Dr. Perfect: A Contemporary Romance Bundle

by Oliver, J. P.

I spent a vast majority of the drive home groaning and complaining to myself. For the most part, it was the embarrassment. A few times, it was because I hadn’t actually been paying much attention to the road on the way to Jeffery’s house, and only realized that once I had to try traversing it backwards by myself, with hardly a street light to guide the way.

  But I eventually made it back home. The house was still and quiet, but the porch light was on. Rajal had probably done that, knowing that I would be late. He was a really thoughtful kid.

  I crept into the house in the dark and stopped just long enough to drop my keys and the bag of chicken feed that I had dragged from the trunk next to the front door. My arms hurt a little just from that effort alone, which made me wonder exactly how much Jeffrey could lift if he could tote these things around and make it look so easy.

  But I was quick to shake my head free of any thoughts of him. I had other things to focus on now, and couldn’t risk looking embarrassed or like I was in the middle of a daydream now that I was home. Not around my siblings, whom I wasn’t sure I ever wanted to come out to.

  First things first. I tiptoed my way down the hall to Neri’s room to check on her. The door was open a crack. She was there in bed, tucked in soundly and snoring lightly because of her congestion. I felt my lips twitch up into a smile, and shook my head a little.

  On her bedside table was an empty bowl and a new plate beside the one I had left there in the morning, so I could tell she had at least eaten dinner, too. Quietly, I walked over to pick the plates up.

  On the way to the kitchen, I stopped by Rajal’s door. I put my ear to it, and from the inside I heard nothing but silence. He was either asleep or doing something on his computer, most likely.

  He was really into video games and liked to watch shows online, which meant he tended to stay up a little later than he should. But tomorrow was Saturday, so a bit of late-night fun was nothing I was about to naysay, especially when he had been taking care of Neri so well.

  Once in the kitchen, I set the plates down on the counter and started to scrub them off one by one and stack them up nice and clean nearby. It was pretty mindless work, though, and I found my thoughts drifting once again to Jeffrey.

  I couldn’t help but wonder … would it really have been bad if I had flirted back? A little flirting was pretty harmless, wasn’t it?

  Besides, I had a clear signal now that he was interested in me, so it wasn’t like I would be taking the first risk. He had done that for me. Now the only thing left for me to do would be reciprocate.

  And honestly, he was pretty cute. Really cute. A great face and an equally great body, from what I had already been able to see.

  There was still a voice in the back of my head that said it was a bad idea, of course. It said, Think of your siblings. It said, What would your parents say if they knew?

  Maybe it really had been best for me to leave before I was tempted … but the temptation didn’t end there, as I soon discovered. As I was getting ready for bed, I reached into my pocket and pulled out the slip of paper he had written his number on.

  The consideration swirled in my head as I went to take a shower and washed the grunge of the day away. My thoughts were consumed with what I wanted my next move to be, and before I knew it, I was stretched out on my bed and reaching for my phone.

  I texted: Hey, it’s Tarek.

  Maybe ten seconds passed, and then I added: I just wanted to thank you again for the goat. You’re a real life saver ☺

  I glanced at the clock after that. It was already ten at night, though I had a rare “late” shift tomorrow and wouldn’t have to head in until eleven in the morning. Unless someone called me in early, of course.

  In any case, I didn’t actually expect a text back, so I was quite surprised when my phone vibrated against my stomach after I’d set it down to try clearing my thoughts. I picked it up and fumbled with the buttons.

  The message was from Jeffrey’s number, and read: No problem. Just make sure you don’t forget the goat if you leave so fast tomorrow ;)

  I laughed out loud to myself. He really didn’t waste any time when it came to teasing, did he?

  My thumbs hovered over the touch keyboard of my phone for a few seconds as I debated what to do next. Should I respond? Should I flirt back, or keep it strictly business?

  I was torn, but at the same time, I knew in my heart that I hadn’t messaged him at ten p.m. just to say thanks for the goat. So I texted back.

