take the job. Stay here. Please. Something else will come up.”
I part my lips to protest but he lowers his face and kisses, transferring the emotion in his eyes to his lips. His body forces mine to give in. My hands slide up into his hair as his hands roam my back and butt. The kiss that started a conversation without words becomes more. His body grinds against mine, bringing a moan from my lips as his fingers rake against my back and I wrap a leg around him, clinging.
Someone honks as they drive by, shouting obscenities from their car and cheering. We pause and laugh as I push him away. “You can’t go from calling me madam to roadside sex. It’s not that kind of date,” I tease but my heart’s not in it.
He steps back, holding his hand to his chest. “Don’t go.” His expression slays me.
“I have a few days to think about it before they need an answer.”
“We’ll never see each other.” He winces when he says it.
“Then quit the NHL and come with me,” I joke weakly.
“Okay.” He walks to me again and kisses me. “I’ve been missing the West Coast rain lately.”
“Then it’s all worked out.” I kiss him again before pushing him away and climbing into the car.
He gets in and sighs as he slowly pulls away from the curb, not driving like before. “You’re taking it, aren’t you?”
“I don’t know.” And I don’t know if that’s a lie or not.
We drive in awkward silence to my place. His mouth opens several times like he might say something but he doesn’t. I think that’s worse, him wanting to talk and not doing it.
He parks his stupidly expensive car behind my neighbor’s beater truck and grins. “I haven’t seen a Datsun truck in years.”
“What?”
“Nothing.” He laughs but his heart isn’t in it either.
We climb out and I point at the small red brick building. “This is it.”
“I’ve always wondered what these kinds of places look like inside.” He walks to the door and waits for me to put my key in.
“This is legit how the other half lives. Prepare yourself.” I open the door and we walk into the stifling stairwell where summer heat radiates from the brick building.
“Oh my God, it’s like a sauna.” He wafts his shirt as we climb the stairs.
“Yeah, it’s warm.”
When I open the door to my apartment, he pauses and stares back at me. I can’t tell if he’s scared or worried but watching him take up almost the entire hallway is funny. He’s enormous compared to the narrow spaces. I close the door and lock it, watching him explore with a bewildered expression and hesitant steps. A few times he tests thin floorboards before putting all his weight down, making me laugh.
Finally, he comes back, there’s panic in his eyes. “You can’t live here. There’s asbestos or worse, it’s one of those buildings where the mob put the dead bodies into the walls with lime to hide a murder.”
“Wow.” I roll my eyes, laughing at him.
“I’m being serious, Jenny. You’ll end up with cancer living here.”
“Come on, you big baby.” I take his hand in mine and pull him to my bedroom. “I know I said I wanted to slow things down, but having you here, so near my bed is making me rethink that.”
“I can’t get hard here,” he mutters as he continues to stare at everything. “It’s haunted.”
It’s against the rules I laid out about us slowing things down, but I prove him wrong a minute later. He even sleeps over. And in the quiet of the night, when he’s snoring next to me, I tell myself that this is it. I’m not taking the job. I’m staying.
He’s younger.
He’s crazy.
He’s a terribly aggressive driver.
He’s the last person on earth I imagined myself with.
And yet, somehow, nothing has ever felt this right.
I snuggle into him, melting my body into his, even in the heat of the brick oven I live in. Falling asleep this way is a first for me. It’s bliss.
6
Church porno boobs
Friday, July 21
Lori
Trying to get comfortable in the tiny chair at the bridal boutique, I adjust again.
“So the building is like condemnable?” Sami asks as she walks from the dressing room where Nat is doing her last fitting.
“Yeah, I called the city. The inspectors went through it a couple of years ago and the reports say it’s fine. But honestly, it’s creepy.”
“I can’t believe you slept there,” Carson shudders.
“It’s fine, you psychos.” Nat