Textbook Approach: A Small Town Romance

by Lagomarsino, Giulia

  “Yeah,” he said slowly. “Total douchebag.”

  “I know! And do you know what he changed it to?”

  “Um…I’m guessing something really terrible, like SheDevil, or something along those lines.”

  “You would think so, right? But no, he’s so damn perfect that he changed it to My skinny and beautiful woman’s car.”

  There was silence on the other end.

  “Hello?” I snapped.

  “Sorry, I’m just trying to figure out where to go with this. Are we mad at him for exploiting your good looks or are we pissed because he violated phone privileges?”

  It was like he was a complete idiot. “He must have done this the night we broke up. He told Oliver that he should tell me that I’m skinny and beautiful, and I thought he was being idiotic,” I cried. “You know why?”

  “Because you want to be called ugly?” he said slowly.

  “Because I thought it was ridiculous. I’m not one of those women that needs to be told I’m beautiful. But he hit me with a double whammy and you know what? I liked it!”

  “So, now you’re upset?”

  “Yes!” I shouted. “Because it just proves how perfect he is. He knew that despite the fact that I’ve never needed that kind of praise from a man, he should still remind me every day what he thinks of me. He thinks I’m skinny and beautiful! Do you know what this means?”

  “Um…yeah, I’m kind of lost.”

  “It means that I threw out the most perfect man in my life because I’m stupid. I’m stupid and selfish and a terrible, terrible person.”

  “Well, don’t be too hard on yourself. Nobody’s perfect.”

  “I’m serious. How did I even deserve a man like him?”

  “You know, I’m starting to not like this conversation anymore. I liked it better when I was the man in your life and we didn’t talk about this stuff.”

  “I have to get him back. Do you know he stole my beef tenderloin?”

  “Like, out of your fridge?”

  “No,” I shook my head. “Off the counter. I had made it for us and he took my food and ran because he didn’t even want to be in the same room as me. That’s how much he hates me!”

  “He stole your beef tenderloin?”

  “Yeah, and I wasn’t even upset. I even opened the door for him so he could leave.”

  “Wow, that’s very generous of you. Have you gotten your dishes back?”

  “No, and I don’t even care. Do you see what he’s doing to me?”

  “Yeah, and I’m not sure this is a good idea. A man that steals beef tenderloin isn’t trustworthy.”

  “You’re just saying that because he didn’t bring it over and share with you.”

  “Well, that and I’m your friend and I figure I have to say it.”

  I dropped my head to the steering wheel and sighed. “What am I going to do?”

  “Well, don’t make him beef tenderloin the next time you see him. Stick with something cheaper. Make him a chicken or something.”

  “I meant about my revelation.”

  “Uh…wait, I’m confused, are we still talking about beef or-“

  “The fact that I threw him away and it’s too late.”

  “That’s not a revelation. You already knew this information.”

  “Yeah, but now I know just how perfect he is and I have no idea how to get him back.”

  “Well, this may not be the best idea, but if the beef tenderloin made him run away, maybe it’ll also draw him in.”

  “You think I should just keep drawing him in with meat?”

  “That or you could start stalking him.”

  * * *

  I was horny as hell. It had been a week since I’d seen Will. Had I ruined it with my beef tenderloin? I was sure that would get him to stick around and at least have a conversation. After that, I chickened out on trying anything else. Until I saw some sign that he still wanted me, I wasn’t making a move. I was terrified I would now scare him away. Maybe that was stupid, but I felt like something really shifted between us the night of the beef tenderloin heist.

  I finally fell asleep after hours of lying in bed, trying to pleasure myself to no avail. It wasn’t the same without him. I needed my man to take care of things. My man…When had I started thinking of him as mine? God, I was so screwed. Sleeping as soundly as I could with a deep ache between my legs, it was even worse in my dreams. I could feel his presence in the room. I heard the dirty things he said to me as he knelt down on the bed.

