by J. S. Cooper
Did she not understand my first subject line?
To: Hannah Will
From: Leo Maxwell
Re: Emails aren’t texts remember?
The rules we came up with said no bombarding each other with texts or calls. Emails aren’t texts. I like cheap kettle corn, btw. And yes, I’m touching myself right now. Want a photo?
I pressed send and then pulled my junk out of my boxers, lay back and took a photo. I’d show Hannah that I meant business.
To: Leo Maxwell
From: Hannah Will
Re: Seems like you’re still breaking the rules to me
Why would I want a photo? Do you think we’re going to do an exchange here? Hmm. I am lying in bed naked.
I groaned as I read her email and quickly switched to text.
“Send me a photo.” I pressed send quickly.
“I thought we weren’t texting.” She responded back right away.
“That was before you told me you were naked.”
“Leo!”
“Show me your breasts.”
“No.”
“Here’s a present for you.” I sent over the photo of my dick and grinned knowing she would be shocked to see it.
“What the fuck?”
“Like it?”
“I didn’t need you to send me a photo of your cock.”
“Like it?”
“You really are a pervert.”
“Send me a photo of you touching your breasts.”
“Leo, I’m not really naked. Lisa is in bed with me remember.”
“Oh yeah.” I felt like a fool for not remembering.
“I’m going to show her your photo.”
“If you want to.”
“You wouldn’t care?”
“Why would I?” I laughed as I pressed send.
“Typical man.”
“Yes, I am. And I’m feeling horny.”
“And?”
“Want to have phone sex?”
“No.”
“Please.”
“I think this goes against the rules.”
“We can change the rules.”
“Leo, we just created the rules.”
“Hold on.” I chugged the rest of my beer down and ran back up to my bedroom. I pulled my phone out again and called her number.
“Why are you calling me?” She whispered into the phone.
“Because I wanted to talk to you.”
“Liar, you called me for phone sex.”
“Well, if you knew that, why did you ask?”
“Leo, we’re not going to have phone sex?”
“Why not?” I groaned, feeling frustrated, though I was happy to be talking to her.
“Leo,” She sighed. “No, just no.”
“Then let’s just talk.” I settled into the bed and pulled my hand out of my pants. I guessed that there was no point me getting ready to wank off.
“Talk about what?”
“Whatever. What you want to do tomorrow?”
“I thought we were going to go to the beach?”
“Yeah, the beach and the promenade.”
“Oh okay, sounds good.”
“Wear a sexy bikini.” I asked her softly and closed my eyes. “I’m picturing you in a bikini right now.”
“I’m going to wear a one-piece now.”
“No, it’s much harder to get access in a one-piece.”
“What?”
“You know we’re going to fuck in the ocean right?”
“Leo!”
“What, I can pull out and cum in the water. You can’t be upset about that.”
“Leo, we’re not going to the ocean to have sex.”
“I don’t mind having sex on the beach as well. I just thought you might be worried that someone would see us. Like innocent kids or something. We might scar them.”
“You’re addicted to sex.”
“I’m addicted to you.” I joked and the phone went silent as I realized that was the wrong thing to say. This wasn’t a relationship. “I mean, I’m addicted to having sex with you.” I corrected myself. “We need to have as much sex as we can in the beginning. That’s the point of being friends with benefits.”
“What benefit am I getting?” She asked softly and I froze. Was she already having second thoughts?
“Whatever you want.” I said quickly. “I’m yours for the taking.”
“I know I can have sex with you whenever I want.” She sighed.
“What else do you want?” Please don’t say a relationship. Please don’t say a relationship.
“Nothing else.” She said softly.
“So do you want to know how hard I am?”
“No, Leo, I don’t.” She giggled.
“Do you want to go and hang out at the Hollywood sign?” I asked without thinking.
“What now?”
“Yeah, now. I can come and pick you up.” I jumped out of bed.
“But it’s late.” She sounded surprised.
“So? We’re both up. It’ll be fun.”
“I thought it was illegal to go and hang out at the sign.”
“It’s only illegal if you get caught.” I laughed as I threw a sweater on and pulled my jeans on. “Come on, it will be an adventure.”
“What are we going to do?”
“Talk.”
“Does talk mean sex?”
“Talk means talk, but if you want it to mean sex, it can.” I responded quickly.
“Fine, I’ll come.”
“Yes.” I grinned. “I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”
“Okay. I’ll go and get ready.”
“Don’t hang up.” I said softly.
“What? Why not?”
“I want to talk to you while I drive over.”
“Oh okay.” She sounded as surprised as I felt. I wasn’t sure why I enjoyed hearing her voice so much. “If that’s what you want, that’s fine.”
