Guys Like You

by Vivian Kohlman

  Her aunt also surprised us with a gorgeous birthday cake for Asli, complete with nineteen birthday candles—it looked so nice that we didn’t want to cut into it. But I’m thankful we did; it tasted as amazing as it looked. All in all, we spent an hour or so in the dining room, sipping on coffee and getting to know her aunt while stuffing our faces.

  We enjoyed talking with her aunt so much that we actually invited her to go with us to the winery, but she declined. So it was just us girls, and my security, heading out to one of the dozens of wineries in the area. The one we chose was her uncle’s—for no other reason than it’s the best one with an outside veranda that has sweeping views of the Virginia landscape.

  It’s gorgeous here, especially in the fall, and we wanted to take it all in. The afternoon was sliding into evening but the weather was still lovely, so we sat outside and wrapped ourselves in thick wool blankets that the winery provided. The panorama was too perfect to be inside, looking through a window.

  Spending the day with my girlfriends was fantastic and made me nostalgic; it’s been a while since we had quality time together like this. We were all so focused on school or our boyfriends; even though we saw each other often, it wasn’t really good, quality time with all five of us together. None of us were in any rush to leave the winery, so we stayed there until they kicked us out, just enjoying ourselves on the patio and bonding like old friends do.

  We left the winery quite tipsy, and with a few cases of wine in hand. But we didn’t want to explain to Asli’s aunt and uncle how a group of teens could drink and buy cases of wine from their winery, so we left the cases in the limo and pretended to be sober. To avoid detection, we went straight to the basement apartment soon after we arrived back at the house.

  While we changed into pajamas preparing to watch movies, I began to miss King. I became very aware that I wouldn’t have him next to me tonight, so when I had a minute alone I sent him a few texts to remind him I love him and so he knew I as thinking about him. My Facetime app started ringing.

  “Hey, babe,” I answered.

  “Hi gorgeous. How’re things going?”

  “Good. We’re just getting changed to watch a movie before going to sleep. I miss you.”

  “I miss you, too, babe. Tell your friends I said hello for me, and have a good time.”

  “Will do. Good night, baby…I love you.”

  “I love you, too.”

  “Are you two done with your sweet nothings?” Tori said, pretending to be annoyed.

  I giggled and blew a kiss to King before hanging up the call.

  The next morning we all woke up slowly; I was the first to wake, and smiled to myself when I realized we all slept in the basement together. This house has a spare room for each of us and then some, but we watched movies and chatted about guys, school, summer stories, and more for so long last night.

  I guess we all just passed out around the same time with enough comfort that we didn’t feel the need to walk up two flights of stairs and find our rooms in the dark of night.

  I quietly pulled out my phone and took a picture, with the lights low and from an angle to be sure that none of my friends’ faces were recognizable, and then I posted it to Instagram praising best friends and weekend trips.

  The rest of the girls started to wake up as I shuffled around, then we all got ready for the huge breakfast that Asli’s aunt prepared and we left the ranch shortly after. I was excited to see King again, as if it had been months rather than just one day. I was actually giddy getting into the car.

  On the drive back, we were laughing and teasing each other about the couple of hours we spent riding the horses—it was clear that none of us are very equestrian. What did we expect? We live in a city.

  Our joking around was all for fun anyway, and even though we had a lot to drink yesterday, we still opened a couple of bottles of the wine we picked up from the vineyard. We had to make the most out of having a driver, right?

  Chapter 2

  After the security guys dropped off all the other girls, we drove to our last stop: King’s place. As we pulled up into the driveway, he walked out to greet me and got to the car before I even got out of it. I guess I wasn’t the only one missing my baby.

  He pulled me up out of the car and hugged me before kissing me all over my face, telling me how much he missed me while doing so. I was blissfully happy to be back in his arms and held on so long that he had to peel my arms from his body to take me inside the house. He took my bag from the guard who pulled it out of the trunk and they chatted for a minute before we walked inside his house.

  I took a deep breath and I smiled. I felt like I was finally home because, really, home is anywhere King is. When the door shut behind us, he dropped my bag to the floor and pulled me in for another long and tight hug.

  “Damn I missed you last night,” he said.

  “I know. I missed you too, babe. But look, I’m terribly hung over from all the wine we had yesterday and this morning, so can we please have a low maintenance day?”

  “Of course. Let’s get you changed, then we’ll ask Mary to make you some pasta to soak up whatever’s left in your stomach. Sound good?” he asked.

  Mary’s the maid slash cook slash personal assistant slash fill-in mother to Claudia and King—she’s part of their family at this point, since she’s been working at the house since King was a baby.

  “That sounds perfect. I’ll go put PJs on,” I said.

  “Meet you in the kitchen.”

  Fifteen minutes later, I walked into the kitchen and found Mary standing at stove, talking to King, who was sitting on a stool at the breakfast bar. I smelled garlic and tomatoes…and my stomach immediately growled in anticipation.

  “Hey,” I whispered as I put my arms around King from behind.