  I spread my legs, begging for him to do anything to take away the ache I felt deep inside. I heard his deep chuckle and felt his hot breath on my skin. My pussy was throbbing, needing his touch, but he teased me, running his beard against my pussy.

  “God, I can’t take this!” Dreams weren’t supposed to be so torturous. I was supposed to be fulfilled, right? This was hell.

  And then I felt it, his tongue swiping across my pussy, sending shivers through my body. I grabbed my knees, pulling them wide for him.

  “Do you need me to make you come?” he grumbled, his low voice tantalizing and torturous at the same time.

  “You know I do.”

  His mouth latched onto my clit, pulling and sucking, driving me insane. I felt his tongue sliding along my pussy, licking up my cream. I was panting hard, barely able to hold on. This was a dream. I slid the heels of my hands over my eyes, squirming as he did obscene things to my body. I gripped my hair and screamed as an orgasm tore through me. I was squeezing my legs together, but his body was in the way, preventing me from stopping the quakes and shivers that overtook me.

  With the final jerks of my orgasm, I thanked my mind for finally giving me what I needed so I could sleep. But just as my head slid to the side and I started to drift off, I heard his chuckle and knew we weren’t even close to being done. He was inside me in one swift thrust and I jolted upright in bed. Right in front of me was the man I wanted, the man I craved and dreamed about. I rubbed my eyes as he grinned at me. Surely I was seeing things.

  He grabbed me around the waist and sat back on the bed so I was straddling him. His dick was lodged deep inside me. This wasn’t a dream. He was actually in my apartment in the middle of the night.

  “How did you get in here?”

  “Do you want me to leave?” he asked, his dick twitching inside me.

  I moaned and shook my head. It didn’t matter how he got in here. The only thing that mattered was that he was here and I wasn’t letting him get away anytime soon.

  I started rocking my body against his, taking him as deep as I could. I saw the hunger in his eyes, the need for more of me. I dragged my t-shirt over my head and pushed my breasts out so they were in his face. He didn’t disappoint, taking one into his mouth. His hands slid across my back, caressing my skin as he started thrusting up inside me. The pleasure of it all tore through me. My head dropped back as I enjoyed all he was giving me. I was riding this wave of pleasure, unsure when I would feel it again.

  It felt like hours that I fucked him. He took me hard, never giving up on making sure I was receiving the utmost pleasure. My knees were sore from him taking me on the carpeted floors. My ass hurt from him fucking me up against the wall. And my pussy was so dried out that if he tried to fuck me again, I would be bleeding from the rawness.

  I knew he laid down with me at some point. I felt his arms around me and the steady beat of his heart as I drifted off to sleep, but when I woke in the morning, he was gone. If it wasn’t for the ache in my body, I would have thought it was all a dream. Flopping back on my bed, I smelled sex all over the room. I would need to wash the sheets for sure before I slept on them again, but for now, I rolled over and pulled his pillow against me, inhaling his scent. I felt like a dog or something, sniffing out my master. It was pathetic.

  Flopping onto my back, I screamed in frustration and beat up my pillow for a good thirty seconds before I felt like I was back in control. I couldn’t keep up with this anymore. I needed him back and I n
eeded him now. I fucked up, and now I had to figure out how to fix that. It was time to pull up my big girl panties and do the one thing I didn’t want to do.

  I got out of bed and showered, then pulled on some clothes before heading into the living room. This was my day off. Unfortunately, it was the weekend, which meant it was also Will’s day off. That could pose a problem with my plan. I glanced down at the counter and saw my dishes were returned from the tenderloin debacle, and inside was a note.

  Carly would like your recipe for the tenderloin. 219-555-0947.

  I grinned to myself and picked up my phone. He just gave me the in I needed.

  * * *

  With my beef tenderloin covered in tin foil and my potatoes safely stored in a container with a lid, I walked up the steps to Eric’s house. I was nervous as hell, but this was one thing I just couldn’t afford to fail at. I wasn’t even all the way to the door when the door swung open and Eric stood there, staring down at my food. He leaned forward slightly, his nose twitching as he took in the smell. Then he stepped aside and allowed me to come in.