“Actually, it’s probably safer for me to drive without being on the phone. I’ll call you when I get there.” I hung up quickly and walked into the bathroom and splashed my face with water. “Stop acting like a girl.” I told myself off. What the fuck was I thinking wanting to talk to her while I drove over to her house? This wasn’t some romantic gesture. This was me going to get laid. Even as I thought it, I knew it wasn’t true. I wasn’t going over so we could have sex. I was going over so that I could spend more time with her. I didn’t even care if we had sex. I just wanted to be with her. I groaned as I realized that I was already straying from the plan. Friends with benefits didn’t meet up to hang out and talk. They didn’t flirt. They just had hot sex and moved on. Maybe this hadn’t been my smartest idea. The last thing I needed was a romantic entanglement. With my assistant. I already knew that work on Monday was going to be crazy. My dad had left me three voicemails sounding pissed and asking me to call him. I had nothing to say to him. I wasn’t going to run myself or the company in a way that made me feel guilty or like I was selling my soul to the devil. Nothing was worth that. There was no amount of money worth losing my soul over. I got into my car with mixed emotions. I was excited to see Hannah. I wanted to see her smile. I wanted to hear the snark in her voice. I wanted to hang out. On the other hand, my excitement scared me. I didn’t want this to be anything more than what it was. I was scared that I was going to fuck this up. I was scared that I was starting to like her more than I should.
***
“This is so cool.” Hannah’s excitement was evident in her voice as we sat next to each other on the hill at the top of the Hollywood sign and stared out at the Los Angeles landscape. “Dangerous, but cool.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t let anything happen to you.” I held her hand and we just stared out at the night sky.
“So what were you doing before you called me?”
“Not much.” I admitted. “I was bored.”
“Oh so that’s why you emailed me?”
“No.” I shook my head. “I wanted to see
you.” I admitted slowly.
“Oh, yeah you were feeling horny.”
“Yeah.” I kept my head away. I didn’t want to tell her that I wanted to see her for more than sex. I didn’t even want to admit that to myself.
“So, I hope you’re not expecting us to do it here. It’s cold out.”
“No, I’m not.” I turned towards her and smiled at her. “Tell me more about you, Hannah. What’s your story?”
“Asides from being the girl that had her promotion stolen by the big bosses son?” She laughed. “Asides from the fact that I’m now sleeping with the boss that stole my job?”
“Yeah.” I ran my hands through my hair and tried to ignore my guilty feeling. “Asides from that, I’m just a regular girl. I grew up in Nebraska and Iowa. My parents live with my grandparents in a small town called Ames. My dad used to work at the university there.”
“Oh what university?” I asked curiously. “I didn’t know your dad was a professor.”
“He wasn’t a professor.” She smiled. “Iowa State, he was a manager in the maintenance department.”
“Oh.”
“Yes, I’m very blue collar.” She smiled. “He didn’t make much money and my mom was a housewife, though she loved it. They’re getting older now and my brother is about to start college. The promotion was going to help me to send more money back home.”
“Oh, I didn’t know that.” I sighed. “That’s a hard position to be in. I guess I understand your hatred of me now.”
“It’s not your fault.” She shrugged. “It would have been nice. I mean, they’re not on the street and Matt can just get loans. Matt’s my brother, by the way.”
“Yeah, I gathered that.” I put my arm around her shoulder. “I’m sure he’ll be fine.”
“Yeah.” She nodded. “And hopefully, I can find a job with more money soon.”
“What do you mean?” I frowned. What was she talking about? Was she going to leave Maxwell Corp?
“Oops.” She made a face. “I didn’t mean to say anything, not that there is really much to say, but I’ve been thinking about looking for a management position outside of the company.”
“You’re going to leave?” My heart felt cold inside.
“I don’t know, but I can’t spend the rest of my career as your assistant. I have an MBA. I have bills. I live in a dumpy apartment. I need to send money to my family. I can’t afford to live on this salary forever.”
“What if I got you a raise?” I asked softly. She couldn’t leave as my assistant.
“No.” She shook her head. “Everyone would know and they’d ask why. It would look too suspicious. All the assistants are paid based on a scale of how long they’ve been working at Maxwell Corp. If I made more than that, people would want to know why. I don’t want people to think I’m sleeping with the boss to make a couple of grand extra per year.”
“What if it was more than that?” I asked softly.
“Leo.” Her voice sounded annoyed. “I don’t even want to have this conversation. I’m not interested in your money. I’ll figure out something.”
“Fine.” I snapped, annoyed, though inside I was pleased. At least, Hannah didn’t appear to be a gold digger.
“What about you? Are you planning on staying on? When you started you didn’t seem to want to be in Corporate America, but you seem to know what you’re doing.”
“I don’t know.” I answered honestly. “I’m not interested in pushing people down to get ahead and I don’t like working under my father, but I do enjoy the corporate world a lot more than I thought I would.”
“That’s because of me, of course.” She grinned and I laughed.
“Of course.” I responded and I knew deep down inside that I wasn’t lying.
“So, do you like Los Angeles?” I sat back and stared at her curiously. Hannah was unlike other girls I’d met. She was beautiful, but in a more natural way. And she didn’t play games. I liked the fact that she was so honest with her thoughts and feelings.
“It’s cool.” She spoke slowly. “It’s a lot faker than I thought it would be, but it’s also a lot deeper than I thought as well. I mean, in my area, it’s real people. Working class people, it feels like a community, but sometimes, when I go to different areas, it feels like some sort of plastic city with plastic people. I’m not used to being around so many pretentious and fake people.”
