Making Up (Shacking Up 4)
“Bored, mostly. I liked geography and gym and art and that was about it. Math was okay but not my favorite. I liked English well enough, and better in junior and senior year when we could pick our own books for independent projects. I always picked travel stories.”
He settles back in his chair, eyes moving over me and snagging where the shirt gapes at my chest. “What about boyfriends?”
“I had a few.”
“Anything serious?”
“I dated one guy for most of freshman year, but his dad was in the military, so they moved when the school year finished, and that was the end of that. When I was a junior, I went out with a guy for almost a year, but he was the one who went to college and decided he needed free rein to screw whoever he wanted.” I pick a pickle off a slider and pop it into my mouth.
“He sounds like a real winner.” I like how unimpressed he is by this.
“He definitely wasn’t one of my better choices, that’s for sure. He didn’t even try to sugarcoat it. After his first week in college he told me if I wouldn’t give it up, he would find someone who would. So I told him to have at it. Within twenty-four hours of breaking up, he was posting party pictures on his social media with mostly naked women, so that was that.”
“What a dick.”
“I was better off without him. I watched my sister blow through boyfriends like underwear. She had a pretty terrible reputation in high school, and I wasn’t interested in dealing with the same crap she did, so I kind of took the opposite stance. Anyway, in the second half of senior year I started dating this guy, he was part of the cool crowd, sort of out of my league, you know?”
“You’re gorgeous.”
“I was awkward in high school, and I didn’t care much about fitting in, not like Nev. So I’d been seeing this guy for a couple of months, and he hadn’t been super pushy like I expected. He asked me to prom, and I kind of had it in my head that was a good time to give it up, which is stupid and cliché, but there it is. A couple of weeks before prom, I found out the only reason he was dating me at all was because he wanted to claim my V-card. I guess it was like a thing because I was the non-slutty Felton.”
“It sounds like you went to school with a lot of assholes.”
“Pretty much. Needless to say, I didn’t end up going to prom with him. It sort of soured me on the whole relationship thing. Then I started traveling a lot, and college guys are worse than high school ones, so I ended up holding onto my V-card a lot longer than I ever planned to.” Man, champagne and orgasms make me chatty. I spin the conversation around. “What about you? Were you wild in high school? Did you play football and date all the cheerleaders? I bet you were popular.”
“My younger brother Lex was the popular one. He had friends in every social circle. I was pretty quiet and kept to myself, but I did play football. Didn’t date any cheerleaders, though.”
“Really?” I don’t know why that’s surprising. Half the time Griffin seems like an old soul trapped in a young-ish body.
“I dated the same girl throughout high school, starting freshman year. She was a dancer, and we broke up when she went to France for college.”
“She’s the one you popped your cherry with?”
He smiles. “Yes.”
“You dated for three years before you boned each other?”
His smile widens. “She wanted to wait, so we waited. Don’t worry, I wasn’t deprived.”
I poke my cheek with my tongue. “Nothing like a good consolation blow job to tide you over until she gave up the goods, huh?”
“Something like that.”
“Have you seen her since high school?”
“We kept in touch. She’s married to a French guy and has two little girls.”
“What about in college? Did you screw your way through all the coeds?”
“Nope. I met a girl during frosh week, and we dated until we graduated. She went to med school across the country, and we realized it wasn’t going to work, so we parted ways.”
“And after college?”
“I dated a bit, had a couple of shorter relationships and one longer one.”
“What’s shorter for you?”
“Less than a year.”
“Geez. You’re like a serial monogamist. How long was your last serious relationship?” I don’t know why I’m asking these questions. Maybe because I find it fascinating that he’s been in so many committed relationships. I can’t imagine how much it would hurt to lose someone who had been such a huge part of my life for so long.
Even though my high school exes ended up being dicks, they still left holes in my heart when we broke up. I didn’t like that feeling, that overwhelming sadness over the loss of someone who had been so important. Feeling used and emotionally vulnerable. So I never let it get that far again with anyone. Moving around a lot makes it easy to keep your heart safe because you know it’s coming to an end sooner rather than later.