“Sure,” he says, “I remember. Don’t tell me you’ve made her your girlfriend.”
“Exactly that, my man,” I say as the waitress brings our drinks over. “Exactly.”
“That’s good,” Joshua says, stomping his cigarette out in the glass ashtray. The bar we’re at is so stupidly expensive, and it must be because they spent all their money on designer ashtrays. “This opportunity is going to bank you a lot of cash if we play everything right.”
This place is just reminding me how happy I am to be selling the penthouse.
“What’s the opportunity?” I ask, taking a sip of my drink. I want this meeting to be over with quickly. I need to get home to Julie. She’s staying the night at my place, and I told her I wouldn’t be out late.
“I started telling you about it last week. It’s a fund. The investors are very motivated, but they want to know that we are all in. Mentally still in the game. They know how much money we can make them by managing their cash, and they know how fucking good you and I are at playing.”
“So you’re saying I’d have to devote myself to this?” I say, pondering the cost of not going in on this fund.
“This isn’t a long-term deal. This is a get in, profit, get out kind of plan. Short-term investment. Maybe six months managing, and then you walk away with a hefty profit, if everything going according to plan.”
“Oh, man.”
I could always use more money. It’s fucking true. Everyone could, as I've said before. It’s a safety net. Insurance. Because when life happens, it’s easy for everything to go to shit in an instant.
“Six months?” I ask. “That’s just too much of a commitment for me. You know I got out of finance a while ago. It’s tempting, but I think I have to pass on this one.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Joshua asks, a bemused smirk on his face. “It’s just six months of your life. Your girl will be there waiting for you after that, and it’s not like you’ll have to devote every single fucking second to work.”
“I don’t want her to wait. Not for a moment. I’ve already spent enough time waiting for her already.”
I toss back my drink and stand up, sticking out my hand to my old friend, confident in my decision.
“It’s your loss,” he says. “But it’s your decision.”
“Not a loss at all,” I say.
16
Julie
“Look what the cat dragged in.”
Beth’s in her pajamas, and as she opens the door to our apartment, I’m freaking out.
“I know. I’m sorry I haven’t been back here in a couple of days,” I say, collapsing onto the couch.
“It’s fine. It’s just that if I’d know you’d become a sex-crazed maniac the first time you screwed, I’d have suggested you do it a long time ago,” she says, grabbing my cookie dough out of the fridge and bringing it over to the couch with two spoons.
“It’s not that,” I say. “It’s Dan.”
“What’d he do?” she asks, her eyes wide with judgement. “I’ll punch him in the nose if he did anything to hurt you.”
“Everything is going great. Everything was going great. Too great. Until tonight.”
“What the hell happened, sweetie?” she asks, concern growing on her face.
“He’s hot a hell, and he cares about me, and we get along great. It was too good. He was saying he wanted to sell his apartment and wanted me to move to the country with him. I think he kind of gets that I don’t like the city very much. But then tonight, he went out to some bar with an old coworker, and he said he had a business thing to take care of, and now I’m just freaking the heck out because everything is all messed up!”
“Okay, sweetie, what are you so afraid of?” Beth says, putting a hand gently onto mine. “What’s got you so upset?”
“It’s everything! It’s just too good. And this business thing is making me nervous because what about moving to the country and what if I’m not good enough for him?”
God, my heart is racing and I’m just getting myself all whipped up. I stab the tube of cookie dough with my spoon and mush it around a little before taking a bite. This is my form of liquor. Have it when I need to celebrate, have it when I need to cry. When I need to rally and power myself up, and when I need to calm myself down.
But now, it doesn’t seem to be working.
“Honey, you are good enough for him. I can’t believe I’m even saying this right now!” Beth grabs the cookie dough and tosses it down on the table. “Too much sugar for you. I’m cutting you off.”
“What if he just had sex with me because that's all he wanted and now he’s ready to move on?” I ask.
This is probably my biggest fear. This is why I wanted to just do it, get it over with, and run away.
This? This is why I never did it before.
“Honey, if that’s the case,” Beth says, “then he doesn’t deserve you. But I’m sure that’s not going to happen.”
“How do you know?” I ask, tears starting to form in my eyes.
“I don’t know, hon,” she says. “But sometimes you just have to be strong, and trust. You have to have faith that at the end of the day, when you’ve done your best and given everything you have, that it’ll work out.”
My best friend looks at me, and her expression starts to change.
“Oh, no,” she says, smiling brightly. “You love him. That’s why you’re freaking out so much.”
And like that, the wind is knocked out of me.
“Love? That’s not possible. I barely know him,” I say, grabbing the cookie dough from the table.
“Really think about it, and tell me it’s not true.”
Now I’m really in over my head.
17
Dan
She’s at my place when I get home, but she doesn’t look happy.
“How was your business meeting?” she asks me coolly, her gaze drifting up from her glass of wine to me.
I toss my jacket onto the couch and go into the kitchen to get my own glass of wine.