“I know what you mean.” I nodded. “People here are plastic, even the ones that haven’t had plastic surgery.”
“You feel that way, even though you grew up here?”
“I do.” I nodded slowly. “I’m lucky that my best friends are both cool. They both have a rich dad, but they’re down to earth.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, Zane and Noah Beaumont, their dad is...”
“Omg, their dad is not that famous director?” Hannah’s eyes widened and I nodded.
“Yeah.” I smiled. “Though, you wouldn’t know it if you met them. They’re the coolest guys I know.”
“Is one of them your best friend that got married or something?”
“Yeah, Zane.” I nodded, pleased she’d remembered, though I couldn’t remember when I’d told her about him. “Zane is actually my best friend, Noah is his younger brother, but we’re tight as well. It’s actually a crazy story about them.”
“Oh?”
“Well, we all thought Noah was dead.” I laughed. “He’d gone to Florida to hide out from some drug lords.”
“What?” She looked shocked. “Is this true life or a movie?”
“Haha, right?” I laughed and suddenly felt really alive. “I’ll have to tell you the whole story sometime. But anyways, Zane and I used to do everything together: party, meet girls, that sort of thing. Then he met this girl, Lucky, down in Miami and as they say, the rest is history.”
“Wow, she must be some girl.”
“Yeah, she’s pretty special.” I nodded. “In fact, they’re having a picnic soon, if you want to come.”
“Oh.” She bit her lower lip. “Is that allowed?”
“What do you mean?” I stared at him in confusion and then remembered the rule about not meeting friends. “Oh yeah, the no friends rule.” I chuckled and looked away, feeling disappointed and anxious. I wanted Hannah to meet Lucky and I didn’t know why. Why did I care? What did it matter? We were just friends with benefits. This was just about the sex.
“You know.” She shrugged and I sighed.
“We’ll just go with the flow.” I leaned forward and kissed her. “Does that sound like a plan?” I leaned back slightly and licked her trembling lips lightly.
“Yes.” She nodded, her brown eyes staring into mine with a look I’d never seen before. “That sounds like a plan.”
Chapter Twelve
Hannah
I drove to work on Monday morning with nerves in my stomach. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I got to the office. How was Leo going to act when he saw me? We’d spent the entire weekend together, with me staying at his place on Saturday night and going back to my own place late Sunday afternoon. It had been an amazing weekend and we’d spent more time talking and eating, than we had having sex. It had almost felt like a real relationship. Almost. There had been a couple of awkward moments. Like Sunday morning when we’d woken up at the same time and just stared at each other for a few minutes before kissing. I parked and walked into the building feeling anxious and I hoped that Leo wasn’t going to be acting like an asshole. I grabbed my phone as I walked into the building and saw a text from Leo.
“Where are you?”
“On my way.”
“You’re late.”
“I’ll be there in a minute.”
“I expect my coffee at 9am sharp.”
“Sorry.”
“Don’t think you can come in late because you’re fucking the boss.”
I put my phone in my pocket angrily and rode up in the elevator fuming. Why had I slept with him? Why had I agreed to friends wit
h benefits? I was stupid to enter such an agreement with my boss. I sighed and stepped out of the elevator and took a deep breath. I entered the office and put my game face on.
“What do you want?” I knocked on Leo’s door and he looked up at me with a grin.
“You out of that suit, please.” He winked at me, but I didn’t smile.
“What do you want from the coffee shop?” I asked, talking very slowly.
“Are you in a bad mood this morning, Hannah?” Leo stood up and frowned as he walked towards me. “Where’s my morning kiss?”
“I’m just trying to do my job.” I frowned and then stared at his face in confusion. “Why are you laughing at me?”
“You didn’t take my texts seriously did you?” He smiled and held up two coffees in his hands. “I got us some coffee and some bagels and I got you a muffin as well.”
“What? Why did you text me and complain about the time then?”
“I didn’t want it to be cold when you got here.” He smiled. “I wanted to surprise you this morning, but you weren’t here, when I got here. I was disappointed.”
“Oh, sorry.” I took the coffee from him. “This is so sweet. I’m sorry I’m late, but Fakio hogged the bathroom all morning.”
“Who?” He looked confused.
“This guy my roommate has started seeing. I don’t know his real name. He goes by Fakio and Antonio.” I laughed at the expression on his face. “I’ll explain it later.”
“When do I get to meet your infamous roommate?” He asked softly as he handed me a bagel and cream cheese.
“You want to meet her?”
“She sounds hilarious.” He grinned. “Who wouldn’t want to meet her?”
“I guess when you come over.” I smiled at him. “Maybe tonight?”
“Is that an invitation?”
“It is if you want to come?”
“I always want to come.” He winked at me and I groaned.
“I suppose I walked into that one, didn’t I?” I laughed, suddenly feeling light-hearted.
“Yeah, you did.” He pulled me towards him and gave me a big kiss. “I’ve been wanting to do that all morning.”