  “What is that smell?” someone shouted from the other room.

  “Holy hell. Someone cooked for us.”

  Andrew and Joe came around the corner, stopping with wide eyes as they looked at me, then the dishes I was carrying. Joe was the first to move.

  “I’m assuming you brought this for us,” he said, taking the dishes out of my hands. “Otherwise, you’re just really mean.”

  “Yes, this is for you.”

  “What is this about?” Eric asked.

  The door opened behind me and Carly walked in with Josh and Alessa. Josh stared at me with wide eyes and then his eyes flicked to the beef.

  “No, I refuse to be part of that. You ruined beef tenderloin for me.”

  “I did?” I pressed my hand to my chest, wondering how I could have ruined it for him.

  “Don’t pretend to be all naive here. You made Will that amazing food and then he came over and started making sex faces while he was eating. I’ll never look at it the same again.”

  “Uh…I’m sorry?”

  “I don’t care.” Joe had a knife and fork in his hands and was already carving into the beef. “Any one of you can make sex faces around me. Doesn’t matter. Nothing’s keeping me from this.”

  The door swung open again, the wind swishing in and freezing me to the bone. “I don’t give a shit about what other people do,” Robert snapped. “If we want to get married, we can get married.”

  “It’s not about other people. It’s about me!”

  “Do you love me?”

  “Of course, I do, but we just got back together. Can I have a minute?”

  “Only one,” Robert said, pulling Anna into him. “I want you to be my wife. I want to make babies with you and—“

  He stopped and looked over at all of us staring at them. He cleared his throat and stepped back.

  “Oh, by all means, don’t stop on our account,” Andrew grinned. “It’s been a while since I’ve watched porn.”

  “You’re disgusting,” Anna said, stepping past Robert. “What is that smell?”

  “It’s man food,” Joe said, stepping in front of the beef. “You can have the salad in the fridge.”

  “Man food? Like women don’t need meat?” Anna asked.

  Joe looked over his shoulder, obviously torn between sharing and not looking like a dick. “Fine, but one piece. There are starving men here.”

  “How gracious of you,” Anna said sweetly. “A whole slice, you say?”

  “Hey, I’m being generous. I could eat this whole thing myself. As it is, I have to share it with my brothers.”

  “She made it for me,” Eric said, snatching the fork out of Andrew’s hand.

  “Why would she make it for you?”

  “Because it’s my house.”

  “Oh, are we going with that logic?” Joe shot back.

  “Seems more than logical to me.”

  “Actually,” I cut in, hoping to break up the feuding so we could get to the point of all this. “I made it for all of you as a peace offering.”

  “Wait, is that what we’re all doing here?” Robert asked.

  I swallowed hard and looked at all the brothers. “Look, I messed up with Will and—“

  “You didn’t just mess up. You broke his fucking heart,” Robert seethed, but I saw his eyes glance back at the food. He was interested.

  “Oh, like you’ve never broken anyone’s heart?” Anna asked, walking around him to grab some food.

  Robert glared at me, then moved past me to the food.

  “I don’t understand,” Eric said, “what is it you want from us?”

  “I need help getting Will back.”

  Robert snorted. “Fat chance of that happening.”

  “I say we hear the lady out,” Joe said around a mouthful of food. “I mean, she made us this meat and these really yummy potatoes…I’m not sure what it is you don’t like about her.”

  “Other than the fact that she broke our brother’s heart?”

  “Well, yes, I did that.” I looked at Robert, seeing he was going to be the hardest to get through to. “But I’m trying to fix that now. So, what I need is something to prove to him that I’ve changed, that I want more than just a fun time with him. I want it all, and I’m terrified of that, but I’m willing to try because I know he’s worth it.”

  “Simple,” Andrew said, shoving a forkful of meat in his mouth. “You need a baby.”

