Yes. “No. Well, maybe some of it.”
Try all of it.
I wanted to come clean to him, but I wasn’t in the mood for the metaphorical pineapple he was sure to shove up my ass for getting involved with her.
Plus, the fewer people who knew about Gabbi and me, the less the chances were of it ever getting back to Richard. Ryder would keep the secret, but shit happened.
He contemplated my answer, apparently finding it uns
atisfactory. “Who is she?”
“She’s nobody. Just a girl that I’ve been hanging out with.” I lied through my teeth.
“Hanging out with?” His voice was incredulous. “Do you mean fucking?”
“Both.” There, I could give him that much.
As it turned out, it wasn’t enough. “Since when do you hang out with women for longer than it takes you to get their panties to hit the floor?”
His tone was seriously rubbing me the wrong way. I hardly ever snapped at Ryder, but I did then. “Why don’t you get your panties out of their twist? I’m just having some fun, okay?”
“Consider them untwisted, asshole. Who is she? Her pussy must be made of gold if you’re willing to hang out with her to get it.” It was, but I wasn’t only hanging out with her to get some.
I could get some from just about any straight single girl by doing little more than smiling at her. Maybe even some of the married ones if I was that kind of man, which I wasn’t.
“You do realize that I am a human being who happens to enjoy good conversation from time to time. There is a body with a brain attached to my dick.” My fuse got shorter by the second.
“Yeah, but you used to separate the two. Why won’t you just tell me who she is?” Pushy motherfucker.
I’d had enough of his shit. “Why do you want to know so fucking badly? You don’t know her. I enjoy talking to her. End of story.”
He completely ignored the venom in my tone and returned it with ice and determination in his. “It is not the end of the fucking story. There’s a lot more to this. Is it serious?”
“Fuck no,” I answered without hesitation. Ryder knew me better than that. I didn’t do serious.
Even if Gabrielle was fun to be around. Even if she did make me feel shit that I didn’t know what to do with. At worst, I had a fucking crush or something. It would pass, probably sooner rather than later.
His eyebrows raised all the way to his dark dreads. “You sure?”
“Who’re you talking to, Ry? ‘Cause I’m sure that Ryder, the guy who’s known me for years, knows that I don’t do serious.” We both thawed out a little, allowing our frustration with each other to flow to our muscles and into our workout.
“James, the guy who I’ve known for years, has never blown off just about everything for some girl.” He threw my shitty reasoning right back at me.
“I told you, I’m just having some fun.” My brow was covered in sweat, and I was so far over this conversation that I was coming up on Timbuktu. “Since when do we gossip like teenagers about girls?”
“Since now, apparently. Who is she, James?” The man was tenacious; I had to give him that. Grudgingly.
A deep sigh ran through me. He wasn’t going to let me off the hook. It was time to get it over with. “It’s Gabrielle, okay. Gabrielle Ralls.”
Ryder went rigid. His jaw hit the ground as he turned to me. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
“No,” I admitted. “We met. Shit happened. We’re having fun.”
“Does she know that?” It would be an understatement to say that he looked doubtful.
“Yeah, of course.” We hadn’t talked about it, necessarily. Not in so many words, but I was sure that we were on the same page.
In fact, I was convinced that she’d only had dinner with me that first night to piss off her father.