  He continued his conversation with Mary, while putting his hand on one of my arms and pulling me around to the front of him. When he had me situated between his legs, he put both arms around me loosely, and I rested my body against his chest. I instantly relaxed and melted into him.

  I allowed the heat that constantly emanates off his skin to smother me in warmth, and I smiled with my face buried in his neck. His deep voice vibrated through me—even in my hung-over state, he was so sexy to me.

  Now, standing in front of him with his arms around me, I felt whole again. He was still talking to Mary, who wasn’t facing us as she cooked, and I didn’t want to interrupt, but I needed to connect with him.

  I put my hands on his chest and felt his muscles under his thin t-shirt, and then kissed his neck, slowly and gently, breathing him in and relishing in his smooth skin.

  Within a few seconds of me kissing his neck, he lifted me up and carried me to his room as he told Mary we’d be back in a minute. I giggled on our way there, until he told me he missed me so much that he couldn’t take another break like this. His words weren’t what bothered me—it was the pain in his tone that I felt in my stomach.

  He shut the door to his bedroom and carried me to his bed, gently placing me down on my back in the center. He dropped to a kneeling position next to the bed and I propped myself up on my elbows, looking him straight in his eyes while waiting expectantly. One thing I’ve learned about King is that he’s emotional and very communicative, so much more than I ever expected before we got together. But he didn’t say anything.

  “What’s up, baby?” I asked.

  “I don’t want to do that again,” he said, not giving me any further information as to what, exactly, he meant.

  “King, your security guys were with me the whole time. I know they reported back to you…” I started.

  “I know. And I know that the security issue is only part of my problem. I hated sleeping without you next to me, Princess. I hated knowing you were hours away from me…”

  “Don’t start getting possessive with me, King. I can’t be kept in a cage like a pet,” I reminded him.

  “Well, let me remind you what you walked away from,” he sa
id, knowing he wasn’t going to win this fight.

  He slowly crawled onto the bed with his smoldering eyes locked on mine, and he made love to me as if the world was ending and this was it for us. And he was so sweet; he restrained himself, waiting until after my second orgasm before he had his. He asked if I wanted more; I barely had enough energy to tell him I’d had enough. Only then did he stop and ask me if I was still hungry.

  God I love this man.

  Back in the kitchen, we found two covered plates of pasta on the counter with a bowl of freshly grated Parmesan as well. We ate while talking about a trip to Iceland we were taking after my midterms. In a little over a month we’ll have hit two extremes: a trip into the desert of the Middle East and a walk around a glacier. Pretty cool.

  Neither of us had ever been to Iceland before but many of our friends have, and all gave us lots of advice. So we were talking about which tours to take and some of the other things we found interesting while researching the island or asking for suggestions. There’s so much we want to do and see, but we could only take about five days because of his work and my school, so we needed to prioritize.

  After we were done eating I just wanted to chill, so we moved to the sitting area of his bedroom. He quickly lit a fire and I grabbed a thick blanket to draped over me on the couch. We stayed awake late that night, just talking about the last couple of days, our trip to Iceland, and well, us.

  We’d only been together for a few months, but King wanted to make this formal. He asked that I move in with him, officially.

  Since we first started dating, I’ve spent every night at his place, except last night and one or two other nights when I was at my parents’ house late. I still went home once or twice a week, packing a bag each time to exchange clothes and things while catching up with my parents. But he now wanted me to move all my things into his place.

  Anxiety crept into my otherwise relaxed mind. Move in with him? I’m eighteen, and that’s such a big step. I know I love him and want to be with him all the time, but officially moving in seems so…grown up. Visions of me sitting in the Virginia motor vehicle administration waiting for a license with his address on it freaked me out.

  “Come with me; I want to show you something,” he said as he stood from the sofa.

  I willingly followed, even though I had to set aside the warm and cozy blanket to do so. The action seemed metaphorical to me—he takes me out of my warm and comfortable places to make me try new things or take a chance I usually wouldn’t. And it always ends up for the best.

  He opened the door to his walk-in closet—it had a few empty sections now. I quickly grasped that he’d already cleared out almost half of his closet so I could fill it with my things.

  “I needed a project when I couldn’t sleep last night,” he joked.

  The anxiety flew up a notch. I’m eighteen years old—I should be rooming with a handful of girls in some mediocre apartment, not with my boyfriend in his mansion. I rolled my eyes and took a deep breath.

  “King, you are so very sweet. But this is a big step for me to take. For both of us.”

  “I know. Just think about it. And while you’re thinking, you can leave some things here. The empty drawers and hangers are yours to use as you see fit.”

  I know my life is pretty sweet and I’ve been raised in relative wealth, but King takes being rich to another level. I complained that I should be living like a first-year college student—roughing it, as much as my parents would allow, and being on my own for the first time. He agreed that I should have the freshman experience; his solution was to offer to let my friends move into his place, too.

  Sigh…he’s so oblivious. I go to Georgetown University; if I wasn’t living with my parents, I’d be in a brownstone in Georgetown or a high rise in Rosslyn, walking-distance to restaurants and bars where my friends and I would meet to discuss our classes, or have a glass of wine after a long day. Not living in a mansion in Great Falls.

