Sunsets and Shades

by Erica Lee

  Once Grace was done rambling, I immediately broke into laughter. Soon I was the one crying. When I noticed Grace wasn’t laughing along with me, I forced myself to stop. “Sorry. It’s just that no one has ever thanked me for sex. Which, come to think of it, is quite shocking, actually. They should be thanking me after the way I get them to scream out my name.”

  Instead of laughing, Grace scrunched up her nose in disgust. ”Gee Kinsley, you really know how to make a girl feel like she’s just another notch in your bedpost. How nice of you.”

  I watched her face, waiting for her to crack a smile and tell me she was just kidding, but the longer I stood there staring, the more angry she seemed to get. Apparently, unless I said something, we were just going to spend the whole day glaring at each other. “Dude, it was a joke. Chill out.”

  Clearly these were not the right words because Grace responded by huffing loudly before turning away from me. “Not everything is a joke, Kinsley. Some things should be taken seriously.”

  “Fine, Grace, whatever you say,” I responded sarcastically, before lowering my voice and adding, “So much for being more carefree.”

  I looked over at Grace just in time to see her face turn five shades more red. I couldn’t tell if she was going to attack me or breakdown into tears, and I honestly wasn’t sure which would be worse. Just when I was starting to get along with this girl, she had to go and ruin it once again.

  “Screw you, Kinsley!” Grace finally shouted, much louder than necessary if you ask me.

  “We already tried that last night, and that’s what started this stupid fight,” I retorted.

  This time a couple of tears did come to Grace’s eyes. She used her forearm to wipe them away, before staring daggers at me again. “Just forget about the stupid sex, ok? Forget that I ever thanked you for it. We’ll just pretend it never happened and never talk about it again.”

  “GOOD!” I yelled, throwing my hands in the air to emphasize how done I was with this conversation.

  “Good,” Grace repeated more quietly, before turning on her heels to march back down to Leah’s room.

  I followed suit and slammed the door as I retreated into my room. For the next few hours, I sat at my desk trying to write but couldn’t get any words down. Great. Not only had I been forced to hide out in my room, but now, I also had massive writer’s block. I slammed my computer shut, then stood from my desk and walked to Lenny’s cage. I opened the door and bent down so he could hop onto my shoulder. He scurried across my back, and I sat on the bed, so he could jump off of me and run around. As I watched him on the bed, my mind flashed back to the activities from the night before. My body felt like it was on fire as I thought about my body on top of Grace’s, the way my hands felt touching her, her hands touching me… Great. Now I was getting turned on all over again.

  As Lenny jumped on my lap, I smiled down at him. “Girls are crazy man. Stick to your inanimate object.” I paused as if I was giving him a chance to reply, then sighed at his unspoken words. “I know. I was kind of a jerk. I do feel bad about that. But she still didn’t have to get so angry.”

  We sat like this for a few more minutes before I finally put him back in his cage and dared to venture into the living room. The room was dark and quiet, so I turned on some sports show and half listened as I let my mind drift elsewhere. I’m not sure how much time passed before I heard a door open down the hall. A few moments later, Grace sat down on the couch next to me.

  “So, you know that thing we’re not talking about? I think we should continue to not talk about it, but I just wanted it to be known that I’m still glad it happened. I don’t regret it, and I don’t want to forget about it. Also, for whatever reason, I’ve really missed hanging out with you this afternoon, so could we go back to being cool?”

  A smile formed on my face in response to her words - one that felt much goofier than I would have preferred, if I could have controlled it. “Of course we’re cool,” I reassured, giving her a playful punch in the arm for good measure. “I am sorry though. I shouldn’t have said what I did. I need to realize that some people just don’t have the same sense of humor as me and not to make stupid jokes that are hurtful. You’re not just a notch. I promise.”

  Grace pursed her lips together, but I could tell she was trying not to smile. “It’s strange when you’re nice. It kind of creeps me out.”

