Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 60931 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 305(@200wpm)___ 244(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60931 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 305(@200wpm)___ 244(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
I piece together my words without completely exposing myself. “You. I was having sex with my neighbor, Eric, whom I thought liked what he’d read … who I thought liked my favorite book.”
“I like you.” He grabs my face before I can step back or stop him from getting a firm hold on me. “I like your passion for books. I like your passion for life. Your smile that you can’t seem to hide from me. Your laughter …” He shakes his head. “Baby, when you laugh, it’s the best sound—the best feeling—in the world. You look at me like you’re always two seconds away from attacking me. I like that you’d rather walk in the rain than take an Uber. I like that you shut off the shower in the middle of a blow job because you’re worried about wasting water. I swear your lips were turning blue by the time I …” he bites his lips together.
By the time he came in my mouth.
They were … my lips were blue, and I was shivering from head to toe, but I didn’t care because I wasn’t distracted by wasting water, which meant I could focus on his face. I love the look he gives me when I do that to him. It’s painful gratitude … as if he loves it yet feels guilty at the same time.
Eric rests his forehead on mine. “Can we be an us without twenty-four chapters of something that doesn’t matter?”
Life is what happens outside the bound story. Life isn’t the letters on the page; it’s what inspires those words.
His words echo in my mind.
“I’m not the guy who lets you walk away. So I’ll do whatever. I’ll write a five-star review for your favorite book. I’ll recite your favorite lines, but I won’t let fiction come between us.”
“Jesus …” I whisper, tearing my face from his hands. This sucks so much. “You’re nearly perfect.”
He shakes his head. “I’m not, and I told you I don’t want to be perfect.”
I grunt a bitter laugh. “This doesn’t have to be awkward. We can be neighbors, even friends. But it does have to be over.” My lips pull into a sad smile. “Bye, Eric.”
“Anna … you can’t be serious.”
I turn and carry the last of the bags to the stairs without looking back. He’s confused, and I’m embarrassed and heartbroken. It’s nobody’s fault. I wish that made it hurt a little less, but it doesn’t.
CHAPTER TEN
“Nine out of ten people like your book choice.” Freya does her best to comfort me when I feed her the “I don’t want to talk about it” line for a solid week after ending things with Eric. “And one out of ten people like it when you sit on their face.”
I flick a french fry at her face as we eat our favorite veggie burgers from the new restaurant across from the bouldering gym. “Shut up.”
“Speaking of face-sitting … Adrian will be here this weekend.”
“No. Way!” I find my first genuine smile since book club. “Should we start shopping for your wedding gown?”
“I hope so, but I want to give him a chance to have second thoughts in person. I mean … I can be a handful.”
“True.” I push my plate away, stuffed. “But I’m not worried about it, and you shouldn’t be either. You’re a great catch.”
“Thanks. Can I ask a favor?” She wipes her mouth with the napkin.
“Sure. Whatcha need?”
“I need the place to myself this weekend. I’ll pay for you to stay at a hotel. A nice one with a great view.”
“It’s fine.” I laugh. “Trust me; I don’t want to be in the next room when all the sexual tension explodes. I’ll stay with my parents for the night. No need to pay for a hotel room when they live fifteen minutes from here.”
“You sure?”
“Positive.”
“You could stay with a certain neighbor.”
“Nice try. I’d stay with Carson first.”
“I thought you said Carson has a new girlfriend.”
I shrug. “He does.”
She coughs. “You’d stay with a guy whom you have sex with on the regular when he has a girlfriend? What if she were with him?”
“It’s not like I’d sleep in their bed with them. I’d stay on the couch.”
“And … that wouldn’t be weird?”
“We’re friends. And sometimes we have sex. We know there’s a line, and we both respect that line.”
“You didn’t have a line with Eric?”
“Eric consumed me.”
“Face-sitting. I know. Enough bragging about that.”
I fling another fry at her face. “Stop it.” I grin. “His confidence consumed me. It was so effortless. Things that shouldn’t be sexy—not even a little bit—he made them sexy.”
Like a mating dance.
“The problem was I liked him too much and cared about his opinion too much. So as trivial as disagreeing about a book probably seems to everyone else, it mattered to me. And as hard as I tried not to let it bother me, it did.” I glance at my watch. “I have to get back to work.”