I stopped moving. Her words shook me, but I was unwilling to accept that she was right.
When I didn’t say anything, she added, “We’ve had many drunken conversations, Hollis. You told me yourself once that the only two women you’ve ever loved—your mother and Anna—disappeared on you. You said you’d never make the mistake of getting attached to anyone again. If you thought you could just have meaningless sex with Elodie, and that would be it, you’d be running toward this situation and not away from it. You see the potential for something more here. And that scares you.”
Speaking of running away, I needed to get the fuck out of this conversation.
I walked back over to my desk and rustled some papers. “I’m behind on some admin stuff.”
“See? This is what you do. You run away before you have to deal with things that hurt.” She stopped in front of my desk and leaned into it until I had no choice but to look at her. “Stop letting your past determine your future, Hollis. Allow it to make you a better person, not a bitter one.”
I shut my eyes briefly. “I get what you’re saying. But even if I didn’t have whatever issues you think I have, anything more than a business relationship with Elodie is not a possibility because of Hailey. So this isn’t open for discussion.”
After Addison left, her words haunted me. I knew she was right.
Still, I was unwilling to accept the possibility of something more happening with Elodie. I needed a distraction. That meant I needed to get off on something other than Elodie’s underwear.
Hailey had a sleepover on Friday night. I’d have the apartment to myself for the first time in a while. I picked up my phone and sent a text to someone I knew would be a sure thing with no strings attached.Hollis: My place Friday night?Chapter 17* * *ElodieI was shaking. Literally shaking. What’s wrong with me? I’d started this game, but now I was nervous.
Hollis and I hadn’t said a peep to each other this morning. I couldn’t tell if he was embarrassed or angry at me for what I’d done. And he wouldn’t look at me long enough so I could figure it out.
Hailey and I had ended up having a busy day, so I’d had no opportunity to venture into Hollis’s bedroom to check things out. I’d taken her to buy clothes at Justice using her uncle’s credit card. We then went to Dylan’s Candy Bar and loaded up on sugar before returning to the apartment.
Now that we were back, Hailey had gone to her room while I worked in the kitchen, prepping dinner.
She entered the kitchen several minutes later and asked, “Would it be okay if I went downstairs to Kelsie’s?”
Kelsie was the only kid around Hailey’s age who lived in the building. I looked over at the clock. It would be about an hour and a half until Hollis came home. Since I knew her leaving would give me the opportunity to snoop like I’d been dying for, I was all for it.
“Is her mom going to be home?”
“Yeah. I heard her say it was okay.”
“Just an hour. I want you home before your uncle gets back.”
“Alright.”
“Actually, I’ll walk you downstairs.”
It wasn’t that I didn’t trust her. But I knew the type of stuff I’d pulled when I was around her age. At the very least, I needed to make sure she was going where she said she was.
Once I made sure Kelsie’s mother was really home, I returned upstairs to the empty apartment.
My heart raced as I made my way into Hollis’s bedroom.
I went straight for the pillow and lifted it to find my hot pink panties exactly where I’d left them the day before. Could he have not seen them? I pondered that—until I smelled them. They reeked of his musky scent. Could it be from the pillow? I wasn’t sure. All I knew was that my thong now smelled like Hollis. And that turned me on very much. I squeezed the muscles between my legs. I’d teased him about being a perv, but who was the perv now? That was all I could think as I sat there on his bed, sniffing my own damn underwear.
I didn’t know what to do. Did I continue this game? Or did I stop it and let him make a move if he wished to continue?
In the end, I slipped off my panties again. Except this time, I placed them in his bedside drawer. Make him look for them. Change things up.***The following day, Hailey and I rode bikes around the neighborhood and took lunch to Central Park, where we rollerbladed.
I’d specifically planned activities that would require Hailey to take a shower when we got back. Actually, we both had to shower. I went first.