Only Oscar (Wattys 2022 Shortlist!)

Chapter Twenty-Two

Mother Nature's timing sucked. 

The switch from sexual feast to famine happened pretty much overnight and in the following days, made Callie feel like she was walking on broken glass. Oscar could sense the rising tension between them, she knew he could. But his way of dealing with it wasn't helpful.

Just because she was temporarily out of action didn't mean she couldn't please him.

"You don't have to do that," he told her the night after they had dinner with Harry and his boyfriend.

Callie told him she wanted to but he countered with the fact they'd both had a long day. Since it was true, it meant she couldn't argue without being unreasonable. So instead, they snuggled up on the sofa, watched a movie, she was asleep before ten and he had to rouse her to put her to bed.

"Can't keep your hands off me, can you?" he said the next night. "Manage it for more than twenty-four hours and by the weekend, we should both be ready for another marathon."

She knew there was some manipulation going on in there, but chose to call his bluff. So, they talked about work, tossed around app ideas and were in bed by midnight. Unfortunately, by then she was fully stocked up on sleep and for the rest of the night stared at the ceiling, the wall and the thin slither of streetlight between the curtains, trying to remain still so she wouldn't wake him.

It gave her time to think, possibly too much time. And by night three, her nerves were stretched to breaking point.

"Callie," he said through gritted teeth when she started to unbuckle his belt. "Quit it."

"No." She kissed up his neck and along his jaw as she climbed onto his lap. "I want to make you feel good."

He drew in a long breath. "You don't have to service me."

That's what he thought she was doing? "I'm not."

"It's starting to feel like you think you have to." If his eyes hadn't softened to a deeper blue, she might have taken offense. "What happened to the days we used to talk about stuff?"

"We talked last night."

"About work. Let's try another topic."

"Like?"

He pressed his lips together. "Hmmm, let's see..." Changing their positions, he slid further down the sofa and took her with him, settling them face-to-face, the tips of their noses inches apart. "How's the Passion Pact going for the others? We haven't talked about that."

Callie hid her relief behind a downward flicker of her lashes. She didn't want to be questioned about why she was so edgy and irritable. Not until she came to terms with it, herself. So, she told him about Avery's smokin' hot boyfriend, how she didn't know much about Beth beyond the fact she'd been going out more and that Talia appeared to have gone AWOL. And in return, he told her how Jasper seemed to have given up on Lisa and they both agreed Harry's new boyfriend was good for him.

They were some of the quietest, most peaceful hours she'd spent with him since they started dating, their proximity and the numerous touches they exchanged a poignant reminder of the closeness she'd never had with anyone else and doubted she ever would. But she knew the reprieve was temporary. If she couldn't snap out of her funk, Oscar would want to know what was wrong. And it wouldn't go well when he cornered her.

Breaking-up rarely did.

As much as she wanted to deny it, she knew they were headed that way. Having gone through it so often, she could read the signs. The fact he found it so easy to decline her advances spoke volumes. But without the intimacy of sex, there was no way to avoid what was missing from their relationship.