Accidental Arrangements

by Alexandra Warren

  “Well thanks for your vote of confidence, asshole.”

  “Hey, I was actually being nice this time!” I told him as I clicked the button to pay. But before I could pull out my card, Levi stepped in front of me and stuck his in the chip reader.

  “I’m just fuckin’ with you, Jules. You’re easy to fuck with.”

  Once the machine chimed with approval, I grabbed the grocery sacks and replied, “I’m usually not. Totally un-fuck-withable.”

  But instead of taking me seriously, Levi laughed as he challenged, “Oh yeah? Well why are you always so mad at me then?”

  “Cause you get on my nerves. And you do stupid shit. And then you act stupid about the stupid shit that you do even though I believe you’re actually a smart human being,” I answered as we stepped out onto the sidewalk to head back to the apartment.

  Again, Levi laughed as he said, “Wow. That might’ve been the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”

  “You’re welcome, Mr. Graham,” I told him with a smirk before turning my attention back out to the street. But before we could get any further, Levi moved me to the inside of the sidewalk and took the bags from my hand.

  While I was honestly a little impressed with his gentleman-instincts, I still managed to offer, “I can carry those, Levi.”

  But he completely ignored that part, instead choosing to ask, “What happened to Mr. Graham? I liked that a lot better.”

  “Which is exactly why I’ll keep calling you Levi,” I told him with a laugh of my own, earning myself a roll of his gorgeous eyes.

  “You can’t even help yourself, can you? Just gotta talk shit.”

  “You’re easy to fuck with,” I tossed back, mocking his words.

  But instead of just taking the tease, he got back at me when he replied, “So are you, Juliaaa.”

  “Hey! You don’t get to call me that. You’re not even supposed to know about that.”

  “Why’d you change your name anyway?”

  I turned his way to ask, “Do I look like a Julia to you?”

  And he only observed me for a quick second before answering, “I don’t know. I mean… not really.”

  “Exactly. It never fit me. And it’s also my mother’s name,” I told him, swallowing hard at the lump that grew in my throat from just mentioning her.

  “Oh word? Does she live in St. Louis too?” he asked innocently as we turned the corner onto our block.

  And again, I swallowed hard. “She uh… she passed away. When I was younger.”

  “Damn. I’m sorry to hear that. But I can definitely relate. I mean, I used to think Lily was my mom with how much my mother had to work just to keep us afloat. I always told her I’d get us out of that bind so she’d never have to work again, but… she didn’t live long enough to see it.”

  “Well I’m sure she’d be proud,” I offered as I keyed in the passcode to enter our building. I mean, regardless of his current circumstances, it was obvious Levi had seen plenty of success.

  But he was less than convinced as he replied, “Right now? Nah, she’d be all on my neck for fuckin’ this up. But in the long run, I’d die trying to make it right.”

  “You still have time, you know.”

  “Yeah? Well so do you,” he replied as I unlocked the door for us.

  I stepped inside, kicking off my shoes at the door as Levi did the same before carrying the groceries to the kitchen. And I met him there to help put things away while also continuing our conversation. “I’m not sure why you’re so confident in my abilities as if you’ve ever seen me in action.”

  “Jules, I watched you go from almost about to climax face to straight up angry face in the blink of an eye. If that’s not skills, I don’t know what is.”

  “That wasn’t acting, asshole! That was real,” I told him as we unloaded the bags onto the counter.

  And Levi only laughed as he replied, “Oh I know. And even if I didn’t know, my dick will never forget.”

  “That… wouldn’t have been smart anyway. I mean, why would we have even done that to each other?” I asked as I gathered the empty plastic sacks and stuck them under the sink.

  But as I bent over, I could feel Levi’s eyes on my ass even when he said, “I know right? Made… zero sense.”

  “Right. I… I agree,” I told him as I stood back up, resting against the countertop next to him with my bottom lip pulled between my teeth trying to figure out why the hell I had goosebumps, why my heart was pounding, why things suddenly felt... different.

