“Nothing?”
“It’s possible I fucked it up.”
Andrew looked surprised, though he shouldn’t have. “It’spossible?Fucked it up how?”
Just talking about this brought a tension headache to my temples. I had never done anything more difficult in my life than turn Evie down yesterday. But I couldn’t think of what else I could have done.
No, that was a lie. Icouldthink of it. And I did. A lot. But I still didn’t think I was wrong.
Andrew was waiting for an answer, and I told Andrew everything, so I said, “I fucked it up by not having sex with her.”
“What?” Andrew said. “I thought you weren’t sleeping with her.”
“I’m not. Thanks for the reminder of my blue balls, though. She asked, and I said no.”
“Uh huh,” Andrew said, disbelieving. “So the redhead asked you for sex.”
“Yes.”I think some dirty, dirty sex would make it better. And I think you’re the guy to provide it. Damn, I would be hearing those words on my deathbed. When I would still be regretting saying no.
“And you turned her down,” he continued.
“I had to,” I explained. “She was only asking because she was emotional. She’d just been almost fired from her job, and she’d had a big fight with her douchebag ex. He wasn’t only cheating with Gina, but someone else, too. She was in a crazy mood. She was up and down and sideways all at once.”
Andrew scratched an eyebrow thoughtfully. “What did she do when you said no?”
“She got mad, and hurt,” I said. Fuck, I hadn’t meant to hurt her. That part stung. “She told me to take my chivalry and shove it.”
“She told you that, and you still said no?” my brother said.
“It was bad,” I admitted. “It was very fucking bad. Maybe I didn’t handle it right. I have no idea. But having sex right then would have been worse.” I didn’t say the worst part: Sex, right then, would have ended us. That was the part I didn’t say. Because it sounded ridiculous, not wanting to end something that didn’t exist in the first place.
Andrew shook his head. “How you have so many women, and know so little about them, amazes me.”
“Because I nevertalkto them, buttwipe,” I said.
“So, talk to this one,” he said. “Call her.”
“And say what?”
He counted on his fingers. “I’m sorry, I hope you’re okay, I think you’re hot even though I totally fucking hurt your feelings. There’s a starter script. Go from there.”
“She’ll get the wrong idea,” I said.
“Like what? That you actually like her?”
I glared at him. Because yeah, that was what I meant. I didn’t want her to know I liked her.
I didn’t like her. It was just a revenge thing.
Except I sort of did. This was Evie. What was not to fucking like?
Jesus, I was a fucking mess.
“Fine,” I said, like I was doing Andrew a favor. “I don’t know why I take your advice about women, when you know even less about them than I do.” I pulled out my phone and stood up. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
“Sure,” Andrew said. “Take your time.”
The fact that he was so agreeable probably meant that he had some secret way of listening in, but I couldn’t be bothered with that right now. I stepped out onto his front porch and dialed Evie’s number.