Act Your Age

by Eve Dangerfield

  It was only once she’d peed that Kate noticed the walls of her cubicle were careening from side to side as though she were on the deck of a heavily graffitied pirate ship. She needed to leave, go home, take some pre-emptive ibuprofen and have a cuddle with Ty.

  Except Ty doesn’t cuddle. You’ll be giving him a nice blowjob without any reciprocal downtown action. Doesn’t that sound fun?

  “Shut up,” she mumbled, pressing her hands to her ears as though that might stop the unremitting thoughts. “Shut up, shut up.”

  Someone pounded hard on her cubicle door. “Katie?”

  She frowned. “Maria?”

  “Yes, please come out. I want to talk to you.”

  Kate glared at the door. Drunk as she was, she knew she shouldn’t be getting into any arguments, but she couldn’t help herself. She burst out of the stall and almost knocked Maria over. “What the actual hell?”

  “Katie, be careful!”

  “No!” Kate said pointing a petulant finger at her. “You were super mean to me just now!”

  Maria’s expression was pained. Her usually flawless eyeliner wings were smeared and she had lipstick on her teeth. “I know, I’m so sorry.”

  “I don’t care! Why did you do that?”

  Maria took her hand, her skin was very hot. “Because of him. I don’t like him, Katie.”

  “Too bad.” Kate shook off Maria’s hand and skated over to the sinks.

  Maria followed her. “That man is using you.”

  “Oh my gosh, not this rubbish again!” Kate pounded the soap dispenser so hard it jizzed pink detergent all over the sinks and the mirror. “Shoot!”

  She tried to wipe it off as best she could with her vision still swaying from side to side.

  “You don’t understand.” Maria grabbed her hips from behind and pulled Kate into her chest. “You think because he came to your game and met all the girls, he’s changed, but it takes nothing for him to come here and buy you a drink. Nothing. He ignores you for weeks and with just one kiss you’re his again!”

  Kate shouldered her friend’s body away from hers. “God, Maria, what’s gotten into you?”

  “I’m sorry,” she moaned, still holding Kate’s hips. “Please just forgive me and tell me you won’t see him anymore?”

  “I can’t do that! I don’t want to do that! I have no idea why you hate Ty so much but I can have sex with him if I want to.”

  Maria glared at her in the soapy mirror. Unlike her teammates, she’d changed out of her uniform into jeans and knee high boots. She looked tall and powerful, an Amazon in action.

  “Katie, this man is not what you’ve been fantasising about. You want someone to love you and what you have is an old man using you for sex. Unless you make it clear what you deserve, Tyler Henderson will never commit himself to you.”

  “You don’t know that!” Kate’s voice bounced off the mirrors and sinks, echoed against the graffitied ceiling. “You don’t know anything about him!”

  “Maybe, but I know everything about you. I helped you when you didn’t have anyone else, and I’m not going to see you get hurt again. I’m the only one who cares about you!”

  It was a good thing Maria had changed out of her skates. At her words, Kate became so full of bright, white rage, she shoved Maria’s shoulder and sent her staggering backward.

  “Katie!” Maria looked shocked. “What are you doing?”

  “Why would you say that to me? Why did you hurt me then follow me in here and try to hug me better and say it was Ty’s fault?”

  Maria shot a panicky look at the door. “You don’t need to yell, I just—”

  “You really think you’re the only person I can trust?”

  “What I meant was—”

  “No!” Kate had never been so angry in her life. Her whole body was shaking from head to toe. “I know you meant it. You really think you’re the only person who knows me or likes me and you want it to stay that way.”

  Tears welled up in Maria’s eyes. “Katie, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have come in here. I’m sorry. Let’s just forget this for now. We can talk about this tomorrow or—”

  “No.” Kate skated toward the door. “No. I’m done.”

  She wrenched the door open, the noise and heat of the bar hitting her right in the face. She turned and looked over her shoulder at her mentor, who stood wiping sooty tears out of her eyes. “We’re over,” she told Maria . “We’re not friends anymore.”