  But things definitely clicked once Levi replied, “Well I’m glad you agree. Cause that would’ve been… damnit, Jules.” Before turning my way and lifting me onto the counter the same way he had done that night.

  Except for this time, it wasn’t out of anger or rage. It was out of… interest, out of lust, out of passion as he slipped his tongue into my mouth and I wrapped my legs around his waist to bring him closer. Levi lodged his hands under my ass to lift me from the counter, carrying me with ease as we traveled down the hallway towards his bedroom.

  But the second I actually stopped to breathe, right after he had already tossed me onto his bed, I remembered, “Levi! We can’t. You still haven’t…”

  “I’ve always been clean and I have condoms,” he answered as he pulled his shirt off and stepped out of his sweatpants, his answer and his actions alerting me to do the same.

  “Well where the hell were they at last time?!” I asked as he crawled onto the bed.

  And with his face hovering right over mine, he smirked before he replied, “Shut up, Jules.” Then did the honors of shutting me up with a kiss just as frantic as the ones before it.

  I ran my hands along his chest and his stomach, pulling my mouth away from his to groan, “Fuck, I love your abs.”

  He smirked with appreciation, kissing his way down my body as he replied, “Well I love your boobs. And your ass. And this… mmm…. I love this.” Before he pushed the thin fabric of my panties to the side, and immediately began to flicker his tongue against my heat.

  “Gotdamnit, you’re so good at that. Why are you so good at that?” I moaned as he took long, full swipes before using the tip of his tongue to do faster, shorter ones; the combination making me weak as I felt myself on the verge of a release.

  But instead of letting me get it, he pulled his face away, taking my panties with him as he replied, “You make it so easy, pretty girl. Now turn over.”

  He was already reaching for the drawer of his nightstand as I told him, “Levi, wait. Just don’t like… fuck up my life with this. Give it to me good, but not like… so good that I can’t ever recover.”

  “Jules, I got you. You trust me?” he asked as he ripped the condom open before sliding it over the tip of his dick.

  And as I watched it grow even larger in his hand, I shook my head and answered, “Definitely not.”

  “Good. You shouldn’t. Cause I’m definitely about to fuck your life up.”

  While I should’ve been intimidated, his arrogance brought me back to the reality of his existence, allowing me to fire back, “You can’t possibly be that damn good.”

  “Oh yeah? Well let me show you, pretty girl,” he said as he hovered of me once again.

  But I put my hands to his chest to stop him. “Nu uh. Missionary is for love-making. That’s not what this is.”

  “Well turn over like I told you to so I can tear that ass up,” he said as he leaned back onto his knees, making room for me to follow orders. “Yo, your arch-game is crazy. I swear your ass looks ten times fatter.”

  “That’s not exactly a compli… fuckkkk.”

  I couldn’t even complete my sentence as Levi drove inside of me without any warning, taking my breath away, not to mention my soul as he grabbed my ass and replied, “It’s a compliment, pretty girl. So take it. And take this.”

  “I… I can’t… It’s too… too much,” I stammered as he consistently knocked down my back wall.

  And while I was already on my la
st, he sounded completely energized as he said, “Perfect fit, baby. You feel so damn good.”

  “Levi…” I moaned, my knuckles turning red as I fisted his sheets, and then his pillows, and anything else I could get my hands on.

  “Call me Mr. Graham, baby,” he coached with a smack of my ass that made me shriek in pleasure.

  “Mr. Grahammmm…”

  He smacked my ass again, somehow managing to reward me by going even deeper. “There you go. You’re a good listener.”

  And I used the last of my breath to reply, “Well you’re... a good… fucker.” Before coming completely undone; though that didn’t mean anything to Levi as he continued to let me have it until he got his own. Then he collapsed next to me, finally breathing as hard as I already was while I tried to piece myself back together.

  “Your mattress feels so much better than mine. I’m kinda jealous,” I told him, though I was sure my words didn’t come out very clear considering my face was still smashed against the pillows.

  But he had obviously heard just enough to reply, “It was one of my first purchases when I got on.”

