

“It’s only awkward if you make it awkward. Get dressed and I’ll drive you to work.”