Cruel Summer | ✓

chapter nineteen

It isn't until that night, when we're on the sofa in front of the TV with dinner on our laps, that I mention my conversation with Riley earlier. By the time I got back from my run, Lou had gone over to her parents' place to help out her mom so I sent off a few more increasingly depressing job applications before taking a beach day, and it's only now that I remember.

"I thought I was the one with the easy-read face but apparently you've got one too," I say as Lou scrolls through the TV guide before switching over to Disney Plus.

"What does that mean?" she asks once she's swallowed a mouthful of stir fry. Another of my college specialties, which I prepped while she was out. It's bursting with color and flavor and vegetables, all of which Lou effusively complimented when she took her first bite.

"Seems like Riley can read you like that." I click my fingers. Lou tears her eyes from the TV to look at me, eyebrows raised. "I swear I didn't say a word but she said you have a crush on me. She said she could see it all over your face this morning." I grin, teasing her when I go on to say, "Apparently you can't stop talking about me to all your friends because I'm so irresistible and you can't help but look at me all starry-eyed like you haven't eaten in a week and I'm a big old chocolate cake."

"Riley said all that?"

"Well, no, I'm paraphrasing," I admit. "But she was pretty insistent that I've got you under some kind of spell because usually you keep yourself to yourself and yet..." I spread out my arm as if to say, look where I am.

Lou purses her lips and lets out a quiet laugh. "Well, she isn't wrong, is she? I mean, I wouldn't say I can't stop talking about you, before your ego explodes, but yes, you may have come up in conversation. There's a chance I let my feelings slip to Jules, and if there's one thing about those Krueger women, it's that anything you say can and will be shared between them."

"So you did tell your friends about me."

Lou rests her head against the back of the sofa and rolls her eyes at me and says, "They know me inside out. Of course they knew something was up. They're invasive and nosy and they probably realized I was into you before I did. Now, are we going to watch a movie and eat?"

"Sure." I wait for her to take a mouthful and I say, "Don't worry, I didn't tell Riley that I made you come four times last night."

A piece of bell pepper goes flying when Lou gasps, her shock turning into a laugh as she whacks her own chest. "Charlotte."

"What! I said I didn't tell her." I stretch my foot across the space between us, my toe nudging that soft dip of her waist. She almost drops her plate when she squirms away with a snort of a laugh.

"Good. Because it would've been a lie."

It's my turn to gasp. "Are you saying you faked it? Damn, Lou, I really thought I gave you four pretty good orgasms."

"Well, you didn't." My heart sinks as she looks away, piercing a fresh piece of bell pepper. And then she says, "You gave me five."

*

I'm not going to keep a tally of how many orgasms I give Lou. I promise. I can't help that I know it's up to six now. I don't even remember what movie we were watching, something to have on in the background as we ate. It's still playing, but it's been muted.

"You are very good with your hands," Lou says with a breathless laugh. I hardly had to touch her, though. She was so worked up already, her body primed to release the moment I walked my fingers up her thigh beneath her skirt and found a hot damp patch on her underwear. I didn't even take them off, didn't push them aside; a couple minutes of sitting next to her massaging her clit through her panties and she came so quickly, she was caught off guard by her own orgasm with a gasp against my collarbone.