Why Did It Have To Be You?

by T. L. Quinn

  We play a couple of rounds, and the ball takes much longer to fall through now that his hands are directing mine what to do. I feel his arms flex every time he presses down on the triggers and his thigh is pressing up against my ass. Even though we are doing much better now that he is helping me, we still are nowhere near the top ten high scores listed on the machine.

  The last ball falls through, and we will need to put in more quarters in order to keep playing. I slowly turn around to see what his next move is. He doesn't move his arms from the place they were on the machine, so he is boxing me in.

  I glance up to his face, and those green eyes are looking back into mine. His eyes slowly drop from my eyes to my lips. Instinctively, I bring my tongue out to wet them. Neither one of us moves for a moment and my heart is pounding so loud in my chest. I need to do something, so I casually say "Looks like you'll need to practice those middle aged man skills. You didn't even come close to making it on the high scores list."

  His eyes darken even more, and he growls as his right hand leaves the machine and grabs the back of my head. He yanks me toward him, and crushes his mouth to mine. My eyes shoot wide open in surprise. Even though we've been nothing but flirty the whole night, I somehow didn't expect him to actually act on it. Holy shit! He’s actually kissing me.

  He is still moving his lips over mine, and then he seems to notice I am not kissing him back yet, so he grabs my waist with his other hand pulling my body closer.

  Without even thinking about it, my mouth opens up and lets him in. His tongue is immediately in my mouth, and I am moaning at the feel of it.

  His right hand is still placed on the back of my neck not letting me pull away and his other hand is skimming up and down my side going from my waist to my ribcage stopping just below my breasts.

  His lips pull from mine barely and he mumbles "I'll show you middle aged man skills."

  Suddenly, his arms are below my butt and I am being lifted up onto the pinball machine.

  He steps in between my legs never removing his mouth from mine. His lips move away from mine and down my neck as his hands slide up my very exposed thighs.

  My slutty dress doesn't even require him to try to go underneath it for his hands to be way too close to where I want them to be. Where I need them to be.

  My breathing is heavy and I can not believe I am doing this. Suddenly, there is the sound of keys jingling behind the door, and then I hear the lock turn to open.

  It takes a second for me to realize why Dean pulls away from me suddenly and yanks me down from the machine, but then the door opens and a man walks in.

  The man gasps out a startled sound and drops his keys. "Jesus Dean! You scared the shit out of me!"

  He goes to pick up his keys that he dropped. "I didn't realize you were coming tonight. What are you doing back here instead of having a drink at the ba-" He stops suddenly when he notices Dean is not alone. A smile grows across the man's face. "Oh, I didn't realize this was a place we were bringing our guests back to now."

  Dean groans "Derek, c'mon."

  Derek just keeps smiling. "What's your little friend here’s name?"

  Dean's eyes shoot to mine, and suddenly I realize we never even exchanged names. The only reason I know his name is because of the bartender and now Derek calling him by it.

  All of a sudden sober me pushes through, and I come to my senses. I almost just hooked up with a random stranger in the back of the bar without even exchanging names with him. It was super hot, but that’s not just something I normally do.

  I push past Dean and whisper as I am walking away "I have to go."

  I am already in the hall and I hear Dean semi-shout "Really Derek?"

  I can hear him coming after me. "Hey! Wait up!" He reaches out and gently stops me by grabbing my elbow. I turn to look at him and his eyes are boring into me.

  I need to lighten the moment, so I say "Hard to chase someone down when you can’t shout out their name huh?"

  He gives me a small smile. "Can I ask for your name? Maybe your number?"

  I want to say yes, but the reasonable part of my brain knows better. This guy is much older than me. Plus he's very attractive and charming. He probably is with a new girl every week. Not to mention I don't even know where things stand with Brian.

  Instead of answering, I go up on my tiptoes and give him a small kiss on his lips. When I pull away, I whisper "Thanks for a great birthday."