It was supposed to be time for me to celebrate turning down Joshua’s offer and tell Julie that I wanted to look at home with her this weekend, but now, with her upset, it’ll be a glass of wine to commiserate.
“It was a good meeting. Great, in fact. Joshua offered me this big gig. Six months managing a fund for a small set of investors.” I pull down one of my wine glasses and walk over to the couch, where Julie has a bottle of white already out.
“I thought you were done with all that crap,” she says. There are thorns in her voice, and I can’t tell what’s wrong.
“I am done with it. That’s why I turned him down,” I explain, pouring a glass for myself. “Baby, tell me what’s wrong. How was work today?”
“It was fine,” she sighs. “The city is too much for me, though. I mean, I like it, but I guess I miss really knowing people. Here, it’s hard to know people. Too many of them.”
“I get what you mean,” I say, taking a sip and pulling her against me, taking her legs and swinging them over my lap. “Come here, babe.”
“You turned down the job?” she asks, looking at me sweetly with wide eyes. “But you get offers like this all the time, don’t you? And it’s what you really want, isn’t it?”
“Woah,” I say, stroking her smooth calves. “Where’s all this coming from?”
She swings her legs off me and stands up.
Fuck, she’s cute. She looks great in my PJs. Would look better without them, but I’ll let her wear them. They are the softest thing I’ve ever had against my skin.
Except her.
Now she’s pacing, swinging her arm out. She’s liable to spill some of that wine on my hardwood floors.
“I guess I’m just wondering what all of this means, Dan.”
Oh, shit.
“Am I in trouble, sweetheart? Did I do something wrong?” I ask, keeping a light smile on my face. I’m struggling not to grin, because I know I can get her to come aro
und and see my point of view with three seconds between her legs. But I should let her get this off her chest first.
“No,” she says. “You didn’t. You didn’t do anything wrong. I guess I just feel crazy for falling for all of this.”
This has gone on long enough. I need to sooth her. Calm her down.
I get up, cross the living room, and take her shoulders in my hands.
“Relax,” I say. “What’s go you all worked up, sweetheart? Not enough sex for you?”
“That’s the thing. It’s just right. It’s perfect. You’re perfect. The house. Everything. But what about me?”
“What about you, baby?” I squeeze her shoulders and bring her in close. “You’re the part of this whole crazy thing that’s really pure perfection. It’s you.”
“I’m just afraid,” she says, pulling away from me and sitting down on the corner of the couch. She’s hiding her face and looking down at her hands like the first time I had her up here at my house in the sky. My tower between the clouds. And her, my angel floating up here.
But it’s not where she belongs. She belongs on solid ground, with me, and with a home. Not an apartment. Something with more bedrooms. More space. Windows that open and neighbors who can pop by.
“Afraid of what, my love?” I ask, bringing her hands between mine. She’s cold, and I rub her hands to warm them up.
“Afraid of this ending. Not ending well. I don’t know. I guess…I guess I’m afraid I’m not good enough for you.”
I embrace her in my arms and pull her in, wrapping myself tight around her.
“I know it’s been fast and crazy and insane, but baby, it hasn’t been fast enough for me. You’re beautiful, and sweet, and I’ve spent every second since I met you trying to prove to you that I’m good enough for you.”
I stand up and she wraps her legs around my waist. She’s light as a feather, and I feel that I could walk a million miles like this. She’s giving me energy and life, and just when I thought there wasn’t a girl out there for me, she walked into my bank on a rainy morning, and just like that, everything changed for good.
Bringing her into my room, I lay her down on the bed and kiss her deeply and slowly. Our mouths dance, and she lifts my shirt over my head, tracing her fingertips along my chest.
“It’s like you’re from a different planet,” she says. “Are you real? Could there be a more perfect guy out there?”
“No,” I say, moving myself between her legs and slipping a hand down her thigh to her panties. “Not for you, there isn’t. Tell me if I’ve done anything wrong, and I’ll spend my life making it up to you.”
“No, no,” she moans, kissing me tenderly on the mouth. “You haven’t done anything wrong. It was my fault. I got nervous there for a second. But I’m okay now.”
“I told you we can’t have you feeling any pain. It’s an injustice,” I say, kissing her chest, unbuttoning her shirt slowly and painstakingly, making her feel every moment.
“Just take it off, please, Dan,” she moans. “I can’t wait any longer.”
“Now you are acting like the boss,” I say as my cock expands against the inside of my jeans. “I really fucking like that, boss. I really love you.”
I slide my hands down her gorgeous, small breasts, pinching each nipple between my fingers. “I hope that didn’t hurt,” I say. “And if it did, I hope the pleasure cancels out the pain.”
“I like that,” she moans. “I like it.”
I brush the outsides of her breasts gently with my fingernails before swooping around to their centers, stroking long circles around her nipples. She’s soaked, and I can smell her desire for me.
I leave her untouched for just a few seconds to undo my pants before sliding into her, forcing her knees apart wide and filling her up.
