Until the World Stops - L.A. Witt Page 0,45

All night long, I’d known I was going to be this wiped today. Lying in bed, wide awake, I’d known I’d feel like shit today. But I couldn’t help it. I just couldn’t sleep.

Not when I’d wanted to be downstairs with Tristan.

And then I’d figured if I got off, then I’d go to sleep.

So I’d gotten off…while thinking about Tristan.

Even now, tired as hell with my gun belt digging into my back, I couldn’t help getting goose bumps at the memory. Jerking off to thoughts of my roommate-husband-lockdown-companion-whatever shouldn’t have been that good. That hot.

Squirming in my chair, I tried to push those thoughts out of my head before I got an untimely and uncomfortable hard-on. MA2 Colby was at the other desk, playing on her phone in between glancing at the monitors in case someone had approached the gate, and I really didn’t need her catching on that my mind was in a very unprofessional place at the moment.

My mind wasn’t just in Tristan’s bed, either. It was weird how much I wanted to be home right now. Usually I wanted to stay away from the duplex as much as possible unless he was at work, but I was itching for the safety and comfort of home.

And to my surprise, I wanted Tristan to be there. My resentment for him had steadily swelled ever since we’d moved in together, but lately…

What could I say? I wanted takeout Olive Garden in Tristan’s truck while we talked about whatever and pretended the world wasn’t burning. These days, if I had the choice between being here with people coming and going (including a lot who clearly didn’t take COVID seriously) and being home, watching TV on the couch with Tilly in my lap while Tristan did homework—I mean, it was a no-brainer. That didn’t say much, though. This command sucked, my chief was annoying, and being out of the house during a pandemic made my skin crawl.

But I got why Tristan had wanted to get out last night, and it seemed like it was good for him. Apparently it was good for me too, if it had left me with stars in my eyes and put me on a hair trigger for a boner when I thought about him. He was the only person besides coworkers I could have any contact with at all. And of course he was attractive, so…

I rubbed my eyes again and pulled out my phone to hunt down a distraction. There wasn’t much going on besides political and pandemic doom and gloom, and I didn’t have any email. So much for a distraction.

Out of sheer boredom, I reactivated my Tinder account and thumbed through profiles. No harm in forging a few connections and saving a few profiles for when things went back to normal, right?

Before too long, a hot guy out in Augusta struck up a conversation with me. We chatted back and forth for a while, dropping a few innuendos here and there. He was working at home thanks to the statewide shutdown, and like me, he was bored stupid. We went back and forth a bit about what we did at our respective jobs, obviously just making conversation while we felt each other out.

After maybe half an hour, he asked, you want to meet up?

I stared at the message. When?

whenever, baby. you free 2nite?

Tonight? He wanted to meet up tonight?

I wrote back, You’re not social distancing?

lol nah man. nobody in maine’s got it.

With a disgusted sound, I closed the chat, deactivated my profile again, and pushed my phone away on the desk. Chafing my arms like I was suddenly covered in bugs, I shuddered. I was horny as hell and craving some human contact, but I had my limits.

Maybe the guy was right. Maybe there was nothing to worry about in this state. But all it took was one, and what could I say? The pandemic had me spooked. I didn’t want to be around anyone except my co-workers and my husband-slash-roommate. More him than them, honestly, especially since I worked with people who didn’t think COVID was something to worry about.

Plus, when I was with Tristan, I didn’t think about the pandemic or all the bullshit. Not even when we were eating dinner in the car—an obvious reminder that dining in wasn’t an option right now. How far had the world gone off the deep end when the sanest, calmest place I could think of was wherever Tristan was? How was it that the