  His eyes look disappointed, but he just gives me a small nod letting me know he respects my decision even if he doesn't want to.

  I turn away and walk out of the bar. I release a big breath when I get outside and I know it's going to be hard to forget about my mysterious birthday man, but now it's time to get back to reality.

  Chapter 1

  6 Weeks Later

  ◆◆◆

  "So how's living together going?" Ally says through the phone as I am folding laundry in my bedroom.

  "Fine. It's not like we made a huge commitment to each other or anything. My lease was just up, and he offered to let me stay with him to save money so I can pay for my final classes in cash instead of taking out a loan."

  I am folding my shirts when I see Brian's underwear in with my clothes. At least I am doing my part around the place since he is letting me live here basically rent free. I’m washing his underwear, doing the dishes, cleaning the toilet. Ugh, are all college boys this slobby?

  I lay the phone on the bed and put it on speaker so I have both of my hands to fold the laundry. "Besides I am paying all the utilities, so he is getting some benefit out of it too."

  Ally laughs "Ha! You’re right. I am sure you being in his bed every night wasn't the main motivation at all." I laugh back at her joke, but honestly, Brian and I haven't been that intimate since my birthday. The most we’ve done since my birthday is kiss each other hello or goodbye.

  When I got home the night of my birthday, Brian was sitting in my living room with a worried look on his face. I walked in the house and screamed when I saw him sitting on the couch in the dark. I wasn't expecting him to be there.

  "Brian!” I grab at my chest trying to calm myself down. “What are you doing here?"

  He stands from the couch and walks over toward me.

  "Where have you been? I have been trying to call you all night."

  I glance at my phone, which I just turned back on, and see his missed calls.

  "Sorry, I didn't have my phone on."

  "That's it? You didn't have your phone on? I have been so worried about you!”

  "You've been worried about me?” I scoff. “Oh I’m sorry! I kind of thought completely ignoring your girlfriend on her birthday while most likely spending time with your ex girlfriend means you don't need to worry anymore."

  Brian shakes his head and wipes a hand down his face. "I'm sorry."

  I just stare at him for a second. I wasn't expecting just a flat out apology. Usually there are always excuses that follow when we make up from a fight.

  "I know I shouldn't have left last night and I meant to call you this morning, but work was super busy and I was trying to get everything done so we could go out tonight."

  Guilt washes over me suddenly about kissing Dean. I thought me and Brian had broken up, but I should have talked to Brian before I was intimate with another man, but then a thought hits me.

  "We were supposed to go out at 7. I waited until 7:30 and you still hadn't called or texted me the whole day. I thought you weren't showing."

  He looks down at the ground. "I know. I'm sorry. I was dumb. I was just running late and I was still upset. I should have called." He pauses a moment and then looks up into my eyes "Are we okay?"

  Are we okay? I am still a little drunk and I don't know if I am making the right decision, but I don't think missing a birthday is worth throwing away a whole relationship over, so I just nod my head and say "Yeah, we're okay."

  I am snapped out of my memory as I hear a loud clunking sound coming from the kitche
n followed by what sounds like running water. "Hey Ally, can I call you back? Something is going on in the kitchen." I hang up the phone before hearing her response and run to where the sound is coming from.

  "Shit!" There is water pouring from the ceiling all over the place. "Shit! Shit! Shit!"

  I have only lived here a couple weeks and don't know where the shut off valve is. I quickly dial Brian's number. "Hello?"

  "BRIAN! THERE IS WATER SPRAYING EVERYWHERE! WHERE IS THE SHUT OFF VALVE?"

  "What? What do you mean there is water sprayi-"

  "BRIAN THE VALVE!"

  "Sorry the valve is in the laundry room closet. Down on the right wall."