“You’re just as much of a fucking beauty as you were the first day I saw you,” I say, looking into her eyes. She smiles up at me as I continue to move inside her, not breaking my concentration. “And I thought we could go pumpkin picking this weekend. Choose some nice ones to make a jack-o-lantern. Pick a nice house to move into.”
“What?” she gasps, her soft pussy tight around me. “For a second I thought you said pumpkin picking and then implied house shopping.”
“I didn’t imply it,” I say, her body moving in time with mine. “Now come with me, baby. Please.”
Her eyes squeeze closed tightly as she throws her mouth open in a light, whimpering moan of pleasure. I reach down to stroke her clit as I ride her, emptying myself into her, filling her up like she needs. Like her body begs. Like it was made for.
18
Julie
This isn’t what I expected for my first time, but it’s been a time of firsts for both of us, and not much in life ever really goes as planned.
That job I was so excited for? I kept it. I liked it for a while. But it was unfulfilling, and I realized quickly what I wanted to do instead. So now I’m a library assistant at a small branch near the home we have upstate together. I’m taking some online classes, and taking some classes at the nearby college, and I’ll have a Master’s in Library Science in about two years.
I still get to deal with the movers and the shakers. I’ll tell you, those toddlers can really move on their play mats at the children's book readings I run on Thursday afternoons.
Too fast? That’s what I thought, too. So that’s why we waited six months for me to move up here. It was hard to leave Beth, but she’s fine on her own. She was always more of a lone wolf, not that that stops her from coming up to visit us almost every weekend. I think she’s just in it for Dan’s fabulous toasted marshmallows, but she also seems to love visiting us for the company and conversation.
“That’s the last of your things,” Dan says, putting a cardboard box on the kitchen table and giving me a kiss on the cheek.
It’s made of wood. Simple enough, right? Not some expensive material I can’t pronounce and probably never heard of and costs a fortune.
“And I have a little something for us, too,” I say, pulling a bottle out of my backpack. I picked it up on my way home after reading to the kids at the library. “Two Buck Chuck. I know it’s not your fancy wine, but it’ll do the trick. Tastes good, doesn’t cost a fortune.”
“You know how good you are to me, angel?” Dan says, grabbing two of his mom’s wine glasses from one of the cabinets.
I look around and take stock of the home. We picked it out together, but Dan had a head start on me. With six months alone before I moved up here, he was able to set the whole place up. And it looks great. He’s still got his Lichtenstein hanging up above his antique cabinet, and I have to say it looks as good in this house as it did in his apartment.
Walking over to the window, I take in the view of the Hudson. So he no longer has a view of the park, but he has a view of a park. It’s just a wooded area with a few benches off to the side of the house, and we can no longer see three states from the apartment, but we can see the mighty river, and it’s more powerful than any view I’ve seen from any penthouse apartments.
Okay, so maybe I don’t have much to compare it to. But I don’t have to. It’s perfect the way it is.
Epilogue
Dan
I never felt so good quitting anything as I felt quitting my job at the bank.
Did I like that job? Fuck yes. Loved it, even. But you know what I love more?
Working for her. Making her my top priority. It’s my job to make her happy now, and I should be paying her for the privilege.
Was it fast? Sure, it was. But how often do we stay with someone for months or even years without really knowing them?
I’ve done it. She has, too. But now that’s all over. Now we have each other.
It’s our first night together in the new place, and here, we can roast marshmallows out in the backyard at the open fire pit.
I still have my poker nights with the guys. Beth comes to visit us all the time. I still see Charlie. She’s got a new boss a
t the bank. She loves him. I’ve heard that he’s not as good-looking at me, but not everyone can be perfect.
Scratch that. That’s a lie. My Julie is perfect.
We’re out in the backyard with a big blanket over us. The river is rushing by, and the fire is keeping us warm. The reflection of the flames in her eyes are dancing wildly.
“You could have walked into any bank that morning. I could have had my assistant manager covering for me that day. Crazy, how things work out, isn’t it?” I say, drawing her in close.
“It’s true,” she responds. “And you could have grabbed any girl off that line and taken her into the back for some...what did you call it? Personal service?”
“No, baby,” I say. “I couldn’t have. You were the only one I would have done that for. I go above and beyond for you, and only you.”
I pick her up and bring her inside to the living room and lay her down on the couch.
“You know,” I say, “there’s something else that we both should experience together for the first time.”
This is the final thing I want. The ring and the wedding and having all our friends and family witness our vows to each other. This will all come next.
Because I thought it would be enough for me to live with her and make her mine. But now that I have that, I need more.
I kneel down between her legs and spread them apart, kissing inside her knees and moving up the insides of her legs.
“You aren’t wearing panties under your nightgown?” I say, her beautiful, tight pussy there for me between her legs.
“Well, you always said I was a bad girl. Even if that wasn’t entirely true then,” she says sheepishly, “maybe there was a little part of me that always wanted it.”
I pull her down to the edge of the couch and then flip her over so she’s kneeling on the soft cushions, her ass in the air, and I position myself behind her.
Mountain Man's Valentine Page 13