  Hey, you can’t blame me. Most people get a little flustered when they get a compliment from someone so good looking, right?

  My heart thumped in my chest as I forced myself to hit send immediately, not wanting to give myself a chance for second thoughts. The reply came just a few moments later.

  And here I was worried I just smelled like chicken feed lol!

  Can’t say I’m mad I flustered you though since I got to see your cute blush

  It was invigorating, really. It had been quite a while since I last flirted with anyone, and I could feel a rush of adrenaline creep up on me as I remembered how fun it was.

  Yeah well I’m going to have to charge you next time, that’s a pretty rare sight, I wrote.

  Is it? I’ll have to work extra hard so I can see it again then, he replied.

  It sounds like you’re making it into a challenge you know

  Maybe I am

  We continued bantering for what felt like minutes, but the next time I checked the clock, I was shocked to see that it was already past 11. How had a whole hour passed by so quickly?

  Quickly, I typed back: Should get to sleep for my shift tomorrow. I get out at around 6. What time do you want me to come over?

  And the response came shortly. 7 is fine.

  There was a brief pause, and then he also sent: Looking forward to seeing you

  I knew I was blushing again, and was grateful that he wasn’t around in person to laugh at me. Quickly, I thumbed back my last text — a simple good night — and set my phone next to me on the bedside table.

  Actually getting to sleep was another matter, though. My heart wouldn’t stop beating its fluttery way through my ribcage, hard and fast and full of excitement. And maybe it was ridiculous to be so excited about something like this, but I couldn’t help it, really.

  I was up before my alarm for the first time in a long time the next morning, and even though I felt tired, I was still excited enough that it almost made up for that.

  Because my shift was later, Rajal and Neri were already in the kitchen eating breakfast when I came in. They were always thoughtful and made sure not to wake me on the rare days I got to sleep in, even if it meant having to fend for themselves.

  “You’re looking better today,” I said to Neri as I passed by to grab a slice of bread from the bag. I made a mental note to pick up a new loaf later today, and try to get a few boxes of cereal, too.

  She rolled her eyes, taking a pointed bite of her cereal. A few tissues were already balled up next to her placemat, a testament to her allergies.

  “Thanks, I know,” she said, sarcastic.

  I snickered a little, and Rajal outright laughed. “Ah, by the way,” I said, keeping my back to them as I set up the toaster. “I’m going to be gone tonight; I’ve got a meeting at seven. Can you watch Neri?”

  Rajal made a little affirmative noise, crunching away on his cereal bar that he had probably bought from the student store at his school. He always liked things like that — the breakfast bars, PopTarts, anything that was convenient and sugary. I’d given up on trying to break him of that habit a long time ago.

  “Yeah, I’ve got it covered. Are you going to want dinner?”

  “Hm … yeah,” I said, not wanting to risk going hungry for a night because I’d read too far into things and ended up making assumptions. “Just stick my share in the fridge, and I’ll eat it when I get back.”

  Rajal nodded and I turned my attention back to my toast. This time, I actually had time to slather it with p
eanut butter before scarfing it down — a luxury I couldn’t afford most days.

  Still, I didn’t want to dawdle. I would end up stinking of milk and coffee beans by the end of the day anyway, but I at least wanted to clean myself up a little if I was going to be hanging out with Jeffrey afterward.

  “I’m getting ready for my shift,” I said after I had finished, setting my plate in the sink. “I’ll get the dishes tonight, so you can just leave them here.” It was my way of showing gratitude for Rajal covering things at home while I was gone.

  “Thanks,” he responded through a mouthful of cereal bar.

  Neri wrinkled her nose. “Don’t talk with your mouth full, that’s gross!”

  As the two of them bickered back and forth a little, I wandered off to my room to get ready for the day. Just as with last night, I could feel butterflies dancing away in my stomach. Such a little thing, but it was one of the only things that I had actually been looking forward to in quite some time.