  I hang up the phone and run to the closet and turn it all off. Once the water stops spraying, I can see that it looks like some pipes burst in the ceiling. I look at the huge mess and mumble "You have got to be kidding me." Not that Brian's place was ever the nicest in the world, but looking at the damage, I know it is going to take a while to fix. I call Brian back and explain what happened. He said he's on his way back and will call the landlord on the way. Great. Just great.

  Chapter 2

  I am still trying to mop up the worst of the water and have wet towels everywhere from where I was trying to sop it all up when Brian walks in the door.

  "Shit" he says as he steps in the apartment and takes a look around.

  "Shit is right. Did your landlord say how long it was going to take to fix?"

  Brian looks up at the ceiling and blows out a breath. "The cleaning company will be here tomorrow to get the water cleared out, but the soonest a plumber can be out is next week. She said based on what you told her happened they estimate it would take about two weeks to finish replacing all the pipes and then another two weeks to repair all the damage that was done."

  My mouth drops open "That's over a month!"

  “I know. Trust me. I know.” He blows out another breath and looks at me. “She said we can move back in once they replace the pipes but we wouldn't be able to use the kitchen for the two weeks they are repairing everything and you’d have workers in and out all throughout the day.”

  Now it’s my turn to blow out a frustrated breath. I finally am able to save money on rent by staying with my boyfriend and now we can’t even stay here.

  “I’d rather not be here with random guys walking in and out. What do we do then? Do they have another apartment we can stay in?”

  Brian shakes his head. “They are all occupied. She isn’t charging us for the 10 days we were here this month and then we won’t owe rent until we are back in, but they don’t pay for us to stay anywhere else.”

  “That’s crazy! A hotel is going to cost way more than rent. Do you think we can find an apartment on this short notice for only one month?”

  I am getting more upset and Brian can tell. I was finally able to catch a break in my bills and was going to be debt free by the time I was done with my classes. This is going to put me way behind even if I split the bill with Brian.

  Brian comes closer and puts his hands on both of my shoulders to comfort me. “I thought we could stay with my dad for the month.”

  I look back at him confused. I have never met Brian’s dad and from what I gathered from him they are not very close. “Your dad?”

  “Yeah his place is only 20 minutes away, and he’s got 3 bedrooms. It’s not like he needs that many since it’s only ever just him.”

  I am even more shocked to hear his dad is only 20 minutes away and I have never even met him. From what Brian told me, his mom got pregnant in high school, but his parents were not together after he was born. His dad wasn’t a bad parent but his mom didn’t really want to ever see him, so Brian only spent Holidays and occasionally a couple weeks in the summer with his dad, which was just fine with his dad according to Brian since he was only a teenager and didn’t understand what being a parent even meant at the time. I think Brian and him grab dinner ever now and then but I am not really sure. He doesn’t really mention him much.

  “How is your dad only 20 minutes away and I haven’t even met him yet?”

  Brian just shrugs his shoulders. “We don’t talk that much.”

  “And he will be okay with us staying with him?”

  Brian shrugs again and gives me a small smirk. “Yeah, he pretty much does anything I ask him to. Trying to make up for not being involved in my life and all. Makes him feel less guilty. Not to mention, he works all the time, so it’s not like we’ll be in his way. He is barely ever home anyway.”

  Brian steps back from me and I look at him more seriously. “Are you sure he’d be okay with it? When was the last time you talked to him?”

  Brian laughs at my doubt in the situation. Shaking his head like he can’t believe I don’t trust what he just said, he answers “I already asked him on my way back home. Well, technically I asked him for money to stay in a hotel, but even though he is loaded, he said he isn’t going to waste money on a hotel when we can just stay with him for free.”

  I let out a relieved breath that this isn’t going to be as bad as I thought. I mean it will be weird staying with someone I don’t know, but it’s Brian’s dad so it’s not like it is just some stranger. At least now we don’t have to pay for a hotel.

  Brian laughs “You’d never be able to tell he has so much money with the way he acts like a cheap motherfucker”

  I get nervous at the tone of Brian’s voice. Do they not really get along? I don’t want this to be uncomfortable staying there. “Are you sure this is going to be okay with him?”

