Noah (11 page)

"What type of law do you plan on studying?"

"Business or Criminal."

Okay, now it makes a little more sense. The fact that
Caleb is considering Criminal law has probably given Noah a soft
spot towards him.

"Sorry to spring a guest on you, shorty, but I
figured you wouldn't mind since I plan on getting a hotel room
anyway."

"You're not planning on staying with me here?" I'm
disappointed at his change
of
plans. I was looking forward to sharing a bed
with him for the next two nights. He always snuggles with me and
keeps me warm during the night.

Noah sits down on my small twin and bounces up and
down on the mattress
,
making the springs squeak in protest. "As comfortable as this bed
looks, I don't think all three of us will fit. You can stay with us
at the hotel if you want."

I won't turn down his offer. "Yeah, okay...but we're
still going to the frat party tonight, right? I promised my
roommate I'd be out tonight so she could have a few hours alone
with her boyfriend."

"I'd never miss the opportunity to hang with a bunch
of drunk college girls. You want to go, Caleb?"

Caleb looks at me thoughtfully as he answers Noah.
"Sure. It could be fun."

***

Everything I'd hoped this weekend would be with Noah,
every plan I made in my head, has officially gone down the shitter.
I just want him to leave campus, leave town, and I'll see him again
in a few weeks back home. First, he ruined my intimate weekend
alone with him by bringing a third wheel on the trip.
Don
’
t get me wrong,
Caleb seems like a really nice guy, but I was looking forward to
some one-on-one time with Noah. I was maybe even going to tell him
how I feel about him. He would have rejected me, I know he would,
but at least my feelings would have been out in the open.

Now there is no way I'll ever share with him how I
feel because I'm staring at the second reason he ruined my week.
Noah is standing over in the corner of the room with some sorority
chick. She's in nothing but a tiny, hot pink bikini and she's wet,
covered in Jell-O from the Jell-O fight she just won against
another, equally undressed sorority girl.

I have no idea what they're talking about but she is
hanging all over him. She even brushes her Jell-O covered breasts
against his arm a few times, causing me to throw up a little in my
throat.

I don’
t
know why I expected anything different this weekend. This is the
Noah I know and remember. He can't be tied down and doesn't want to
be. He enjoys playing the field. He's not the commitment type and
he
’
ll never commit to
me–I'm just the best friend he keeps around for when he's
bored.

For all I know he's aware of the way I feel about him
and just doesn't give a shit. He probably gets sick pleasure
knowing I pine after him. Maybe he likes stringing me along, or
parading endless amounts of women in front of me.

Okay, I should stop drinking. That's definitely the
alcohol talking because even though I know he gets around a lot,
this is the first time I've ever had to openly see him flirt with a
girl. I didn't think it would hurt this much.

I feel like I
’
m being gutted from the inside. His hand comes out
to brush against her cheek, and then his lips come down to meet
hers and they're making out in the corner of the fraternity's
living room for anyone to see.

I can't watch anymore. I need to leave.

Turning around to bolt out the front door I run into
a pair of crisp jeans and a teal polo shirt. The man inside them
holds me steady and I look up into bright blue eyes and the
familiar grin I met before.

"Hey, where are you going?" Caleb asks me as he lets
go of my arms.

Not wanting him to see how upset I am, I mask my pain
and put on my game face. "This party's lame. I was going to head
out and find something more exciting to do," I reply nonchalantly,
looking around the room as if I'm bored of this scene.

"Yeah, I know what you mean. It's the same at every
party at every university. I feel like I'm back at Columbia right
now."

"Really?" I ask genuinely curious. "I guess I
haven
’
t been to enough
of these parties to notice."

He inches in closer so I can hear him over the music
and whispers in my ear
,
"You're not missing much. At each party there will be more
drinking, more dancing, more girls taking their clothes off just
for the fun of it. Tonight will end with tons of hook-ups, a few
people throwing up, and most people going to bed with a fat chance
of them remembering what they did tonight when they wake up with
colossal hangovers. And yet somehow they want to repeat it all
again the next night."

I burst out laughing at his rundown of the evening,
because he nailed it. Why do people think frat parties are so fun?
I rather spend the evening with one or two people I consider
friends, instead of a hundred strangers.

Caleb whispers something else in my ear but I miss it
as my eyes meet Noah's from across the room. The endless smile he
was sporting earlier is gone and in its place is a scowl as he
watches me with Caleb. He looks pissed off, but I don't have time
to figure out why he's mad because his make-out partner is kissing
and licking down his neck, practically begging him to take her
somewhere private and fuck her.

Bringing my focus back on Caleb I ask, "Want to get
out of here?"

"Where did you have in mind?"

"We can go back to the hotel. Rent a bunch of overly
priced movies on the TV and piss Noah off when he sees the
bill."

Caleb laughs, grab
s
my hand and clasp
s
it in his. His forwardness startles me and I want
to pull my hand away, but I don't. I'm reading too much into things
tonight and him holding my hand is probably just a friendly
gesture. I could use a friend tonight since my best friend is a
disappointment.

"I'm pretty sure Noah might be bringing a girl back
to the hotel room shortly." We both look back over to the corner of
the room and Noah's hands are sliding up and down the sorority
girl
’
s slick body as
they start kissing again and her hand moves to the front of his
jeans. "I don
’
t want to
witness that," Caleb adds.

"Ughh..." I groan and then pull on his hand as I walk
towards the front door to leave the party. "Noah can hook up with
her at her place, or one of the empty bedrooms in this frat house.
He's not bringing her back to the hotel and if he does we just
won
’
t let him in the
room because it's inconsiderate."

We make it out onto the front steps of the frat house
and out here I instantly feel better. Being out of that
environment, and the music inside only a muzzled thumping sound,
makes it a lot easier to think straight.