  I turned my face his way, still breathing harder than reasonable as I said, “Let me have it.”

  And he only smiled, running his fingertips along my spine as he insisted, “Or you can just… borrow it. With me in it.”

  “I don’t like cuddling. I get too hot when I sleep,” I admitted just as his fingertips made their way down to the crack of my ass, eliciting a laugh. “Stop. That tickles.”

  “Only at first. And then it feels good. But wait… who said I wanna cuddle with you? You’d probably try to fight me in your dreams,” he replied as he pushed his finger past the threshold to rub against… damn, that does feel good.

  In fact, it felt so good that I couldn’t help myself in replying, “Or I’d try to fuck you in my dreams. Add that to the list of possibilities.”

  Levi laughed, pulling his hand away but not without smacking my ass before he got up from the bed. “You ain’t gotta dream that, Jules. Now get up so we can go cook. Your fine ass worked up my appetite.”

  “I… can’t. I can’t move,” I whined, pushing my face back into the pillows that smelled like him, a scent I truly hadn’t appreciated enough until now.

  In fact, there was a lot I hadn’t appreciated about Levi until now, and not just his dick that was definitely worthy of a celebration of its own. But his persistence, his commitment, his… kindness and generosity were all admirable, making me wonder did I really not know him as much as I thought I did.

  And as if he could rub that fact in anymore, he added to his list of admirable attributes when he announced, “Well you can get up when you’re ready. I’ll go ahead and get dinner started.”

  Levi

  “Jules, you cannot be serious right now.”

  I sat back against the couch, trying to stifle my laugh as she wiped her face. “I’m sorry. This is stupid. I don’t even know why I’m crying,” she said, grabbing a tissue to blow her nose.

  And this time, I couldn’t help myself, a chuckle slipping out as I told her, “Jules… please stop.”

  “I can’t. It was just… it was so sweet,” she whined as she dabbed at her eyes once again.

  I still couldn’t figure out how in the hell BeBe’s Kids of all things had brought her to tears, but it made good sense once I looked at the almost empty bottle of wine.

  “I think you might’ve had a little too much to drink, pretty girl.”

  Instead of accepting my observation, she grabbed the bottle and poured the rest into her glass as she suggested, “Well I think I need some more. And I need to go take some food to the food bank for the kids.”

  “Jules, it was just a movie. An animated movie at that.”

  “I know! But it felt so real,” she whined again, making me laugh as she took a big gulp of her wine.

  And once she sat her glass down on the table, I told her, “Man, go take your ass to sleep. You’re buggin’.”

  She shook her head, surely making things worse for her inebriated brain as she replied, “Nah. We gotta watch something else. I can’t go to sleep thinking about those poor babies.”

  “Man, ain’t nobody worried about them bad ass kids. And they’re in Vegas now, remember?”

  “For now! And then they’ll go back home to a fridge full of cobwebs. That’s so fucked up,” she said, the tears welling back up in her eyes as if she was talking about kids she knew in real life.

  In fact, she was so invested that I couldn’t help but tease, “Maybe we should grab that leftover spaghetti and take it down to the shelter.”

  “That’s a great idea! Let’s go!” she said as she popped up from the couch, stumbling before catching herself on the arm of the couch.

  “What? No. I was just joking. Sit down,” I told her as I pulled her down onto my lap.

  “What happened to Mr. Anything for the Kids?” she asked as she turned my way, putting a hand to my chest with a legitimate concerned look on her face.

  So instead of continuing to tease her, I replied, “Look, Jules. If you’re serious about this, we can go volunteer or something over the holidays. But only if you’re serious.”

  “I am,” she said with a vigorous nod that I was sure would knock her out.

  But since it didn’t, I pulled her into my chest and offered, “Alright, I’ll set us up somewhere; find a soup kitchen or somethin’. But until then, lay off the sauce, pretty girl.”

  She pulled away, sitting up to say, “I’m not even drunk. Just a little buzz. A little tingly.” Emphasizing her point by putting a little space between her thumb and pointer finger.