  Regardless of what that little voice in my head seemed to want to say, I was going to enjoy myself tonight.

  7

  Jeffrey

  I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t surprised to see that text come in. I wasn’t actually expecting to hear back from Tarek until whenever his shift was over, since he seemed like the kind of guy who was easily embarrassed by flirting.

  But I never minded pleasant surprises like this one.

  I had a rare day off today, so I enjoyed the privilege of lazing around in the morning and re-reading the texts that we’d volleyed back and forth so easily the night before. Even though I had just met the guy, we seemed to have clicked. Funny how things worked out like that.

  It was also funny how much better Tarek was with flirting via text than he was in person. Maybe he was just thrown off his game with me coming in without any warning, but I imagined that he was still blushing with everything he typed and sent, which amused me to no end.

  In any case, maybe it was because I didn’t have anything but farm work to do, but the hours seemed to pass by excruciatingly slowly. Every time I checked the clock to see if it was any closer to seven, only an hour or even less had passed.

  There was a lot to do on the farm, but all of it was busywork. That left a lot of room for my mind to wander as I thought about Tarek’s cute smile, the way that his cheeks dimpled, and the subtle scruff of stubble that had shaded his chin by the end of the day.

  The sun was low in the sky the next time I bothered checking the time. It was surprisingly hot outside, and I had to go back in to towel my face off and wipe some of the sweat away. The clock on the kitchen wall read a quarter to seven already, and my heart did an excited little flip inside my chest.

  I checked my phone and sure enough, there was a message from Tarek about ten minutes earlier saying that he was on his way. I texted back letting him know that I would be by the blue building, and then headed out that way. I’d saved this task for the end of the day, since it was one of the biggest pains that I always wished I had two hands for.

  About fifteen minutes later, footsteps crunched their way up the walk.

  “Hey,” Tarek called out. As I had predicted, he still looked a bit embarrassed. It was adorable.

  “Hi,” I responded, gesturing toward the building’s interior. It was piles upon piles, bales upon bales of hay. One of my least favorite tasks was hauling hay, so I figured I might as well make it more enjoyable by having some good company while I worked.

  “I’ll help you load the goat after we’re done here. I’m gonna need help moving this today,” I explained, watching as he looked over the mounds of hay with a little bit of surprise.

  “Wow… I guess this is what it’s like when you have a big farm, huh?” he laughed. He looked a little sheepish, but stepped forward without pause, bumping into my shoulder and making my heart skip another beat. “All right, where do we start?”

  “Over here,” I said. I gestured toward the bales and subtly shifted my weight so I could press back against him in return, testing the waters. He didn’t seem to mind. Rather, his weight bore against me even more as he let himself rest there for a moment.

  “Get the smaller ones near the front, okay?”

  The bigger ones were comparable in size and weight to a particularly heavy bag of feed, after all. While I wanted more hands on deck, I also didn’t want to scare away my help with the more physically demanding jobs.

  “All right,” he replied, though he was notably reluctant to move away from me to grab a bale. “Where are we taking them to?”

  “Out there.” I pointed to another building just down the path. That was where I tore the bales apart and separated them out. It was a special building with state-of-the-art temperature regulation that my old man had worked hard on, since he was tired of our hay molding before we could use all of it.

  “Got it.”

  Tarek plucked up a bale and started walking over toward the building, and one by one, we schlepped them over. We rolled a few, joking and laughing along the way. We bumped shoulders every so often, and sometimes when we went for the same bale, our fingers lingered in a joint gentle touch. I caught him glancing my way, every now and then, from beneath his lashes, and could feel his eyes on my back in a way that sent shivers down my spine.

  The work progressed relatively slowly even with two sets of hands, but it was still a lot of fun, even as the thin thread of excited tension was pulled taut between us. There was also a lot of sweating. Though the sun had already begun to sink below the horizon, the air felt sweltering and sticky, closer to summer than fall.

