NOAH: At work. Didn’t want to wake you. Left you the spare key by the kitchen sink so you can lock up if you leave.
NOAH: Not that you have to leave. I finish at one if you want to stay at mine.
NOAH: There’s some female shit in the bathroom from when my mom visited last month. Shampoo and shit. I left you towels just in case.
I smiled. I wasn’t going to stay, but I appreciated the offer. I had to get home to get my ass whooped by my mom for giving her a heart attack, after all. But I would take him up on that shower.
ME: Thanks! My mom is pissed at me for not telling her I was staying out, so I need to go home. Do you want me to hide the key?
My phone beeped that the battery was almost dead. I grimaced and glanced around the room, my eyes falling on a lead on the other side of the bed. I launched myself over with a silent prayer that it would fit my phone and just about peed with happiness when I saw that it did.
I plugged it in and left it on Noah’s pillow before I went in search of his bathroom. It was weird walking around his house totally naked, so I grabbed my boobs with my arm and ran to the nearest door.
It was, thankfully, the bathroom.
I closed the door in case Poosh came up—I didn’t know if she could get her little legs up the stairs, and anyway, I didn’t know if she was a voyeur or not.
I turned on the shower and hunted through the drawers and the cupboard above the sink. I desperately needed to take off my makeup, but the chances that Noah would have anything to remove it with were slim. Still, I was nothing if not determined, and my search paid off with a half-empty packet of wet wipes that weren’t entirely wet anymore.
Between almost all the wipes and a sponge, I managed to get yesterday’s makeup off my face and stepped into the shower. As he’d said, there was shampoo and conditioner on the shelf, and I washed the mess out of my hair.
Thank God I had hair ties in my purse.
When I was done soaking under the hot water, I stepped out and wrapped myself in the towels. I winced a little at the fact they were white. My hair had a tendency to leak a little purple after it’d been washed, especially when the color was fresh like mine was.
Note to self: buy Noah a new towel.
I clutched the towel over my boobs and went back into the bedroom. I wished like hell I’d stuffed a pair of clean panties into my purse, just in case, but Ava had talked me out of it.
I blew out a long breath and sat on the side of the bed Noah had slept on. My phone showed a few new messages again, and I bit the inside of my cheek when I opened the one from my mom.
MOM: OH MY GOD YOU’RE ALIVE
MOM: U can sleep with who u like but just tell me ur out next time!!!!!!!!
Yeah… Thanks, Mom?
ME: I’ll be home soon. Can you or dad pick me up from Noah’s? It’s the other side of town.
MOM: Ur dad is doing deliveries, he’ll be done in an hour. Text me the address. XOXOX
I did just that with a huge thank you and another apology before I checked Halley’s response.
HALLEY: NOAH’S??? DID YOU SLEEP WITH HIM?
HALLEY: Hahahahaahaha Ava owes me $20
Right.
Of course.
Their bet.
No wonder Ava had talked me out of packing spare panties.
ME: Good, you can buy me a drink with that if you wanna know about it.
What? I wasn’t going to give that information away for free. I moved on to Noah’s reply.
NOAH: Don’t worry about the key. I’ll get it next time I see you.
My lips twitched into a smile. The thought of seeing him again unleashed butterflies in my stomach. It was stupid because we had such a great connection, but if last night had taught me anything, it was that I had feelings for Noah.
Strong, solid feelings.
Ones that I didn’t think were going to go anywhere anytime soon.
Even if they did scare me a little.
Okay, they scared me a lot. He was the kind of guy who could break my heart—and not just break it but decimate it. He was literally my dream guy. He ticked every single box I had and probably some I wasn’t yet aware of.
And he was just so damn perfect for me, and that was definitely a scary thing.
I could see myself falling in love with Noah. If I’d known him any longer than two weeks, I’d say I already was. I didn’t believe you could fall in love quickly, so it really didn’t matter how strong my feelings for him were.