Chapter 18

Piper

There is nothing worse than walking in on your roommates having sex. Let me be more specific. There is nothing worse than walking in on your roommates using the portable sex swing in your living room.

“What the hell?” I gasped, not sure if I should back out of the house or slam the door and race toward the sanctuary of my kitchen. I knew I needed to close the door, so there was that.

“Oh, fuck,” Andy muttered.

“We didn’t expect you home this early,” Cerise added.

“Obviously.” I hurried past, doing my best to avoid looking at my friends.

I made my way into the kitchen and poured myself a strong glass of iced tea—I really know how to party. With any luck, Andy and Cerise were cleaning up the pleasure party in the living room. My phone buzzed, so I looked at the screen, surprised to see a text from Austin.

 

Austin: I wanted to thank you for today. It was nice spending time with you.

Piper: Thank you for hanging out at the club and changing my tires. You didn’t have to do either.

Austin: Any time, Button.

Piper: We should have gone out for dinner.

Austin: I was tempted to ask, but I didn’t want to push my luck. I also remembered you mentioning it’s rib night. Are you telling me Andy didn’t cook ribs?

Piper: He got a little distracted with his swinging lifestyle and forgot to cook dinner.

Austin: Your roommates are swingers?

Austin: Do they have crazy parties?

 

I laughed at his interest. My wording had been intentionally misleading.

 

Piper: They aren’t swingers, but they bought a sex swing with a stand. It’s in my living room.

Austin: WTF? Were they using it?

Piper: Yep. I did not need to see Cerise’s perfect ass when I got home. Now, I feel guilty about all those tacos.

Austin: You only ate two tacos. Besides, your ass is amazing.

Austin: Shit. That sounded bad, didn’t it?

Piper: In this case, I’ll let it slide.

Austin: I should stop texting before I say something to make you question the wisdom of talking to me.

Piper: That’s probably a good idea.

Austin: Don’t forget to check your calendar.

 

I was tempted to tell him I’d see him when he got back in a couple of weeks, but I didn’t.

 

Piper: Do you want to meet for lunch the day after tomorrow? I’m off that day.

Austin: Sure. Where do you want to go?

Piper: I’ll get back to you before then.

Austin: Sounds good. I’ll see you in a couple of days.

 

“What are you smiling about?” Cerise asked when she walked into the kitchen wearing one of Andy’s shirts.

“You had better have on more than that shirt,” I warned.

“It’s a little late for me to pretend to be modest, don’t you think?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.

“We should add some rules to our roommate agreement.” My statement was met with laughter from my friend.

“We don’t have a roommate agreement,” she reminded me.

“We should have one,” I insisted. “No swing sex in the living room should be part of our agreement.”

“It’s too big to set up in our room,” Cerise explained. “Andy wanted to mount it on the ceiling, but that seemed wrong since this is your house. I told him he could mount it if he gets your permission first.”

I laughed at the image of Andy coming to me to ask about installing a sex swing. After having me walk in on him and Cerise, he was probably going to avoid me for a day or two. “Poor Andy,” I said around my laughter. “He seemed more embarrassed than I was.”

“That poor man turned bright red, but he was still happy to be swinging with me, so maybe he’s secretly an exhibitionist,” Cerise remarked thoughtfully.

I did not need to know that about Andy. “That is definitely TMI.”

“So, the sex swing was too much?” Cerise asked with an impish grin.

“Bitch!” I accused with no heat. “You love embarrassing me.”

“A little,” she admitted. “I was a little embarrassed myself.”

“Why?” I asked. “Not, why were you embarrassed. I’m curious as to why you wanted to have sex in our living room. On a sex swing. I’m sure you’ve done it on the sofa.”

“I told you, it won’t fit in our room,” she reminded me. “Besides, we didn’t expect you home this soon. I figured that since you hadn’t messaged me to complain about the process of filing a report with the police, you were still waiting for them to show up.”

“I complained to Austin since he was closer,” I explained.

“How was your day with the asshole drummer?” Cerise asked.

“It was fine,” I replied. “Austin even changed my tires.”

“Huh,” was all she said.

“What are you thinking?” I asked.

“First, you surprised me when you told me he stuck around today,” she began. “I expected you to insist he leave after he dropped you off at Euphoria.”

“I told him he didn’t have to stay,” I stated. “He wanted to.”

“He stayed, and he wasn’t an asshole,” she added. “That also surprises me.”

“It’s been an interesting day,” I admitted. “By the way, you can install the swing as long as you pay for any damage when you move out.”

“Move out?” she asked. “You’d give up Andy’s cooking and let us move to our own place?”

“I didn’t say Andy can move,” I pointed out. “Now, what do I need to do to get him in here to cook those ribs?”

“Hide in another room where he can’t see you,” she suggested.

I nodded. “I’m off to take a bath and read. Get your man in here to cook.”