  I crossed my arms in front of my chest in mock indignation. “Fine. If you don’t want me to be nice, I won’t.” Before she could react, I dug my hands into her sides and began tickling her. I was happy to discover that she was indeed ticklish.

  She gasped for air between fits of giggles and did everything in her power to squirm away from me. “Stop… that… now..” she breathed. “No… one… likes… that…”

  “Funny. It sounds to me like you’re really enjoying it,” I joked, but truthfully, I was the one who was enjoying it. I would have used any excuse to get my hands back on Grace, and it felt good to have her below me, even if it was in a totally nonsexual way. Also, I was learning that I liked watching Grace lose control. She was normally so straightlaced and put together that watching her let loose was sublime.

  “Well, I’m totally not,” she pouted, trying to loosen herself from my grip so she could push me away.

  “Fine,” I conceded, removing my hands from her stomach and placing them on either side of her. “But only because that pouty face is so darn cute.” Instead of moving, I stayed in position, hovering above her, our bodies just inches apart in so many places. My eyes scanned her body, then stopped on her lips, and my mind was immediately taken back - back to how good she looked totally exposed in front of me. Back to the way her lips moved against mine. Back to the sounds she made as she fell apart in response to my touch - sounds that I longed to hear right now. I forced myself to look into her eyes, only to be more turned on when I realized her eyes were already on my lips, clearly contemplating her next move. It would have been so easy to take her right here. I wanted nothing more than to have my way with her right here on the couch. I knew I couldn’t let that happen though. The night before had been a one time thing. If it became more than that, I might be giving her the wrong idea, and the last thing I wanted to do was to break her heart all over again when I was trying to help her put it back together.

  I reluctantly pushed myself up and away from her so I was sitting in an upright position on the couch. That wasn’t enough though. I could still feel the heat radiating between us, so I jumped up in order to create even more space and hopefully extinguish the flames of lust.

  “How about breakfast for dinner?” I finally blurted out, unsure what else to say. I rushed to the kitchen and began pulling tupperware out of the refrigerator. “I have a lot of leftovers from this morning since you stormed off without eating.” Unable to deal with any brief moments of silence, I continued to ramble. “You probably don’t do breakfast for dinner, do you? Too out of the ordinary for you, right? I could get us something else.”

  “Breakfast for dinner sounds great.” I followed the sound of Grace’s soft voice and found her leaning against the doorway to the kitchen. She wasn’t smiling, but she also didn’t seem flustered or upset. She simply looked content, and it took everything inside of me not to yell at her for it. She looked downright flawless leaning against the wall, not seeming to have a care in the world. Why was this happening to me? Sex never had this sort of effect on me. Granted, it was great sex, but still.

  I cleared my throat and forced myself to look away. “By the way, I don’t think we should tell Leah what happened.”

  “Of course,” Grace agreed. “It’s our little secret.”

  ***

  Keeping this secret seemed like it should have been an easy task. That was until Leah barrelled through the door the next day and found Grace and I laughing over a commercial on TV. “Hold up,” Leah gushed, as she looked back and forth between the two of us. “Did my plan actually work? Well shit.” I wanted nothing more than to sl
ap the sly grin off of her face, but she was right. Technically, it did work.

  “I still think it would have worked better if you went with my handcuff plan though,” I joked.

  “Yuck,” Grace scoffed playfully. “You wish.” She then shoved her shoulder into mine, and when our eyes met, they lingered on each other.

  Our moment was interrupted by Leah clearing her throat. “Kinsley, do you think we could have an emergency roommate meeting?”

  “Sure thing boss,” I chortled.

  As soon as we were in my room, she closed the door behind us, then turned to look at me, eyes burning through me in a way that made me start to sweat. She looked like she was ready for an interrogation, and I was never great under pressure. “So, what’s up?” I stuttered, trying my best to keep my cool. I had never once flat out lied to Leah, and I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to start now.

  Leah crossed her arms and began tapping her foot, tilting her head slightly to one side and raising both eyebrows. “I don’t know Kinsley. You tell me. What’s going on with you and Grace? What the heck happened when I was gone?”