  And while she had her tingles going on through her whole body, the tingles were definitely concentrated in my stomach as I told her, “Well that shit didn’t do anything but give me a damn stomachache.”

  “Or maybe your stomach hurts cause you ate half the damn pot of spaghetti,” she suggested as she tried to climb off of my lap.

  But I was quick to wrap my arm against her waist to catch her when I replied, “Shouldn’t have worked up my appetite so much. In fact, I’d love some dessert.”

  “Yeah? What you thinkin’? Ice cream? Brownies? Funfetti Cupcakes?”

  “You.”

  Her face scrunched when she asked, “Me? I’m off-limits for at least twenty-four hours. I mean, have you seen your dick? It’s pretty damn ridiculous.”

  “Which must be a good thing considering how loud your ass was screaming. You’re lucky nobody called the cops on us,” I told her with a laugh, though there was definitely nothing funny about the sounds she made when she came.

  That shit was sexy as fuck.

  This time, she made sure she got off of my lap, though it was almost pointless considering how close she was still sitting to me when she said, “Well I wish they would’ve. So I could’ve filed a property damage report on my vagina.”

  I burst with laughter, starting to wonder had the wine actually gotten to me as I told her, “Yo, go to bed. For real this time. You’re wylin’.”

  And even though I was laughing, Jules was dead ass serious when she said, “No. I can’t. I gotta watch something else. Seriously, or I’ll have nightmares.”

  “Let’s watch Friday then. That’ll put you in a good mood.”

  “Friday? What’s that?”

  “Jules… you’re playin’ right? Go ahead and hand over that black card,” I told her, sticking my hand out.

  But instead of handing over the imaginary membership, she smacked my hand away as she defended, “I didn’t grow up watching a lot of TV! I mean, we had a TV, but we didn’t really get to watch fun stuff. The only time I got fun stuff was when I went to Elizabeth’s and I could only cram in so much.”

  “So how’d you know you wanted to be an actress if you didn’t watch TV?” I asked, having a hard time putting two and two together.

  But it made sense once Jules explained, “My mother used to show me videos of different plays and
films she was in as a child, showed me different magazine spreads she was a part of during her teenage years before she met my father.”

  “And your father got her into the church?”

  She shrugged. “Not exactly. She went on her own. After being a child actor for most of her life, she told me she struggled with the transition into adulthood. And when she found the church, it felt like home. It gave her peace. Until it didn’t.”

  “What do you mean?”

  While I could tell the questions were making her a little uncomfortable, she didn’t back down, instead taking a deep breath before giving the full spill. “So you know how I told you my father was overly-religious? Well, he wasn’t always. It wasn’t until my mother showed interest in getting back into acting that he turned it up. Regular Sunday church and Bible study turned into daily church, multiple services, certain books being removed from the house, our limited cable being completely disconnected. And my mother hated it. But for whatever reason she couldn’t get away, she couldn’t save herself. So she… tried to end it all.”

  “Damn. That’s crazy,” was all I could say, though I was sure it wasn’t the most appropriate response.

  But that didn’t stop Jules from continuing on, “Yeah, it is. And the craziest part about it was, it didn’t even work. Well, not fully. Her body was failing from the overdose, but she wasn’t dead yet. And I’m almost sure the only reason she didn’t live was because we didn’t go see about her. My father blamed her actions on the devil and said we had to stay away. So he let her go. I never even got to tell her goodbye, and he moved onto his new wife and a new life like she never even existed.”

  “So your brothers? They’re from the new wife?”

  Jules nodded, pulling her legs under her while adding, “Along with the little sister I apparently have on the way.”

  And this time, it was my face scrunching. “Little sister? Your pops is still puttin’ in work like that?”

  “Ugh. Don’t remind me.”

  “But for real, Jules. If nobody else tells you, let me be the first to say I’m proud of you for chasing your dreams, for trying to honor your mom’s legacy. I know she’s smiling down on you as we speak,” I assured as I wrapped my arm around her shoulder and pulled her against my chest.