“Ugh,” Stella shudders. “The image,” she says before faux gagging, making me laugh. “And you don’t want a repeat?” Her brow lifts accusingly.
“Hell yeah, I do.” A downright wicked smile pulls at Stella’s lips. “Last Friday was… yeah.” I rub the back of my neck awkwardly as I get as close as I have yet to talking about it honestly.
“You can talk to me, Toby. Nothing you say in confidence will ever leave my lips again.”
“I know. I know. I trust you, Stel. I do. It just… I don’t even know how to process it all, other than to turn it into anger, let alone talk about it.
“She was amazing,” I confess in favour of avoiding talking about feelings. “The whole night was pretty insane, to be fair.”
“Oh my God, you’ve fallen for her.” Stella grins.
“What? No. It’s been a week, and I’ve only seen her twice since.”
‘Oh my God,’ Stella mouths excitedly, bouncing on the sofa.
“Do not do that,” I say, pointing at where her arse is actually leaving the cushion. “We’re just having some fun. She’s a good…”
“Lay?”
“Distraction,” I say with a laugh.
“She’s a good lay too though, right? I mean, she let you take her to a fucking sex club on your first night. She must be hella kinky.”
My lips part to agree, but all I end up doing is laughing.
“This,” I say, gesturing between the two of us, “isn’t fucking normal.”
“Fuck normal, Tobes. Nothing about our lives is normal. You might be my brother, but you were my friend first, and I don’t want things to get all fucked-up and awkward just because we share some DNA. We like sex, so fucking what? Hell, you’ve seen me at it enough. You shouldn’t feel weird telling me about some wild night.”
“Jesus, Stella.”
“What? I’m just saying, own it. None of us give a shit if you’re into some kinky stuff. And clearly, your new girl must be more than willing.” She wiggles her eyebrows at me.“I’m going to need to meet this girl, by the way. I think we could be friends.”
“Yeah, no. That is not happening.”
“Spoilsport.” She pokes her tongue out at me and I laugh.
“If you convince Seb to take you to Hades—not that I think he’ll need all that much convincing—make sure you tell me when. I am not walking in on that… again.”
“Prude,” she snorts.
“Oh yeah, that’s the issue,” I mutter before draining my beer. “You hanging out or…” I glance down toward my bedroom, more than aware that I need to shower before heading back out to find Jodie.
“I’m hanging, but don’t think that you’re going to get away without answering more of my questions.”
Pushing from the sofa, I drop my bottle in the kitchen and immediately grab another. “Knew I should have shut the door in your face.”
“Charming,” she mutters, her voice closer than I was expecting.
“What are you doing?”
“Well… you’re making me another, and then we’re going to do a quick-fire round about your new girl while you shower.”
I stare at her, waiting for her to laugh or tell me she’s joking. She never does.
So, exactly as she described, we spend the next twenty minutes with me in the bathroom and her chilling out on my bed while shooting a million and one questions to me about Jodie.
Some I managed to dodge. Others seemed innocent enough that I answered honestly. When I refused to tell her the details of our night in Hades, her voice got that dangerous tone I’ve heard her use on Seb before, and I seriously thought she was going to march into the room and torture the information out of me.