  I quickly tapped my middle fingers together, then shook my head. “Nothing. We just became friends. You were right. Once we actually put in effort, we learned to get along. That’s all.”

  Leah stared down at my hands, eyes wide. They stayed wide as they drifted up to look into mine. “You triple tapped. You freaking triple tapped. You know how sacred a double tap is and would never lie on that.” Her voice became louder and more rushed as she spoke, then she brought her hand up to her mouth. “Oh my God. You slept with her,” she added more quietly.

  “I mean I wouldn’t exactly call it that.”

  Leah sucked in her bottom lip and continued to stare right through me. “Oh yeah? What would you call it?”

  “Helping out a friend?” I shrugged. “You saw her. She was having a hard time. I was trying to help her move on.”

  Leah shook her head at me again. “Geez, Kins. You help your friend move on by listening to her and giving her a shoulder to cry on, not by giving her an orgasm.”

  “Multiple”

  “What?”

  “There were multiple orgasms.”

  Leah covered her face with her hands, and even though she wanted it to seem like she was mad, I knew her well enough to know that she was laughing. “For God’s sake, Kinsley,” she chuckled. “What does this mean for the two of you?”

  “Absolutely nothing. It was a one and done.” I looked into space and chortled as my mind drifted again. “Well, technically, it was a couple and done. I’d say at least five. Possibly ten. Maybe even more. To be honest, I lost count.”

  Leah put a hand up to motion for me to stop talking. “Ok. I don’t need to hear about how many orgasms my two best friends gave each other. There are more pressing matters right now. Like the fact that I was going to ask about letting Grace stay with us for awhile until she gets back on her feet, but now I don’t know how that will work with this new development.”

  The idea of Grace staying with us excited me. Even without the sex, I happened to enjoy how she kept me on my toes. There was something kind of sexy about not knowing when a girl was going to flip out on you next. I didn’t want Leah to realize how much I liked the idea though because I was worried that might change her mind. “I think we could make that work,” I answered nonchalantly. “We’ve been very well behaved since Saturday morning. I mean, there was the one almost slip up on the couch, but aside from that, we were the perfect roommates.”

  Leah simply rolled her eyes at me, then turned around. “Fine. Let’s go talk this over with Grace. But if this all blows up, it’s your ass that’s on the line.”

  “Fine by me,” I agreed. “But could you do me a favor and not tell Grace that I told you this? I kind of promised it would stay between us.”

  “No problem, Kinsley. I won’t say anything.” She reached out and took ahold of the doorknob, but before turning it she paused. “By the way, what the hell happened on our couch?” she asked, sounding disgusted.

  “Nothing at all. I said almost slip up.”

  Leah nodded, then proceeded to walk down the hall. When she was a few feet ahead of me, I added, “But if you have a problem with something like that happening on the couch, you might want to buy a new one. Just saying.”

  I watched her shudder at my words, and I grinned from ear to ear as I followed behind her. Once we were back with Grace, Leah explained the plan.

  “That’s really nice, but where would I sleep?” Grace asked.

  “Well, I don’t mind sharing my bed, so you can just sleep with me. Plus, I spend a lot of nights over at Liam’s, so you’ll practically have the room to yourself.”

  Grace looked between the two of us, seemingly searching for any signs of reservations, and when she didn’t get any, a sweet smile settled onto her face. “That would be great guys. Thank you. I really appreciate that you would do this for me.”

  “You know, there is one other option. You could always sleep in Kinsley’s bed. Although, I’m not sure how much sleep you guys would get, unless, of course, you somehow learned how to keep it in your pants.” My eyes went wide at her words, but Leah simply gave me a cocky half smile. “That’s for the couch.”

  Chapter 10: Grace

  I wasn’t sure how I was ever expected to fall asleep with Leah shaking from laughter beside me. “I just can’t believe that my cute innocent little Grace-Face - the girl that used to cover her eyes when people kissed in movies - had a night of marathon sex with Kinsley Scott.”

