She didn’t have an answer to his question and she shared that by replying, “Fuck you.”

“Great,” he muttered, bending and reaching for his socks.

Boy, he could pick them.

Just like his dad.

He turned his back on her to sit on the bed and pull his socks on.

“You know, maybe I thought we were starting something,” she said to his back.

He twisted to her. “And maybe we would have been if you didn’t call me a dick.”

She threw out both arms. “So it’s me calling you a dick and not you kicking me out of your bed that puts us here?”

He stood again and turned to her. “No, it was me actually being a dick and making a call when you were sleeping, ’cause, you see, Kristy, I live alone so I’m not used to having a woman sleeping beside me in bed. Especially that woman bein’ you, since I only met you tonight, so I didn’t think, and I should have because that was a dick move. But me waking you up and you not sayin’, ‘Who was that, baby?’ Then saying, ‘It’s sweet you called your mom to celebrate the news, but next time, do you mind not doin’ it in bed when I’m sleeping? I’m a light sleeper.’ Instead, you give me shit like I’m phonin’ some other woman when I’m with you, that’s what put us here.”

“Thanks for the lesson in consideration, Toby. Next time a guy’s an asshole, I’ll be all sweet instead of just pointing out he’s an asshole.”

“What I’m saying, Kristy, is a man might not know he’s bein’ an asshole, or you think he’s bein’ an asshole, so maybe bein’ a modicum of cool in pointing it out, he’d learn the way with you and not do it again.”

She snapped her mouth shut.

She opened it to clip out, “I’ll call a friend to give me a ride.”

“Takin’ you home,” he murmured, turning back to sit on the bed and pull on his boots.

“Don’t do me any favors.”

“For fuck’s sake,” he muttered, and pulled on his boots.

When he got up, he found she was dressed.

He also saw by the look on her face she was in a different mood.

“You know, you want me to cut you some slack in being a dick, maybe you should do the same. I mean, I did just wake up, Toby.”

Yeah.

After ten minutes.

Jesus.

She gave him that, he gave it back to her.

“And then you called me a dick and gave me shit about eating your pussy and kicking you out of my bed. I’d give you a blow by blow, but it just happened, and you were there. You think when we got zero foundation but a couple of orgasms, after all that ugly we can resurrect something that hadn’t even gotten off the ground?”

“Probably not,” she mumbled.

Definitely not.

He moved to the bedroom door.

He was at it when she called, “You know . . .”

Toby turned to see she was still standing at the side of the bed, the only move she’d made was to shift around to face him at the door.

“ . . . I get it,” she finished.

He beat back a sigh and asked, “You get what?”

“You want the sweet ones. All guys want the sweet ones who are all understanding, even when they’re being jerks, and don’t point out you let them go down on you, much less fuck you, twice, and that means there’s been a connection. You can’t handle it being real. They say girls want the fairytale. But boys want it more and they have the power, so a girl has to twist herself into that fantasy to land a guy.”

“No, Kristy, that isn’t how it is,” he returned. “Maybe for some guys, but not me.”

“And you’re not taking me home right now because I wasn’t how you wanted me to be?”

“Yeah, I’m takin’ you home right now because you weren’t how I might want you to be. But this is the gig, babe. You give your shit to me, you don’t cool it and attempt to handle the situation, not only might I have a lifetime of that if I eat it now, that’s what you’d give our kids, if we got that far.”

Her head jerked and her eyes got big.

But Toby kept talking.

“And that isn’t okay. I actually don’t want a sweet one. I want one who’ll give as good as she gets, stick up for herself, stick up for me, and stick up for the babies we make. And when shit goes off the rails, and I admit I’ve been a dick, what I don’t want is her to shut her mouth and not admit she’s been a bitch, so we can take it from there. That’s what I don’t want, Kristy.”

“Okay, I’ve been a bitch,” she admitted.

“And what do I do with that?” he asked.

She again threw up both hands. “You just told me to admit it.”

Now he was curious.

“Why are you fighting for this?”

“Well, duh,” she said. “Because you’re all kinds of hot and insanely good in bed.”

He shook his head.

“Oh please,” she drawled. “Don’t act like I’m not right here because you didn’t like the looks of me and wanted to get in my pants, but instead you liked my smile, or some shit, and I made you laugh.”

She had not, he just realized, made him laugh.

With her looks, ass, legs and come on, she’d made him fight getting hard.

That was why she was there.

And now Tobe was beginning to realize where he’d gone wrong from his very first girlfriend, the one he’d asked to “go with me” at fourteen to the woman standing in front of him right now.

She wasn’t finished.

“The ones who look like you don’t go for some fat bitch who cooks good and worships the ground they walk on. The ones who look like you go for ones that look like him, gorgeous, and they still worship the ground he walks on.”

“Yeah, I totally want my woman to worship the ground I walk on,” he shared.

“See,” she retorted.

“And she’ll do that because I’d die for her.”

Kristy again shut her mouth and her eyes got big.

“She has to have that fire for me too, babe,” he told her. “And yeah, she’ll probably be gorgeous because I’ll want that fire for her when I’m eating her pussy. But this,” he indicated the room with a tilt of his head, “this is just a pain in my ass.”

Her voice was small when she shared, “I heard you tell your mom you’re moving to Nashville and it wouldn’t be good to meet a woman now and drag her there.”

And it comes out.

Why didn’t she lead with that?

Why hit him with a load of shit when she was clearly more into him than he knew and wanted him to be into her?

“I was just messing with her, though I wouldn’t mind heading to Nashville. That’s not the point. You’ve got no idea my relationship with Margot or my plans for the future, immediate or otherwise. But just to say, if I’m willing to die for a woman, Kristy, when I meet her, it goes without saying I’d be willing to stick. And if I feel I gotta bounce, I’ll be willing to put the effort into talking her into coming with me,” he explained, what he considered unnecessarily.

“And obviously I’m not that girl.”

Was she out of her mind?