“It means I said okay, but nothing else.”
“I think you need to do it, Celia. You’re going to torment yourself to death if you don’t.”
“You’re right.” I could argue with her logic, even though I wanted to.
“It’ll be great, Celia. Don’t worry. A man that’s spent that long talking to you has some self-control. He isn’t the kind that will run away just because you don’t look like what you want to look like. He knows your heart now, your passions, and what makes your brain tick over. This guy is a poet, I just know it.”
“Yeah, well, he’s not expecting to get me, no matter what you say. But I’ll do it. At some point.”
“Now, Celia. Before you lose your nerve.”
“Now? Are you kidding me?”
“Yes! Ask him to come and have a drink with us.” She smiled, pleased at her idea. I wasn’t so sure about it, but I picked up my phone. At least she’d be here if he laughed and walked away, but something inside me wanted to tell her the truth. I just couldn’t tell her that the only thing we did was dirty text with each other. No, not only would I lose the dirty texter, but I’d lose my one friend on campus. Something that I wasn’t willing to do.
Chapter Eleven
Keith
“Look, you started this shit, not me. You go meet her.” I stuck my head back into the textbook I’d been reading and tried to get back into it. I had a test in the morning and didn’t have time for girls, even ones I’d wanted to fuck for over a month.
“But you’re the smooth talker, Keith, not me.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” I closed the book and turned to my bro. “You’re the one that talks about how you want to take her against a wall until she sweetly screams your name. I tell her I want to bang her against the wall, with her ass sliding on my cock. You’re the poetic one.”
“Actually, Colin’s the one that asks her about who she is, what she does and all of that stuff,” my sensitive brother said. I knew that’s what this was about. He didn’t want to meet her because he was afraid he’d fuck it all up. A year ago, he’d have been eager to hook up but now? He wasn’t the man he used to be; I knew that much.
“Fine. I’ll go. But I’m not meeting her at that shitty diner. Tell her to meet us at the bar across the road. That way I can just bring her back to the house.” We lived in a brownstone mansion, something our little Iowa girl would gawp at I thought, but she’d probably be too timid to explore it until she got to know us better.”
“What’s going on?” Colin asked as he came into the living room where we usually congregated when we were at home. “What did I miss?”
“Our little texting friend wants to meet,” I said, with a triumphant smile on my face thinking that it was half the truth. I asked and she replied agreeing to it.
“Tonight.”
“Cool. Are you going?” It wasn’t even a question of which of us should go. He knew the girls couldn’t get enough of my charms.
. If any of us could reel her into our little game it was me. Grant would be too timid, and give the fucking game away, and ask for Colin? Well, he could be cold, which is why he was studying to be a surgeon. He had a heart of stone, I’m fairly certain. But our girl’s texts had caught his eye, just as I knew it would when I read the messages she’d exchanged with Grant.
After that first night, we all took turns talking to her, learning about her. We would read old messages she’d shared with one b
rother and continue the conversation as if we were the other brother. One man, three bodies. It was insane, I know, but fuck if it wasn’t good when we could share a woman like that. It brought us all together, in a way that nothing else ever had.
“Of course, I’m going. You think Mr. Broken-Wing over there can do it? Nah, I got this. You two just be out of sight if I come back with her. We don’t want to spring this on her too soon.”
“No problem. I’m beat. Tell me how it goes tomorrow.” Colin walked out and I heard his footsteps as he went up to his bedroom.
I took a deep breath and turned to Grant. “Tell her to give me twenty minutes, and then I’ll be at the bar.”
“Don’t you want to tell her what you’ll be wearing?” Grant asked, his face uncertain.
“No. I want to figure out which one she is.”
I ran up, showered, and changed before the ten-minute mark. A slight spray of cologne, a comb through my hair, and I was ready to go. My curiosity was piqued, mainly because I’d never seen little Miss Rachel again and she’d said this girl was her roommate. Now that she’d disappeared, I had the feeling she was playing some kind of game, but the friend was… interesting.
I kind of suspected this “friend” was Rachel but didn’t bank on it. I’d lost interest in the delights she might hold and if this friend had been set up by Rachel, then I felt bad for her. And I’d come to enjoy her texts too, there was no denying that. I wasn’t sure either of these girls was ready for me but ready or not, I was on my way.
I left the house with a jaunty step, dressed in a black sweater that fitted the muscular frame I worked hard to maintain, a pair of dark blue jeans, and a pair of leather loafers. Not too showy, but the watch on my left wrist and the ring on my right, my family’s crest, did that for me. Just enough bling to dazzle.
So, who was the sweet, innocent girl that could now type the word pussy without ten minutes of hesitation, I wondered? Was she even real, I had to wonder. I hadn’t discussed my concerns with my brothers, which was another reason I’d agreed to meet her instead of forcing Grant to do it. If there was fuckery afoot, I wanted to be the one that dealt with it.