  But the commute to class was the same from his house as it is from my parents’, so it wasn’t a huge sacrifice for me to stay with him and I love being around him all the time anyway. The only downfall of officially moving in with him, I guess, is that I worry I’ll be so comfortable in the ’burbs that I lose my independents.

  When I chose a college I decided I was going to have the typical college life. Live with roommates or at home, spend all my free time studying, go to protests and fight for a cause, and really grow into the woman I could feel myself becoming.

  But then King happened and changed all those wants. We talked about my moving in for a while, and concluded that I didn’t need to make a decision tonight. In the end, I said I’d think about moving in with him, and would let him know once I made a decision.

  Before leaving for class the next morning, he gave me a key and the code to the security system; even if I didn’t officially move in, he wanted me to come and go more freely.

  It’s pretty ironic—before we got together, I feared he would lose interest in me after we spent some time together. But quite the opposite happened; he seems to be more and more into me as each day goes on.

  King is over four years older than I am, and is so much more mature. I still worry that he will get bored with me, or simply realize I’m a kid and he needs a woman.

  So far, that hasn’t happened, and I don’t see the foundation of our relationship crumbling at all. I’m very confident that King has no regrets about us getting together, and isn’t getting bored with me at all. …yet.

  I can’t deny that there isn’t an underlying fear in my heart that one day, he’ll wake up and see things differently. I only hope his revelation doesn’t come as a shock to me.

  Unlike my previous boyfriends, King makes his feelings known—in words and actions. His inexperience in relationships mixed with a high level of confidence allows him to be very straightforward—he plays no games with me and I love that.

  I’m still learning so much about him, and what’s made him such a unique character. I still can’t believe that he lost both of his parents in a car accident when he was fifteen, and came out of that OK. Since then, the only person he was really close to was Claudia. He never dated, until me; he just had one-night stands and partied with whichever girls were around. Otherwise, he kept to himself.

  Mary’s been in his life since he was very young; he and Claudia are very comfortable with her but I wouldn’t say they’re emotionally close. Mary knows King and Claudia well, but heart-felt conversations aren’t a regular occurrence between them. She’s their rock; they rely on her for consistency and they trust her.

  ~~~~

  The security detail for today drove me to school and walked me to class, like usual. On our way to my building, I asked if his company still believes there’s a viable need to protect Claudia and me.

  “Ava, I’m not at liberty to discuss this with you. I’m sorry, but you’ll have to get your information from Knox,” he said.

  I figured that would be his answer, but hoped he’d slip up and give me more. I just want to know if I’m being too relaxed by thinking this is unnecessary, or if I’m really in danger. Obviously he wasn’t going to tell me what I wanted to know, so I let it go. I thought about my current situation—and King’s desire for me to move in with him, officially—all through class. I adore him…I truly do love him and feel like I’m falling for him more and more every day.

  I almost don’t mind the gilded cage he’s put me in. I’ve gotten used to the security detail, for the most part, and have no problem with security driving me around in whichever of King’s cars I choose. I don’t mind living in his 7,000 square-foot home, ad I certainly don’t mind flying to vacations on his private jet.

  On top of that, I don’t mind that he sends me texts throughout the day to check in with me or that he comes out with me and my girlfriends all the time, even when their boyfriends don’t.

  To be honest, the only thing I do mind is that I don’t mind. I know that’s crazy, and if
I were in this situation with any other guy, I would have surely rebelled by now. But with King, I trust that he’s just doing what he feels he needs to, and I know it makes him feel better that he’s going overboard on the protection. Like he always says, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

  And frankly, I think I’d do almost anything he asked. It’s obvious that he has me wrapped around his finger, even though he claims that he’s wrapped around mine.

  The three classes I had flew by that day, thanks to my mind being preoccupied by the one question I needed to answer: am I ready to move in with King? After our classes, Tori and Asli—both attend Georgetown University along with me—met me for a late lunch at The Tombs restaurant on campus. It’s a typical bar-type place and we sat in a booth along the wall. This is our usual spot—my security detail sat at the bar nearby.

  We shared notes about our mid terms coming up; Tori was lucky to only have one exam and two papers, but Asli and I both had four exams plus I had an essay due as well. Our study schedule was looking pretty full.

  This is our first semester in college so we all wanted to do well, and we meet up in the library to study at least a few times a week. But I’m tired of studying. Aside from the long weekend in the UAE, I haven’t gone more than two days without a study session. And I’m not talking about cracking open a book on the sofa at home, I mean many hours in the library with at least one of my girls or someone from my classes.

  I’m ahead of my syllabi and confident that I’ve mastered everything so far—I guess that’s why I’m starting to feel like I need some time off…just a day to not think. I’m sure my mind being taken over by major life-changing decisions doesn’t help my angst.

  It was a crisp and sunny fall day, which fueled my desire to let loose. I just had to go somewhere outside—at least take a walk off campus into the neighborhood of Georgetown. After a bit of back and forth, I convinced my girls to see things my way. They finally agreed to take a walk and grab a drink on the waterfront.