“There.” Easton leaned against the bathroom’s door frame. “Order restored.”
I worked at my right eye. “How much did you talk to Aaron tonight?”
“Not much. Chelsea had him running around a lot. Why?”
I chucked the cotton ball and ran the sink, pulling a washcloth off the top of the stack and holding it under the water. “I feel like there’s something going on between him and Chelsea.”
He pulled at the knot of his tie. “Like what? You think they’re hooking up?” He said it as if it was no big deal, as if that wouldn’t be a monumental event that would change everything about our joint friendship.
I hesitated. “Do you think they’re hooking up?”
“No.” He pulled the tie loose from his neck. “Are you still wearing those thongs?” He cocked one brow and ran his hand underneath the hem of my dress. “Damn, you are.”
“Babe, focus.” I squirted a dollop of face wash onto the cloth. “This is serious.”
“Okay, I seriously don’t think they’re hooking up. Aaron would tell me. And Chelsea?” He tossed his tie toward the closet. “Don’t you think she’d rent out billboard space to announce that to you?”
He had a point. I rubbed the soapy rag over my face, scrubbing at the areas where my blackheads liked to hide. Chelsea would definitely tell me if she did anything with Aaron. Just like, I’m sure, she assumes that I would definitely tell her if I did anything with Aaron.
But I hadn’t. I’d kept it a secret from her.
Maybe she was keeping this a secret from me. But why? At least I’d had a reason.
I bent over the sink and splashed water on my face. Easton’s watch clunked against the counter, followed by his wedding ring. I turned off the faucet and reached for a towel. “I just felt like there was something between them. Something new. A chemistry.”
“You worried he’s going to tell her about us?”
“I’m worried that I should tell her about it. What if they started dating? She would need to know that.” I got busy with my toothbrush.
“Why?” He moved behind me and undid the clasp at the back of my dress, pulling down the zipper.
I tried to conjure a parallel situation. “If Aaron wanted to ask out a girl, and you had had sex with her, wouldn’t you tell him that?”
“Aaron wouldn’t care.” He watched as I scrubbed at my teeth. “He wouldn’t. Seriously. Guys don’t care about stuff like that, especially if it’s just sex.”
“Well, women care. A lot. Especially in this situation, where we’re all friends. This is a secret that three out of the four of us knows about, and she’s going to be pissed when she finds out.” I know I would be royally pissed. Anxiety rose in my stomach and I leaned forward and spit into the sink.
“Okay, so tell her.” He unclipped my bra and I wiped my mouth.
“You aren’t focusing.”
“I can’t focus when your gorgeous breasts are right here in hands’ reach.” He ran his hands around my side and up the front of my body, cupping them in each hand. “There,” he whispered reverently, squeezing them gently. “Now you have my full attention.”
“It’s teeth whitening night.”
He sagged in place. “Nooooo.”
“Don’t give me that. We had sex earlier. You can cup my gorgeous breasts while I put them on, if that helps.”
“It doesn’t help.” He dropped his hands. “Nothing helps the agony of teeth whitening strips.”
I laughed. “Shut up and brush yours. Use the stiff toothbrush.”
He moved to the other sink, his steps slow and posture heavy, as if I was subjecting him to hours of manual labor and not thirty minutes with a WhiteStrip. He lifted the toothbrush and stared at it for a long moment. “This was not in our vows.”
“Yeah, well. A lot of what we do wasn’t in our vows.”
“Speaking of which… did you think about what we talked about? Doing something else?”
I huffed out a laugh, and passed him the tube of toothpaste. “You mean, since the ride to Chelsea’s? No. I haven’t thought about it.” But I had. One of the male strippers had eye-fucked me so hard I had considered pointing him out to Easton. Maybe introducing him to Easton. Leaving the two of them to discuss possibilities while I found an empty bedroom and waited for them on my knees.
Then I remembered that I was at a party with two hundred witnesses. Chelsea. Aaron. Tina from my office. I remembered that I was a semi-respectable member of society, trying to grow a business and reputation in this cutthroat town. I remembered how quickly rumors spread and how harmful they could be. I had turned away from the man and sipped on my cranberry and vodka and pushed the thought out of my head.
Now, I considered sharing the fantasy with Easton. Meeting his gaze in his mirror, I held my tongue and smiled instead. “I’ll think about it.”