  Without waiting to hear what she would say, Kate skated forward, letting the door close between them.

  It was as if the booth with her teammates had been frozen in time when she left and quickly defrosted upon her return. Everyone was still drinking the same drinks and listening to Ty explain why they called her ‘Middleton.’ How could so little time have passed when a huge bombshell had fallen and detonated upon her? Maria wasn’t really her friend. Maria didn’t have any of her best interests at heart.

  “Macca!” Tam cried. “Sit down, we’ll get more shots!”

  Kate shook her head, making deliberate eye contact with Ty. He got the message at once, finishing his glass of water and rising to his feet. “Goodnight girls, thanks for having me.”

  There was a chorus of boos. Gilly threw a straw at him.

  “Hang on! It’s not even…” Casey grabbed Ty’s arm and turned his Seamaster toward her. “It’s not even midnight. You can’t just leave!”

  “Yes, they can, Sabrina.” Rapunzel pried Casey’s fingers away from Ty’s wrist. “Give Peach and her boytoy credit for staying this long.”

  Kate knew she was calling Ty her boytoy to reassure her about their age gap. It was so sweet she almost started crying. “I’ll see you later, guys. Amazing game all of you.”

  “You too.”

  “Later, Mac.”

  “Yeah, enjoy the sex.”

  A loud burst of laughter followed them from the booth and Ty chuckled as he led her toward the door. It was freezing outside, minus one at least. Ty bundled her into his arms and wrapped his coat around her back.

  “Are you okay?” he asked. “You looked a bit dazed when you came back from the bathroom.”

  Kate thought about telling him what Maria said, unloading the whole dirty story, then she shook her head. “I’m fine, just a bit drunk, maybe.”

  Ty gave her a wry look. “I don’t think it’s a maybe, Middleton, and the wheels aren’t helping. Did you bring a change of clothes?”

  Kate slapped a hand to her forehead. “Yeah, but Casey put my sports bag in her car. I should go back inside and—”

  “No, we’ll only get stuck talking to everyone for another hour.” Ty peeled off his coat and placed it around her shoulders. “Button it up, it should do you until we get to the car.”

  Kate stared at him, running a hand over the thick Ty-smelling fabric. Who would have ever thought she’d be wearing this coat? “What about you?”

  “Queenslanders are tougher than southerners. Besides,” Ty smirked at her. “I’ve got something better to keep me warm.”

  He bent down and picked her up, wrapping her legs around his waist. “That should do me until we get to the parking tower.”

  “I can walk,” Kate protested. “Or roll.”

  “Not a chance. You’re drunk and in roller skates. I’m not spending the rest of the night in the emergency room when I could spend it in your bed.”

  The thought of them having sex in her bed again made Kate bite her tongue. When they reached the parking tower, Ty stopped in front of a glossy black Toyota Hilux.

  “Is that yours?” Kate said, surprised.

  Ty pulled a set of keys from his suit pocket. “Course. You didn’t think I was gonna take you home on my bike, did you? You’d freeze to death.”

  Ty opened the passenger side door and eased her in. As he walked around the cab, Kate glanced around and tried to absorb any and all of the car’s details. It was a manual, of course, beca
use Ty was butch and butch guys drove big manual cars, even in the city where you were at risk of dinging someone at every turn. It also smelled new and was very tidy. Only a few crumpled receipts on the floor indicated it was in use. Kate wondered if his house was the same, clean and butch and barely used.

  Ty jumped in the driver’s seat and shut the door. “Seatbelt.”

  Kate dutifully tugged the safety device across her chest and clicked it into the holder. “I haven’t been in a non-Uber car for ages.”

  “You have one, right? Red Hyundai?”

  “Yeah, but I hardly use it. I keep thinking I should sell it and rent out my parking space.”

  Her voice was as husky as if she were telling him all the ways she planned to screw him tonight. Ty caught the scent at once. “What are you thinking about, little girl?”

  The truth was Kate’s mind was pinwheeling across a hundred different topics. So much had just happened, so much to absorb and process. She knew she and Ty should talk about why he left and why he came back, but all she really wanted to do was something that required no words whatsoever.

