Page 61 of Playing the Backbeat

“You don’t sound sorry,” she hisses, contempt seeping out of every pore.

“Fine. Maybe I’m not that sorry.”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” she asks, anger radiating off her. “You can at leastpretendto feel bad for having fucked up the first decent date I’ve been on in over a year. We looked fucking insane because of you.”

“You make me crazy, so fair enough,” I yell.

“You know what? Whatever.” She storms into her room, slamming her door shut.

I run my fingers through my hair, forgetting I had pulled it back into a bun, my fingers tangling with the hair tie before I rip it out altogether.

Dee storms out of her room less than one second later, throwing the door open, slamming it against the stopper. Then she’s in my face. I mean, she’s not…she’s too short for that. But her chest hits mine and she backs me up against the wall and it might take an act of God to keep my thoughts clean with her and me in this position. Can’t think of a better time to become religious.Dear God…

“You areselfish, Dylan. I’msorry. Okay? I’msorryyour date ended up being hung up on her ex. It’s not like I could have known. I’ll try again. There’s still a week before the wedding. We could find you a quick coffee date. It’s not nearly enough time to know someone well enough, but who are we kidding? Neither was tonight.”

“I don’t want to go on another date.” I can’t keep my voice calm, and she takes a step back, surprised at the volume of my voice. “I don’t want to go on another date,” I repeat, my voice lower as I fight for control.

I feel her eyes on me. Those goddamn beautiful eyes that sparkle when she laughs, that narrow on me when she’s plotting something annoying and so veryDee. Every time I walk into this apartment, I immediately search for those eyes. Always seeing more than I want, but still not enough. She doesn’t understand. Fuck, neither do I.

“I could have gotten laid.” The vitriol is back in her tone, and she dials the temperature back up to a thousand.

“Well, good for you. That would have been a fun way to rub it in my face how much more successful your date was than mine whenyou didn’t even want to go. Besides, we both know you weren’t going to take things further.”

“Maybe I changed my mind,” she shouts. “I thought we could be happy for each other, Dylan.” She gestures between us, her hand flying in the air. “I don’t know about you, but this dry spell isn’t working for me. If I run through one more battery-operated bedroom assistant, I’m going to need to go back to the old-fashioned way of doing things. I can’t afford to replace them on my budget, andugh, I don’t want to go back to that. I’m too spoiled now. Everything vibrates just perfectly—”

“Dear God, stop,” I plead.

“And they rotate just right—”

“I’m begging you—”

“And they arefinallygirthy enough.”

“Fuck, Dee.”

“And they hit just deep enough too…oh my god.” Dee takes a giant step away from me, staring at my crotch. “What the fuck, Dylan?”

“What the fuck, yourself. You’re literally talking about your goddamn toys in front of my lonely dick. What did you expect?” I turn away from her, glaring over my shoulder. “Ow.” I try to adjust myself, but the fucking zipper of my jeans is digging into my erection, andfuck, that hurts.

“Well, take care of yourself like I do!” Dee exclaims, peering around my shoulder, a look of concern on her face. “If you don’t…won’t something bad happen? You need to find a way to release the beast.”

“Okay, that’s enough.” I storm into my room, slamming the door behind me before Dee’s grating voice filters through the thin, thin walls.

“Don’t get any jizz on my carpet,” she yells. “I want my security deposit back and that won’t happen if you’re letting happy juice loose all over the floor.”

“Jesus Christ, Deanna, can you not even let a guy jerk off in peace?” I ask, my eyes closing, head falling back against the doorin defeat. This is the exact opposite of how I expected my night to go.

“Oooooh, are you having…trouble? With the jizzing?” She whispers the last part, but I hear her. Loud and fucking clear.

“No. No, I’m fine. Just going to do it the old-fashioned way becauseI’mnot lazy.”

“Oh, you dick,” she growls, and I can picture her eyes narrowing in frustration. The image brings a smile to my face.

“Yes, that’s exactly the body part I’m going to be paying attention to in here. Thank you. Goodbye now.”

“We’ll see about that.” I hear her stomping away.

Shit. Now I’m scared.