Page 47 of Once Upon a Beast

“Mainly lust,” Ara added.

“How do you feel now?” Ella asked, ignoring Ara’s comment.

“So many things. I feel like an idiot for hanging up on him. I feel excited that he would tell me so vividly how much he wants me. I want to go and tell him how I feel but I can’t find the words. I’m scared that he’ll laugh at me when I do. Or I won’t measure up to what he has been imagining. I’m worried that I won’t even get a chance to find out because I’ve ruined everything.”

“You want him? You want to sleep with him?” Ara asked matter-of-factly.

I took a deep breath before I said, “Yes.”

“Then that’s all that matters. You want him. From what you vaguely told us, he wants you to. What more do you need to know?”

“He wanted me last night. But that was before I hung up on him. We haven’t talked since. He hasn’t texted or called me all day.”

“Layla, it’s noon. Give the man some time,” Ara said.

“He might be giving you some space. It sounds like he was a bit more honest than he thinks he should have been. He might be thinking you don’t want to talk to him.” Ella suggested.

“You did hang up on him. He probably thinks you’re mad at him, or even offended by what he said,” Ara said.

“No, I definitely wasn’t offended,” I said with a sigh.

“Nice. I totally want to know what he said, and yet, I don’t,” Ara said.

“When are you going to talk to him?” Ella asked.

“Oh, I was thinking, two days after never,” I said.

“Nope, that’s the wrong answer. The correct answer is, I’m going to talk to him immediately,” Ara said.

“I don’t know if I’m ready to. I don’t know what I would say. He must hate me. I’m so embarrassed by what happened.” I put my head in my hand.

“Think about how he felt?” Ara asked. “He gave you some sexy talk and your response was to hang up on him. You need to tell him you liked it, a lot. When you do, you can then start doing all those things. Tell me, was it nasty? Sexy? Never mind. I’m going to stop asking.”

“The longer you put this off the harder it will be,” Ella offered.

“Ha, you said harder,” Ara said and giggled like a little kid.

“Ara is right, to a point. You need to talk to him,” Ella said. “You need to clear this up. I’m sure it will be scary but he needs to know. You two have always been able to talk in the past, you should be able to now.”

“It’s funny you should mention that as we talked about that last night. We both screwed up at the end of the evening because we didn’t talk to each other. We said we wouldn’t do it again.”

“And proceeded to do that exact thing moments later. Yep, you’re definitely in a relationship,” Ara said.

“Which means you need to talk to him now. He wants to hear what you have to say. He spoke his mind; he wants you to do the same. Which is nice and important to have in a relationship,” Ella said.

“No one needs to hear how great you and Dax are doing. Even if it is true,” Ara teased.

“I wasn’t talking about me, but about relationships in general. I’m close to you two because we’re honest with each other. The same can be true with a romantic relationship, and it should be,” Ella said.

“When did you get so wise?” Ara teased.

“By listening to my dear friends,” Ella answered.

“Aw, you’re so sweet,” Ara said and blushed.

“Which is why you know I’m wise and giving you good advice when I tell you, you need to go and talk to him,” Ella said to me.

“Then you need to do more with your mouths then talk,” Ara added.