  “I’m thinking you have tinted windows,” she told him. “And there’s no one around.”

  The interior light had gone off now Ty had shut the door. All Kate could see when she looked across at him were the sharp planes of his face, hard, unforgiving angles. Air hissed between Ty’s teeth and then her seatbelt unclicked itself, the strap sliding across her chest.

  “Is that a yes?”

  His hand closed over her breast, massaging it softly. “You take something now, you’ll pay for it later.”

  Kate smiled, remembering she still owed him thirty or so blow jobs from when she ‘stole’ from his wallet. “Put it on my tab.”

  Ty made a soft tutting noise, as though she had no idea what kind of trouble she was in. “You wanna sit on my cock, little girl? You wanna get fucked in a parking garage?”

  Kate pictured it, her back against the wheel, riding him up and down. Her pussy clenched excitedly, but she shook her head. “I want to go down on you.”

  Ty stopped massaging her breast. “You sure? You must be tired from your game.”

  She was, but it didn’t matter. Serving him was exactly what her submissive self-required—to be nothing but a cog in someone else’s machine for a while.

  “I want to be a good girl,” she said and even though it was dark, she knew Ty smiled.

  “If that’s what you want, it’s yours. But if you suck it now, you’ll ride it as soon as we get home, understood?”

  Kate gave a nod that was pointless in the dim light, then she said, “Yes, Daddy.”

  Ty’s cock was as beautiful as she remembered. When she opened wide and brought her lips around it, he groaned.

  “Stay low,” he said, weaving a hand through her hair. “We get caught, both of us’ll have some job-searching to do.”

  Kate knew she should have been worried about that, but she had no thoughts to spare for anything that wasn’t Ty’s cock. She gave herself over to the act of sucking him, ignoring the tricky angle and her sore neck, ignoring everything that wasn’t her job.

  Ty’s hand rose and fell with her head. “Fuck, I missed you,” he groaned. “I missed your greedy fucking mouth.”

  “I missed you, too,” Kate moaned around his shaft and because she knew all he could hear was garbled nonsense, she added, “I think I’m in love with you.”

  When he was done, Ty wiped a thumb over her damp lips.

  “You were perfect,” he said. “Now, let’s go home.”

  Kate nodded, feeling as though he’d poured warm, glowing liquid into a place that had been empty for far too long—not his semen, obviously—the fact that he’d called Aunt Rhonda’s apartment home. The fact that they were going there together, after a social outing that was almost, maybe a date.

  They made out in the elevator, Kate not giving a damn about Stephen who was surely watching them at the security deck downstairs. Kate had barely closed her front door before Ty pressed her up against it, tearing off her underwear and fucking her with a ruthlessness she hadn’t felt since their first night together.

  She came within minutes, screaming his name as the wheels of her roller skates bashed against the wood. One of Aunty Rhonda’s daguerreotypes fell off the wall and splintered, but Ty didn’t stop, and Kate didn’t care. He came a few minutes later, groaning about what a good whore she was, his lovely girl, his beautiful little slut.

  “You want a shower?” he asked when they’d both caught their breath.

  “You mean, me and then you, or you and then me?”

  Ty huffed out a laugh. “I mean, together.”

  Kate tugged at her ear, unable to fully believe what she’d heard. “Ah, yeah, if you’re having one? Maybe? I guess?”

  And so for the first time in their brief, unusual history she and Ty showered together. Initially, Kate stood away from him, shyly admiring his body, but Ty tugged her close, laying her head against his chest. “How are you feeling? Are you warm enough?”

  I think I’m in love with you. “I’m great.”

  They stood under the hot waterfall together for a very long time, until everything felt floaty and safe and surreal.

  Aftercare, Kate thought, is fucking sweet.

  No sooner had she thought that than Ty grabbed her body wash and loofa. He applied one to the other then gave her a big cheeky smile. “That’s the fucking smell!”

  “Huh?”

  “The strawberry fruit smell you’ve been carrying around since February. This is where it comes from, right?”

