"Oh my God, Nick!" Tricia giggled, playfully smacking her friend as they lay on their beach towels.
"What?" Nicki grinned mischievously. "The boy needs to know you dig him."
Tricia rolled her eyes. "I'm pretty sure he knows."
"Oh?" Nicki's eyes widened beneath her sunglasses. "Are you holding out on me? What has happened between you two?"
Tricia laughed at her. "We've just been DMing, is all. Nothing serious, just casual flirting."
Nicki huffed. "Oh please. Dude is gorgeous and obviously nuts about you. Plus, he's freaking Carl Gallagher."
"What does that mean?" Tricia laughed. "I'm supposed to hop on the D because dude's on TV?"
Nicki rolled her eyes. "Uh...we both know you want to hop on the D either way. Boy wants to see you in your bikini. Send him a pic."
"Nicki!" Tricia laughed. "You can't just thirst vicariously through me."
"FaceTime him then," Nicki grinned. "You have his number, right?"
Tricia sighed. "No."
Nicki lowered her sunglasses to eye her friend disappointedly. "I will handle this."
Tricia raised an eyebrow as Nicki began typing something on her phone.
Within moments, Nicki looked up and smiled. "Here's his number, baby."
"What? How?" Tricia stammered. She didn't think Nicki would actually be able to get Ethan's number.
"I DMed him!" Nicki grinned. "Told him my girl wanted his number."
Tricia blushed and playfully smacked her friend. "Nicki!"
"You should've seen how fast he replied!" Nicki laughed. "Now fucking call him."
Tricia took a deep breath and considered it. It wasn't as if she'd never met Ethan, and obviously she would love to talk to him. She had butterflies in her stomach; being cool and flirty was one thing online...would she be able to maintain it on the phone?
Fuck it, she breathed. She entered his number in her phone and pressed send. As she waited for the call to connect, she wandered away from Nicki to talk to Ethan in private.
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"Hey," came Ethan's low, raspy voice. She had forgotten how sexy it was. And speaking of sexy...he was lying in bed without a shirt on.
"H-hi," Tricia smiled, trying not to let on how much she wanted him. It would be more fun to play hard to get. The thing was...she wasn't so sure she could.
"I see you've taken the shirt off," Ethan grinned.
Tricia giggled and bit her thumb. "Well I am at the beach, silly."
Ethan laughed. "You can feel free to FaceTime me anytime you take your clothes off."
Tricia blushed. "Are you always this forward?"
"Only if I really want something," Ethan replied with a smirk.
Tricia bit her lip. Fuck, he could charm the pants off of anyone. "You can get any girl you want, Carl Gallagher," she emphasized his character's name with a grin.
Ethan laughed and rolled his eyes. "Look who's talking. I'm just another one of your horny Instagram followers."
Tricia laughed. "No, you aren't. Are you forgetting that I put out an APB on you?"
Ethan smirked. "I should've chatted you up at that wedding," he told her. "I should've asked you to dance."
Tricia sighed. The thought of that made her smile. "I'm glad we took a picture together, though."
"Yes, thank you for making me feel less lonely and pathetic," Ethan laughed.
"Why were you alone?" Tricia asked, then worried that she shouldn't have asked.
"My girlfriend and I broke up not too long ago," Ethan replied.
"Oh, Ethan, I'm sorry," Tricia backpedaled.
"I'm not," he grinned at her. "Now, the real question is why were you alone?"
Tricia smiled. "Sometimes I like a break from guys. Most of them only want one thing."
Ethan bit his lip. "I'm not gonna lie, being a guy and all, I definitely want you like that."
Tricia blushed, and felt turned on at his admission. She'd be lying to herself if she didn't want him that way too.
"But I want to get to know you more," he continued.
"Yeah," Tricia smiled. "Me too."
The two of them talked a bit more, until Nicki motioned to Tricia that they were leaving.
"Shit, Ethan, I gotta go," Tricia sighed. She really didn't want to get off the phone.
"That's alright," Ethan smiled. "We'll be doing a lot more of this, I promise you."
