The Last Thing She Wants (Chestnut Hills #1)

10

ellie

All week I had been evading Theo, making excuses for why I couldn’t work out with him.

Tuesday, I had dinner plans with my parents.

Which technically wasn’t untrue . Around lunchtime, I started panicking about seeing him after our kiss the night before. I quickly thought of an acceptable excuse: dinner with my parents. Who would balk at that? After texting him a half-baked story, I felt bad for lying and texted my mom that I was going to FaceTime them after dinner.

Wednesday, I told Theo I was overloaded with work.

In reality, I had jolted awake drenched in sweat after a steamy dream. I replayed it all morning in my head.

I’d just entered the elevator, ready to descend to the first floor. Just as the doors started to close, a hand reached out, stopping the doors mid-movement. Theo entered and did nothing to hide his obvious perusal of me. He smirked and in his deep voice, repeated the phrase from Monday. “Fuck. So hot. ”

Surprising me, he reached out and hit the emergency stop button, causing the elevator to slam to a halt. In seconds, he made his way to me from the door, so close I could feel my hair sway under his breath. He placed his hand on my shoulder and gently but firmly pushed me against the back wall of mirrors.

Standing in the same silk tank and shorts I wore that night, he hooked a finger under a strap and slid it down my arm. The tank was loose enough that when he did this, my left breast became exposed. He growled in approval. Before I could take another breath, his mouth was on me, pulling hard at my nipple and grazing it with his teeth as he pulled away…

Oh, yeah. I definitely couldn’t see Theo after that. I landed on giving him a work excuse with a large to-do list and flaked on the daily gym session. My actual plan was to consume the rest of the ice cream from my girl’s night with Daisy. Instead, I decided to wash the dishes and mop first. There, to-dos were done, and I was certainly overwhelmed.

On Thursday, I concocted another work excuse.

Unoriginal? Sure. Effective? Yes. I told him a large project had come up at work, to which Theo then asked if I was ignoring him. Of course, I had to deny it. What he didn’t know, however, was that the enormous project in question only came up in conversation. My Monday meeting with Charles to learn about my next assignment was moved to next week. There wasn’t any work to do just yet, but technically, it did come up.

Friday was different. Friday, I had plans with Daisy to go to Wild Cider, a local brewery and popular hangout spot on a Friday night, after work.

Brian, my friend from work, was playing with his band, the Assets. Originally having started as an after-work get- together for the accounting department, they slowly grew into a local staple as a classic rock cover band. Much to their joy and surprise, they realized they kicked ass.

One day in the breakroom, I overheard Brian talking to another accountant, Reid, about band practices. My interest piqued, I introduced myself.

Coincidentally, while waiting for my coffee to brew one morning, Brian overheard me singing a Taylor Black song. Since then, Brian had been hounding me to sing with them, just once. I agreed to go to a few practices, but Shane never let me make it past the front door when the band was involved. They never stopped inviting me, though, which was something I cherished about my friendship with the Assets. Even though they never said anything, I had a feeling they knew what I was going through.

My goal list floated to the forefront of my mind. “ Sing in front of an audience.” I let out an audible sigh, and I swore the cheery yellow sun on my journal cover mocked me from the living room. Maybe one day.

After the last week, I couldn’t wait to go out with Daisy. Nothing quite healed like a few drinks, good music, and my best friend. I wondered how many drinks and Fleetwood Mac covers would help me forget Monday.

Mindlessly dressing myself, I pulled on a pair of joggers and my favorite oversized shirt. The plain white tee-shirt had a little rip around the collar from over wear, but it was worn, stretched, and so comfy. It also just so happened to be Shane’s…but just because I got rid of the guy didn’t necessarily mean I had to get rid of my favorite clothes too, did it ?

Daisy’s face when I opened the door suggested otherwise. With a pronounced pout, Daisy called into the apartment, “I thought we are going out?”