"You're a little feisty. I like it."
Caleb
must be talking about my
feelings toward Noah and his hook-up inside the party. Well, at
least I sound feisty instead of jealous.

When we arrive at the hotel and walk into the room,
we order a shit load of room service and Caleb orders a movie on
the TV. We stay up and talk for hours, while eating entirely too
much food for two people. When the movie ends we order another one
and it serves as background noise while we talk and get to know
each other.

Caleb is a really fascinating guy. He has goals and
dreams, and wants to be settled down with kids before he's thirty.
He's thoughtful and listens intently when I speak. He's the type of
guy I always envisioned myself with before I fell in love with
Noah. I should want a guy like him again. I'm an adult now and Noah
is never going to happen. A guy like Caleb is exactly what I need
to live the most fulfilling life and meet all my childhood
expectations. Somewhere I lost sight of my future, probably when I
was getting lost in Noah's eyes, or schoolboy grin.

As the sun begins to rise in the early morning
hours
,
Noah still isn't
back from the party, solidifying the feeling in my gut that Noah
and I aren't meant to be. He came here this weekend to be with me,
and instead hooked up with a random girl after only being here for
a few hours. I'll forever be the girl he looks at as only a best
friend and not a lover.

Maybe it's because this fact has finally sunk in, or
the lack of sleep from being up all night, but I do something I'll
probably end up regretting. I lean in and surprise Caleb with a
kiss. His lips move against mine in a soft, tender kiss, and his
mouth feels good tangled with mine...it feels really good.

Sparks ignite throughout my body and I feel a fire
start to burn in my southern region.

Caleb's a complete gentleman and the kiss doesn't
last long. We go to sleep afterward, but in those brief seconds my
life went back on course, and what I thought I wanted with Noah was
no longer on the path in front of me. A new course was forming, a
course I wanted when I was younger but detoured off the last four
years.

I knew that one kiss with Caleb would change things
forever and I was right. When the weekend ended there seemed to be
a wedge between Noah and I. Gone was the comfort and ease I felt
when I first saw him on Friday. It was replaced with an
uncomfortable feeling in the pit of my stomach and an awkward rest
of the weekend. That night shifted things, and if I needed any more
evidence I just had to look at the man I was kissing goodbye and
promising to come visit in New York in a few weeks.

Caleb's lips left mine and then they were both gone
and I was left to finish my last few weeks of
my
freshman year.

Chapter Six

The weeks following my attack outside the Forbidden
Desires' office are long and lonely. Caleb seems to be working
longer hours than ever, and I'm avoiding Noah at any cost. We never
got around to discussing why I was working in his office that night
and I'm not ready to tell him why, or that I've been working as a
phone sex operator
for
his company for months.

A lot happened that first morning after the attack. I
realized I was being stupid and overreacting about Caleb leaving. I
had a missed call and a few texts from him on my phone when I woke
up telling me he loved me and
that he
was so sorry he had to leave while we were
fighting like that. I texted him back, apologizing for
overreacting. Kendall called me after I text
ed
Caleb, worried about me. Noah had woken
her up, reaming her out for being irresponsible and letting someone
who didn't know the routine cover her shift just so she could get
laid. He almost fired her, but when he heard the sincerity in
Kendall's voice as she was crying and asking if I was okay, he
calmed down and let her know her job was secure.

Kendall kept my secret, never letting Noah in on the
fact that I've worked for him for a while now.

Avoiding Noah has been exhausting as I'm continually
trying to find things to do so I'm not sitting at home when he
stops by. Between him and working my two legitimate jobs, I'm
exhausted at the end of the night. It's left me no time to take
phone sex calls so I took a break.

Tonight is my first night back since the attack. My
emotions are everywhere and the past few weeks have fucked me up. I
needed the distance from Noah's establishment and the connection to
my attack, and it's been nice not having to fake pleasure while a
man on the other end of the line jacks off. Now that I've had my
time to come to terms with everything, there's a list of men
waiting to talk with Nora, the name I use on the phone.

The distraction is nice for a change because things
aren't going so great at home.

After my almost kiss with Noah I've felt incredibly
guilty. I never want to be the kind of woman who could cheat on her
boyfriend, so I've attempted to step things up in the seduction and
appreciation departments at home. I'm being more attentive to
Caleb, and trying to find little ways to show him I care. Tonight I
made his favorite meal and lit the apartment in candle light while
wearing next to nothing as I waited for him to come home.

I was so excited to have this night with him, but
Caleb came home late again tonight, ruining dinner and my sexual
appetite. He apologized and went straight to bed, but I can't help
the hurt I feel at another missed night with him as he brushes off
my advances.

I'm so desperate I've even thought about telling him
about the attack a few weeks ago. He never asked me about the
attack, because he never found out about it. My name was left out
of the paper the next morning and he's been so busy at work he must
not have had time to talk with Noah. I don't think Noah will keep
this from him so I know he'll eventually find out, and if I told
him
,
maybe
he'
d
lavish some
attention on me. I guess I'm just trying to hold our relationship
together before all the cards in our weak house come tumbling
down.

I'm sitting on the couch waiting for my last call of
the night to finish so I can join Caleb in bed, but this guy is
taking forever to finish. "What are you wearing?" he asks me, his
voice coming out frustrated.

"I told you, I'm wearing nothing...and horny for your
cum." I'm actually in a full set of flannel pajamas but he wants
the illusion of a woman naked and waiting for him, not the real
thing. Normally
,
I'd be
a little more detailed and seductive but he's my last call and I'm
tired.

"Call me Big Daddy," he groans into the phone and I
can hear the slapping wet friction sounds of him stroking himself
off.