His conflicting insides continued to rattle him as he stood there trying desperately to convince himself this was no big deal. Yet, his instincts knew better. He’d been home free, for fucks sake. Could’ve already been at one of his regulars getting that much needed tension relief. Instead, he was still standing there inside Vannah’s dorm room, fighting the incredibly stupid urge to lean in and kiss her.
The buzz in his pocket broke him out of his thoughts. “That’s me,” Vannah smiled. “This way you’ll know who it is when your clothes are ready, and I text you.”
“You really don’t have to get them clean, Vannah.” Byron pulled out his phone and clicked on the envelope.
“So, I’ll just wash them then. I have laundry to do tomorrow anyway. Works out perfect.”
Byron glanced at the smiley face she sent, shaking off the visuals of his shorts bouncing around in the same dryer as her panties. “Alright then.” He slipped the phone back in his pocket before he got any more visuals, or worse, gave into any temptations that might lead to even bigger regrets than the ones he was already having. “I gotta get going.”
After thanking him a few more times, Vannah finally bid him a farewell and he was off. The entire way home as Byron drove with her lingering scent still in his car, he tried desperately to understand what it was about this girl. He tried to understand, why the possibility of getting to know her further unnerved him so much. For the life of him he couldn’t figure it out.
Eight
Innocent Conniving
Vannah
Waiting impatiently on Xochitl’s bed, Vannah practically squirmed. She’d been up way late unable to sleep just thinking about everything that happened the night before, so she’d slept in today. Byron was beyond gorgeous and the sexiest man she’d ever met. But she still had no idea what to make of his demeanor, and she was dying to talk to Xochitl about it. Only by the time Vannah woke today, Xochitl was in the shower. It felt like the longest shower in the history of the world, as Vannah waited for her to emerge from the bathroom.
“Oh my gawd,” Xochitl moaned as she walked into her bedroom wrapped in a towel. “I’ve taken two aspirins already, stood under the cool water for so long, and my head is still pounding. What happened last night?”
“What happened?” Vannah asked unbelievably. “You don’t remember?”
Xochitl shook her head with a frown. “I don’t. I just remember being at the noisy party one moment talking to some guy and then I woke here.”
“Some guy? Byron?”
“Who?”
“Byron. Beast’s brother from 5th Street?”
With a blank expression Xochitl stared at Vannah shaking her head. “He was there?”
“No!” Vannah groaned slumping her shoulders. “I’ve been waiting all this time to ask you how he approached you and what he said.”
“Byron approached me?”
“Yes,” Vannah said feeling incredibly disappointed. “You disappeared and I couldn’t find you. Someone said you left with a guy. A guy who was all over you, so I ran out to look for you. I saw him helping you into his car and stopped him.”
Vannah explained about accusing him of trying to take advantage of Xochitl as her friend listened intently, jaw dropping further with every word Vannah said. She gave her Byron’s version of what really happened and that in the end she believed him because it all made sense. But she’d still been anxious to hear Xochitl’s side of it.
“You really don’t remember any of it?”
Staring out into nothing and suddenly looking anxious, Xochitl shook her head slowly. “I just remember talking to that guy, the one we’d been talking to earlier.”
“The really pushy one, right?” Vannah nodded. “With the big gap in his front teeth?”
“Yeah, and then it’s all a blur.” She closed her eyes and concentrated. “It was crowded and—” Her eyes flew open. “I threw up.”
“Yes, you did!” Vannah said hoping that would jog any memories of Byron, since it happened in front of him. “By Byron’s car.”
“I don’t remember where or when, all I recall is how awful it felt.”
“Ugh!” Vannah fell back on the bed, but then sat right back up. “Anyway, you’ll be so proud of me. I even got his number.”
“You did?”
Filling her in as quickly as she could on how everything happened starting from the beginning, Xochitl hung on her every word, moaning in mortification at some parts and it had Vannah giggling. “You didn’t do anything stupid or to embarrass yourself. Mostly you were out of it. Then ended up passing out altogether.”
“Uh, spewing out in front of a frat house full of partying students, and then passing out is pretty damn embarrassing, Vannah.”
As usual Vannah was in stitches suddenly. But she attempted to compose herself, so she could tell Xochitl the rest. “But you were right about him being intense, holy shit.”
Vannah explained about Joseph and how there was no way she was going to wait for him or an Uber to get through that traffic. “So, when I called to let him know we weren’t going to wait for him, Joseph assumed I’d called an Uber. I just said we had because given the circumstances and me sitting right next to Byron, I didn’t want to get into the whole explanation and as soon as I hung up, he starts calling me a liar.”
“What?”
The expression on her usually irritable friend made Vannah laugh again, but she went on because she was eager to get to the best part. Xochitl got dressed as Vannah gave her the blow by blow of the intense conversation she’d had with him. “He was almost smug about hitting it on the nose that this is my first time away from, quote unquote, mommy and daddy, and that I don’t do the boyfriend thing.”
“What the hell?”
“I know, right?” Vannah winced now dreading having to tell her the next part but she did anyway. “I slipped and said his name before he even had a chance to tell me it.”
Xochitl’s eyes went wide again, like they had so often throughout the conversation, but she smirked. “You did? What did he say?”
“Well, this was all in the midst of him questioning why I lie, and he was more into that than wondering how I knew his name, but he did ask later. At first it was an easy explanation. I’d heard it when they called out his order at Starbucks.” Wincing again, she braced herself. “But then later I slipped again when I mentioned I knew where he worked . . .” Once again Xochitl went all goggled eyed and Vannah shut hers. “I sort of put it on you.”
Laughing at Xochitl’s exasperated gasp, Vannah opened her eyes and went on quickly again, telling her how she did her best to explain it as if it were no big deal that they’d stalked him online. “Which was stupid because you know me, there was no shortage of blushing through it all. So, I’m sure he didn’t buy for a minute that it was just a casual, looking him up, thing.”
Vannah felt her face heat as she relived the mortification of that moment but went on. “Anyway—” She stopped when her phone dinged, and she glanced down at the screen in her lap. “That’s Nena. I’ll text her back later. But in case you talk to her, I don’t want her knowing anything about Byron.”