Comfort Zone (Awkward Love 4)

Becca giggles. “I’m sorry I missed that.” She glances my way again. “Hey, can I be completely honest with you about something?” She bites her lip and studies my face. “This is so hard for me to talk about, but I feel like we’re getting closer…”

“Sure.”

“I went back to the club to try and work out what happened,” she admits.

“Really? And did you find out anything?”

“Yes and I’m really embarrassed about it.” She shakes her head, clearly distraught over this. “I hooked up with a stripper in a private room,” she blurts out. “I was horrified at first, but when she went into detail about what we did, I got so turned on that I…”

“You what?” I cough.

It’s taking everything I have not to ask for an in-depth description, even though I know it didn’t happen. Just the idea of it has me ready to explode.

“I asked her out and she said yes.” She sighs, a dreamy smile spreading across her face. “The thought of seeing her again and exploring her body…”

“You’re going out with her?” I ask, shocked.

“Yes. Why?” She stares at me, startled.

“No reason,” I mutter. I stand up and toss some bills on the table. “We should probably keep moving.”

Shit.

This isn’t what I was hoping for.I turn back onto the freeway, keeping my eyes on the road and click on some music. I don’t trust myself to look at Becca, but it’s hard when she’s right there, sneaking looks at me every few minutes. If I’d been upfront with her from the start, then she wouldn’t have gone searching for answers. I’d secretly loved the fact that she had no idea whether we had slept together but didn’t have the nerve to ask me.

After everyone else had stumbled home after the party, I found the stripper Becca kissed and asked her straight up if anything happened. I hate admitting it, but after kissing her twice that night, I was jealous at the thought of Becca with someone else.

“This has gotten really awkward, hasn’t it? Can we maybe forget our last conversation ever happened?” she asks suddenly. “Where did you go to college?” She smiles at me, trying hard to change the subject.

I frown at her, not convinced this will work, but I give it a go.

“New York. I wanted to get as far away from my family as possible,” I admit.

“You don’t get along with your parents?”

“Mom I do,” I say. “But Dad and I don’t really get along. We don’t see eye to eye on a lot of things.” Becca should understand that, working in his office and all.

“Are you just too different or is he not a nice person?”

I’m surprised by her question, but then it hits me. She doesn’t realize who my father is. She sees him every day, yet she has no idea who he is. It’s no secret that the president of university is my father, but I guess I don’t announce it, either.

“He’s opinionated,” I finally say. “He has his way of doing things and if you stray from that, then he’ll hold a grudge for life. What about you? Do you get along with your parents?”

She nods. “Mostly, they’re great, but just embarrassing as hell. I know I should be grateful to have such good parents, but even now, at twenty-seven, I feel like a teenager, with some of the shit they do. It’s just…” She shakes her head. “Mom followed me into a sex shop on the way to Jake’s bachelor party the other night and she knocked over a display of tiny Pac-Man style penises.”

“What?” I laugh. “You’re kidding.”

“Wait.” She giggles. “I have evidence.” She pulls out her phone and shows me a picture of her poor mom sprawled out on the floor being eaten alive by penises.

“I can’t believe you took a picture of that.” I chuckle. “Harsh.”

“She would’ve done the same thing to me.” She shrugs and shoves her phone back into her bag. “Speaking of that night…” She hesitates for a moment. “You said nothing happened between us, other than a kiss?”

I nod, not sure where this is going.

“You weren’t in your right mind and I wouldn’t take advantage of you like that.”

“But did you want to?”

I swallow, my hands clenching around the steering wheel.

“More than you know…”Chapter ElevenLiamThe silence that fills the car makes me regret ever making that admission. The awkwardness between us lasts the entire two hours left, until we pull into my mother’s driveway. I turn off the ignition and glance at Becca. I’m not sure bringing her on this drive was a good idea. Maybe handling this on my own would have been a better option than asking her to help me. That, or I should have made Jake come. I’m not even sure why he couldn’t, aside from Brooke freaking out. When he asked me, the only thing running through my mind was how I could use it to get to know Becca.