  I covered my face with my hands as I felt it getting red. “Seriously, what did she tell you?!”

  “Believe it or not, she was very respectful. She didn’t tell me much at all.”

  I actually did believe it. I could tell that Kinsley felt bad about Leah finding out, but from what I could gather Leah kind of backed her into a corner. To be honest, I was kind of relieved Leah heard it from her. I am a terrible liar, who is just as bad at lying by omission, so it was only a matter of time before I broke down and told her myself. Now, I didn’t have to worry about that being the cause of another inevitable fight between Kinsley and I.

  I was brought back to the present moment by Leah elbowing me in the side. “I’m not sure if I actually want to know this, but how was it?”

  “It was… good,” I answered hesitantly. How was I supposed to be honest with her? I couldn’t tell her that I’ve never experienced sex like that in my entire life. That I didn’t know it was possible for sex to feel that way. There was no way that I was going to admit that just thinking about it now had my heart beating faster. “It was really good,” I sighed, surprising even myself when the words were said out loud.

  “Whoa. You need to do me a favor and never tell her that. Her head is big enough already.”

  I could feel my face turning red in response. “I don’t think I did a very good job of hiding it,” I admitted.

  “Girl, given the noises I’ve heard coming from that room, I don’t think most people do.” Leah’s words caused a heavy feeling to settle in my stomach. Of course I knew that Kinsley had a very active sex life. She didn’t do anything to hide that fact. That still didn’t mean that I enjoyed thinking about it though. Leah must have read something in the look on my face because she reached out and grabbed my hand. “Listen. Are you OK with all of this? I know Kinsley can be very persuasive, but once she gets what she wants, she normally moves on. I’m not faulting her for it. It’s her life, and she is free to live it the way she wants. I just want to make sure that you won’t get hurt through all of this.”

  “I’m good, Leah,” I smiled. “I wanted it just as much as Kinsley did, maybe even more. I know exactly where we stand. It was a good time. She was a good time. That’s all that matters.”

  “Good, good,” Leah sighed contentedly, finally drifting off to sleep.

  The next morning when I awoke, my “good time” was in the kitchen making breakfast. Leah was
right behind me as we left the bedroom and lifted her nose in response to the smell. “What’s the occasion?” she asked as we closed in on Kinsley. Kinsley, who had her back to us - her racerback tank showing the full definition of her muscular back. I thought about the way those muscles looked when she wasn’t wearing anything; how perfect it felt with her athletic build overtaking my body; the way my hands seemed to burn as they explored every inch of her. Great. The whole point of having sex was to try to get rid of certain feelings, and now, I was feeling more than I had in a really long time. At least this was a different type of feeling. Lust was much better than heartbreak.

  The burning desire in my stomach grew as Kinsley turned and smiled at us. “I’m just trying to be nice and take care of my roommates.”

  “From the sound of it, you already did that,” Leah jeered, earning her a glare from both Kinsley and I.

  Leah ate her breakfast quickly, then rushed off to get ready for work, leaving just Kinsley and I at their small kitchen table. “So, I have to spend the next few hours working on my novel and a few freelance articles, but then I want to enact the next step in ‘Operation Love Sucks’” she announced, not taking the time to actually chew the food in her mouth before speaking.

  I raised an eyebrow at her. “That’s what we’re calling it now? Really? Also, why don’t you try finishing your food before you talk?”

  Kinsley stuck out her tongue that was currently piled with half-chewed food from her latest bite. “You mean this food?” She took a large sip of orange juice, then looked back at me, seriously. “I’m about to ask you a question, and you need to not lie to me.”

  I gulped audibly. Please don’t ask me anything about the sex. Please. “Ok…”

  “I know you brought a lot of stuff with you from home. Did you bring anything related to Becky?”

  Another gulp. “Oh. Umm...No. I mean...not exactly. We were together four years, so of course, there are certain things that were ours that are now mine. But nothing…” As Kinsley stared me down, I felt my hands start to sweat. She was seeing right through me at this moment. “Fine. There may be a box,” I added.