Page 54 of Next Time We'll Fall

“Girl, you need to tell us what happened last night,” Sage says as we eat bowls of Frosted Flakes for breakfast.

“What do you mean, what happened last night?” I say, flustered as I look everywhere but at their faces.

“We mean, what did you and Rafe get up to?” Rosie says, putting her spoon down and gazing at me. “And don’t you dare say nothing. There’s no way that man slept in your bed and nothing happened.”

“He just wanted to give me advice for the dating show,” I say quickly, but I can feel my face turning fire-engine red as I think about the events of the night before.

“That’s bullshit,” Sage says, crossing her arms before pointing at me. “There’s no way in hell that man showed up here in the middle of the night, came in, and spent the night because he wanted to give you advice on how to prepare for the dating show.”

“Well,” I pause because she has a point. “He said he wanted to stay so that he could be there for me and well, maybe I knewthat was a bit of a lie. And yes, maybe we did end up fooling around, just a little bit.” My face flushes at the memory.

Sage giggles slightly and looks over at Rosie. “I told you. I knew that happened.”

“Sage, you’re not the only one who has a brain.”

“Girls, what are you talking about?”

“We’ve got twenty dollars on whether or not you had sex,” Rosie says with a grin. “Sage thinks you guys definitely banged, but I don’t think you banged. Maybe you did some other stuff, but I know you well enough to know you’re not going to bang the man on the first night.”

“Yeah, but she’s wanted him forever,” Sage says. “You totally banged, didn’t you?”

“No, we did not bang. And really, girls? Are you two college-aged guys? Who even saysbang?”

They both burst out laughing.

“So, tell us what happened.”

I look at my watch. I’ve got about forty-five minutes before I need to leave the house and get ready to head to the beach to meet up with Jackie.

“I can’t really talk about this right now. I need to?—”

“Stop,” Sage says. “You’re not going anywhere until you tell us what happened.”

“We might or might not have kissed.”

“Uh-huh. Tell us something we don’t know,” Rosie says.

“We might or might not have taken off our tops.”

“Ooh, naked.”

“We weren’t completely naked.”

“Well, at least not in the beginning.”

I shake my head. “I cannot believe I’m telling you guys this.”

“What? We’re your cousins. We love you. We want to know all the details.”

“Fine. So, it was actually okay. I was watching a movie. We were both in our underwear. Everything was good. And then I got a phone call from Jackie, who works for the reality TV show.”

“And then what happened?”

“She was going over information with me for today because she wants me to meet up with her. She wants me to talk about the sort of guy I’m looking for and all this other information.”

Sage rolls her eyes. “Girl, we don’t care about the reality dating TV show right now. We want to hear what went down with you and your man.”

“He’s not my man,” I say quickly.