  At some point in all of the hay-hefting, the two of us ended up stripping out of our shirts, which were soaked through with sweat. He was having some trouble moving around in his, anyway. Button-down shirts might be good for work as a barista, but they definitely weren’t the best when you were busy with farmwork.

  After the bales were moved, we started to sort through the loose hay. “Stick the new hay over here in this pile,” I directed, having grabbed the two of us pitchforks. “The rest goes over here.”

  “Got it,” he said, setting to work immediately. I glanced over as he did, just to briefly enjoy the view. He was pretty well-defined in terms of musculature. He wasn’t exactly bulging with muscles, but he had some definition on his arms, chest, and abs. With the way the sweat clung to him, it looked even better.

  I tried to center my focus back on the hay again rather than on him, but it was a pretty difficult task. Working side by side like this, rather than rolling and carrying bales of hay around, meant that I could hear him as he worked. His breath came in short puffs and pants, exertion driving him.

  The air in the barn somehow seemed to get even hotter, though that could have been a trick of my imagination.

  Every now and then, though, I was sure that I could feel his eyes on me. Once, I looked up in time to catch him staring my way — at my stomach in particular. I grinned when I noticed what he was staring at, and he blushed and looked away, but smiled a second later.

  I made a bit of a show after that, just for fun. I flexed beyond what was necessary as I moved the bales around, showing off my back and abs. Whenever we got close enough to touch, I teasingly let myself brush up against his side, bare skin to bare skin. Once, I was bold enough to lean in and press a kiss against his sweat-slicked shoulder, which earned me a shudder.

  Just as I was planning a second sneak kiss, though, sweaty hands were suddenly against my — equally sweaty, I’m sure — shoulders. It was the first time Tarek had initiated touch between us, and I was delighted. Though he was clearly hesitant, and a little uncertain, I helped guide him until his lips met mine in a kiss.

  It started out soft, at first. I kept things gentle so as not to overwhelm him. But the electric buzz between us only got stronger the longer our hands were on each other, and he gained courage, his kissing growing more energetic.

  The two of us backed up together until I could feel the wall of the barn ag
ainst my shoulders and spine. I might have made a sound, but it was drowned and swallowed up into Tarek’s mouth quickly.

  Somewhat hesitantly, his teeth bit at my bottom lip, and I grinned against his lips. For someone who could barely manage to flirt in person without blushing or breaking eye contact, he was a pretty aggressive kisser. That sure wasn’t something that I’d expected to learn so soon, but I wasn’t upset about it.

  I responded to the unspoken request and opened my mouth, allowing him to explore. His tongue ran against my teeth and lips before delving in. I met him with just as much vigor, kissing back hard in an attempt to keep up with his rush of energy.

  His hands moved next. They were stalled against my shoulders, resting against me as I braced myself against the wall. Once he got his bearings, they started to rise up. They slid over my shoulders and chest. His palms seared with warmth, and they slipped a little from the sweat we both shared.

  They searched in an almost tentative way, compared to the ferocity of his kisses. It was almost like he was looking for something, but I had no idea what that might be.

  To encourage him to be a little rougher, I raised my hands, too. I cupped the back of his head and ran my fingers through his short but soft hair. My hands dropped to his shoulders, where I explored the angles of his bones and muscles. It was nice to feel them pull and tense beneath my fingertips as his hands continued to roam.

  I was the first one to reach his pants, while he mapped out the lines of my abdomen. I dipped my fingers below the waistband, just to hook into the fabric. I felt along the waistband, and then delved lower and played with the button on the front of his jeans.

  I ran the back of my hand against the front of his pants, and felt the ridge of fabric where his zipper was and the hard lump beneath it. I pressed down, eliciting a moan from Tarek.

  He let his own hands wander a little more boldly. I could feel them going right for the front of my own pants, petting over the zipper. The friction was wonderful, and I closed my eyes, moaning in the back of my throat.