  “Sorry, what?”

  “Yeah, what the fuck are you talking about?” Eric snapped.

  “It’s obvious, isn’t it?” Andrew wiped his mouth and then turned to all of us like we were idiots. “Oh, come on. Don’t tell me you don’t see it. Eric, that’s how you got Kat to begin with. And Robert, that’s what brought you and Anna back together.”

  “Actually, that’s what tore us apart,” Anna muttered. “But same difference.”

  “Look, I’m telling you, you want him back, a baby is the way to go.”

  “Right,” I nodded. “Because having a baby would solve all our problems.”

  He held his arms wide and grinned. “Brilliant, am I right? You can thank me at any time.”

  “And while that does sound like a brilliant plan, I’m not sure tricking your brother into staying with me is the way to go.”

  “You could stalk him,” Joe suggested.

  “Huh?”

  “What? He was doing it to you. It’s not that far-fetched.”

  I sighed in frustration. “Come on, someone has to have a good idea for getting him back.”

  “You could always apologize,” Kat said, walking into the room. “I’m just saying, that’s the simplest and most obvious solution.”

  “Ooh,” Joe practically jumped up from his chair. “Or, you could put on this amazing show, singing your heart out to him. That’s what we did with Anna and that all worked out well.”

  “Yeah, my singing voice would only drive him away.” I glanced over at Robert, hoping that he could see past his anger and help me. “I swear, I just want to show your brother that I know I was wrong. I really do want this to work between us.”

  He leaned forward in his seat. “Do you love him?”

  I swallowed for a moment. “Yes.”

  “Does he know this?”

  I shook my head. “I just…I couldn’t find the words.”

  He glanced around at his brothers and gave a tight nod. “We have work to do.”

  I had no idea what that meant, but I was on board and ready to get to work.

  Will

  “Why the hell am I here again?” I muttered to my brothers and their girlfriends. This was ridiculous. I could be sneaking into Charlie’s place right about now and getting laid, but instead, I was at a bar, on karaoke night. There was no way in hell I was singing karaoke, and I didn’t want to listen to it either.

  “It’s a fun night out,” Eric grinned, handing over shots.

&nb
sp; I looked at the shots and then at him. “You’re not drinking those, are you?”

  “Sure I am. Why?”

  “Well, because we all know what happened last time you and shots got together.”

  “Relax. I’m only having one.”

  I shook my head. We all knew that even one shot was one too many for him. “You know, I had plans tonight.”

  “Yeah, and they involved sneaking into a woman’s apartment, which is creepy, by the way.”

  I glared at Robert. I didn’t need his input. Besides, this was all his fault anyway. “You suggested I keep sleeping with her.”

  “Yeah, but I didn’t suggest you call Nathan for the keys to her apartment.”

  I was about to say something, but what he said stopped me. “How did you know I called Nathan and got the keys to her apartment?”

  He turned red and then his eyebrows slanted together. “Um…huh?”

  “How did you know that?”

  His mouth opened and then he turned to Anna. “You wanna get a quickie in the bathroom?”

  She slapped him and he continued to ignore my question by turning his back to me and talking to everyone else. The lights went down in the bar and the stage lights took over. God, this was the worst way to spend my weekend.

  “Alright, I’m glad everyone is here for our first karaoke night,” Jake, the owner, said, stepping out on the stage at The End Zone. “I see we have quite the crowd tonight. Thank you to Mrs. Cranston for spreading the word on the town Facebook page.”

  I pulled out my phone and started scrolling through. “I didn’t see anything about this on the page.”

  Robert coughed, “Uh, yeah, that’s because…I said I would tell you.”

  “What? That doesn’t make any sense.”

  “What he means is…” Joe shot him a panicked look and then turned to me. “Uh…we purposely left you off the page invite. You know, because you’ve been so down lately. We wanted this to be a surprise.”

  “Why would this be a surprise? I’m not singing.”

  Joe scratched the back of his head and laughed. “You’re so funny.”