  Kate frowned at him. “You noticed when I switched my lotion?”

  To her delight, Ty’s cheeks went red. He scowled at the body wash as though it had just called him an ignorant asshole. Kate giggled. “Do you know what flavour it was before?”

  He didn’t answer.

  “Please tell me?” she begged. “If you say it, I’ll give you a million blow jobs.”

  “You’d give me that anyway.”

  “I know, but please tell me? Please, please, please? Please?”

  His scowl intensified. “Mango. It was mango, okay? Mango. Now turn around and let me wash your ass.”

  Kate couldn’t help it, she laughed. She laughed until she had to press a palm to the shower stall to keep herself upright. She laughed until Ty threatened to spank her into submission, which she took seriously and shut up. The last thing she wanted on top of her evening was a spanking. What she needed, and got, was Ty washing her, his big rough hands rubbing strawberry body wash into her skin with such tenderness it made her stomach twist and flutter like a cut kite. When they got out he wrapped her in a towel. “Better?”

  Yes, Kate thought. And no.

  The need to ask, to define, was almost overwhelming—do you like me? Will it be different now? Can you be my boyfriend? What will we tell the people at work? Is there a chance you could be in love with me, too? But there was no way to ask those things without sounding insane, even in her own head. So she just said yes and watched as he dressed himself in his suit again.

  “I’ll stay the night soon,” he promised. “But this is new for me, and I don’t want to rush things.”

  “I understand,” Kate lied, because after sixteen days all she wanted was to stay with him. “I’ll see you soon?”

  He kissed her cheek. “Of course. I’m so fucking glad we could do this, Middleton.”

  Kate, she thought. My name is Kate.

  Once he left, Kate couldn’t sleep. She sat on her couch and stared at the TV without absorbing a single pixel. Ty had come back and things would be different, she’d won a grand final and cemented her friendship with one of the coolest people she’d ever met, so why couldn’t she be happy?

  She thought back to Rumba Bar, to Ty smiling and laughing, drawing in her teammates as easily as a fish breathed water. As impressed as she’d been at the time, something about it had felt stra
nge, and as she lay aching on her couch, Kate knew what it was.

  For someone praised as an Errol-Flynn-meets-Casanova-meets-James-Bond charmer, Ty had never actually charmed her. From the moment they’d met, she’d only seen him wield his allure from afar while he gave her first indifference, then resistance, then a kind of amused acceptance with occasional flashes of heart-stopping tenderness. When he laughed at her jokes or took her in his arms, it was always felt a little, well, grudging. As though he wished he could stop himself, but couldn’t. What did that say about her and him and their possible future?

  Maria’s words came back to her. What you have is an old man using you for sex. Unless you make it clear what you deserve, Tyler Henderson will never commit himself to you.

  “She’s wrong,” she told the apartment. “I don’t have to make anything clear, this is just the start of a normal relationship. Everything is gonna be okay.”

  Chapter 18

  Kate’s phone buzzed. She flipped it over and found a green-apple message waiting for her.

  I’ll be there at nine, Ty had written. When I come through the door, you’ll be bent over your dining table, naked. To your left will be a wooden spoon and to your right a glass of scotch. If you’re lucky, and everything’s laid out perfectly, you might be able to sit down tomorrow.

  They had been dating for over a month and yet the very idea got Kate so worked up it might as well have been the first time. She closed her eyes and imagined it—the sound of Ty’s motorcycle boots thudding toward her, his mind intent on nothing but punishing her for her transgressions, his rough palm sliding down her lower back before he—

  “Middleton?”

  Kate jolted upright. “Huh?”

  “Look alive, will you?” Dutchy sniggered at his own joke and dropped a heavy leather-bound folder onto her desk.

  “What’s this?” Kate asked, with all the politeness she could muster.

  “Sloane brief,” he said flicking the edge of the folder. “You need to take it down to The Breton Club. There’s documents inside that need to be signed.”

  Kate looked out of the nearby window. It was raining so heavily it was like god was emptying a Jupiter-sized bucket of water on the city. “So, maybe we could get a courier to do it?”