I quirked an eyebrow in question. “We are!”

Turning to put her bag on the counter, she questioned over her shoulder. “Is that what you’re going to wear?” Daisy eyed my outfit and used her finger to point at me from head to toe.

“ Yes, this is what I’m going to wear.” I assessed myself and shot back defensively.

Daisy grabbed my hand, pulling me into my room and then into my closet. Pulling out random items of clothing, she carefully held them up to me as she hummed to herself. Stopping at a pair of flare jeans and a black ribbed tank, she shoved them into me as I reflexively grabbed them.

“Um, what’s this?”

“ This is what you’re changing into, ”pushing past me, she plopped onto the bed. “Well, you better hurry if we’re going to score a table. You know how packed Wild Cider gets on Fridays.”

Hesitating, I shook my head. “Daze, I’m not wearing this. I’ve just had an off week, and you know how I feel about wearing jeans. I don’t want to spend all night trying to hide my stomach.” My insecurities crept back in and a memory resurfaced of Shane telling me to change into something that hid my rolls better.

With a sympathetic look, Daisy softened her tone. “Ellie, I understand. Really, I do. But I think wearing an outfit like this would help you. The jeans are high waisted, so you won’t show off your midriff. They’re also the stretchy ones you like, so you’ll be comfortable. It doesn’t hurt that they also make your ass look amazing.” I smiled a little at that. “And the top is just the icing on the cake. I would kill to have your tits. The shirt will make them look amazing. You’ll have guys drooling over you left and right. It’ll totally help your confidence.”

I took a moment to think it over and decided that my best friend was right. Something a little more flattering would probably help my confidence. Haggling with her, I bargained pairing the tee-shirt with the jeans instead.

“Okay, I can get behind this.” Daisy perused me from her spot on the bed. “The shirt gives you a cute ‘messy but hot’ look. Where’d you get it?”

“It’s actually just a plain old undershirt,” she hummed in acknowledgement. Hesitantly, I admitted, “it was actually Shane’s…” drifting the tail end of the sentence to a whisper.

“What?” In a split-second Daisy was on her feet, charging me. I tried to push her away as she started trying to rip my shirt off. Falling to the ground, we both shrieked in surprise. I playfully slapped at her, but not before Daisy yanked the hem of the shirt over my head with a scream.

“Should I come back?” a deep voice laced with amusement carried in from the doorway.

I knew that voice.

“Oh, hi Theo.” I heard Daisy laugh through the fabric of my shirt that was wrapped around my head. Struggling to pull it down, I was painfully aware that I was wearing my oldest, plainest, beige-iest bra possible under my shirt…which Theo was likely now staring at.

Finally, fixing the shirt back in place, I smoothed over my midsection with my palms. “Hey, uh, Theo,” I could see Daisy smirk in my peripheral, “what’re you doing here?” Leaning to peek around him, I saw my front door sat ajar.

He pulled at the back of his neck. “Sorry, I heard you scream and saw the door was cracked, so I got worried.”

“Oh, I must not have closed it all the way earlier. Thank you for checking.” I nervously wrang my hands in front of me.

“A true hero, one might say,” Daisy said sweetly, sending a wink my way.

“Right, well, I’ll let you two get back to it. Have fun tonight.” I felt Theo’s gaze burning through me before he turned to leave.

“We’ll be at Wilde Cider if you want to stop by,” Daisy called just as he reached the front door.

“Okay, maybe I will. Thanks.” With one of those mega watt smiles, he disappeared, closing the door behind him.

My eyes grew to the size of saucers, and Iwilled them to shoot lasers. “Daze, what the fuck?”

“Consider it punishment for wearing Shane’s shirt.” Daisy scrunched her nose and picked up the black tank top and threw it at me. “Now throw that shit away and change into this. You might want to change your bra too, grandma.”

I unclasped my bra with one hand behind my back and slung it, hitting Daisy square in the face.