Read Online When Joss Met Matt by Ellie Cahill - Free Book Online

this time.
    â€œHey, Joss, it’s me.”
    â€œWhat’s up, Matt?”
    â€œInstead of going out for dinner, do you want to come over? I can make something.”
    I did a double take at the phone. This was completely unprecedented. It took a second to find a normal tone to reply. “Wow, you’re spoiling me rotten today. I can’t wait to hear this story.”
    â€œI’ll tell you over dinner,” he said. “Pasta okay?”
    â€œYeah, sounds fine. Do you want me to bring anything?”
    â€œJust yourself. Be here at seven.”
    A glance at the clock told me it was a few minutes after six. I would have enough time to control my hair and make it to Matt’s right on time. We said goodbye and disconnected. Dewey was on the threshold of the bedroom, eyeing me with no small amount of contempt.
    â€œWhat is going on in your boyfriend’s head?” I asked him. The cat loved Matt with slavish devotion.
    â€œYeah, I don’t know either.”
    He yawned and eyed the silk underwear still in my hand.
    â€œYou’re too late,” I told him, shaking them in his direction. “I’m putting them on.”
    I stepped into my underwear and headed back to the bathroom to do battle with my hair. Curls are nothing to be trifled with—if you can master them, you’ll have good hair for life, if you can’t … you might as well start amassing your hat collection now. There is no hope.
    Three products and a light diffusing later, I was satisfied with the result. The last step was a little makeup, and then it was back to the closet. I couldn’t help hesitating. Normally, I’d pick something and call it a day, but Matt had thrown a wrench in the system with this whole dinner thing.
    Am I misinterpreting this? I wondered. Maybe he didn’t mean he needed me.
    I drummed my fingers on the edge of the closet, considering. There was something distinctly unusual about the evening and I couldn’t put my finger on it. I could call Matt back and demand answers, I knew. That was part of the deal. We were friends. Good friends.
    He would probably laugh it off and tell me I was thinking too hard.
    I sighed and chose a trusted black top. It was one of those go-to shirts that I put on when nothing else seemed right. It would be fine for dinner, and it would be fine for my walk—er, drive—of shame tomorrow. I supposed I could bring a change of clothes for the morning, but that was never part of the deal. I don’t exactly know why, other than the fact that we established the rules during college.
    Written rules. Now that I thought about it, I couldn’t remember which one of us had them last, though I remembered clearly when Matt had started the list …

Chapter Eight
    Seven Years Earlier … Second Semester Freshman Year
    There is an art and a science to staying friends with someone you’ve slept with. Matt and I were blazing new territory in the field, however, as we’d never had a relationship prior to having sex. Since he’d come up with the concept of Sorbet Sex, it was tempting to defer entirely to him for protocol. But he didn’t know what to do any more than I did. We never talked about it, but the casual touching was the hardest part.
    When I’d get to chem lab, he’d be waiting in his seat and I never quite knew what to do. Act like he hadn’t seen me naked and keep my distance? Embrace it and kiss him on the cheek? High five? Fist bump? Perhaps just a thumbs-up. Eventually, we settled on a high tolerance for incidental touching. Like when I slipped into class late, he leaned in and put his hand on my thigh to ask if everything was all right. But we never went beyond that, which was good, because another guy in our lab section asked me out just before finals.
    He was my first First Date since my First Date with Ben. No lie, I was nervous. But I knew I would have been more nervous if it