  He gives me a sweet smile reassuring me everything will be okay. “Hey come here.” he wraps his arms around me. “Everything is going to be okay.”

  He kisses the side of my head and I relax into him. It’s moments like these that remind why I wanted to be with Brian in the first place. He has always been able to calm my nerves and comfort me.

  His lips move from my head down closer to my mouth. He looks down at me and puts his lips on mine. That is as far as it usually goes lately. Things have been tense since that night. We still cuddle on the couch and at night in bed, but we haven’t been any more intimate than that.

  I am expecting him to draw away like he has been, but his arms wrap around me and he pulls me closer. He deepens the kiss, and I let him.

  I’ve missed him. Brian has always been very attractive to me. He is tall and muscular. He isn’t bulky, but he works out so he is tone everywhere. His jaw is strong and he has high cheekbones. He has that boy next door look.

  His hands start to move over my ass, and he squeezes it. I moan into his mouth and look up into his eyes. That’s another feature I love about him. His bright blue eyes. They are so vibrant and inviting. I close my eyes again while he kisses me, and suddenly I see vibrant eyes again. Except they aren’t Brian’s bright blue eyes. They are green. Staring right back at me. Dean.

  I gasp and push back at Brian’s chest, trying to get separation. Why am I thinking about Dean right now? I am pissed at myself. I was finally going to get close with Brian again, but I can’t move forward in good conscious while I am imaging another man.

  Brian looks at me confused, and I quickly give him a peck on the lips and say “Sorry. I just think we need to start packing up so we can get everything over to your dads still today.”

  He lets out a sigh and smiles down at me, but his eyes look disappointed. “Sure thing. Let’s pack.”

  We head into the bedroom and pack up only the essentials we need to stay for a month. Brian said his dad keeps a room made up for him for whenever he stays over which hasn’t happened since he’s been in college, so it is more just a guest room. I am finishing putting my toiletries in a bag when Brian pops his head in the bathroom. “You almost ready?”

  I smile at him. “As I’ll ever be.” Well, here goes nothing.

  Chapter 3

  We pull up to Brian’s dad’s house, and I stare up at it with my mouth hanging open.

  “Damn, your dad really is rich.�
�

  Brian laughs, “Yeah I told you so.”

  The house isn’t a mansion or anything, but for the area it’s in right by downtown, I know it must cost a fortune. It is a modern style building, so it must’ve been built within the last 10 years. Lots of straight, clean lines of black and white with just a few touches of natural wood to soften the modern edge. If the outside looks this fancy, I can’t imagine what the inside must look like.

  Brian grabs a couple of bags out of the trunk and leads me up to the front porch. I am suddenly nervous to meet Brian’s dad. Even though we’ve been living together for a month now, it still feels like a big step to be meeting his dad. Like somehow this makes our relationship more serious. He hasn’t met my family either, but we haven’t been dating during a holiday like Thanksgiving or Christmas when I usually go to visit them.

  We get to the door and I go to ring the bell when Brian pulls out his keys and unlocks the door. I look at him. “You already have a key?”

  He chuckles. “Well I’ve had one for a while. He made me one when he moved in here in case I ever needed somewhere to stay, but we will have to make a copy for you so you can come and go as you please.”

  I smile. Of course he has a key. This is his parent’s house. It makes me feel better about their relationship. Maybe I was reading too much into it early. They probably get along fine.

  Brian pushes the door open and we step in the house which has an entryway that expands into an open floor plan. The living room and kitchen are all visible from where we are standing and it is furnished with modern items. The kitchen has a huge island with fancy white quartz countertops and custom cabinets. You can’t even see the refrigerator because it is one those refrigerators that are hidden within the cabinets. It reminds me of one of those home makeover shows except you can tell everything is new and not remodeled. Man, if I had a kitchen like that I wouldn't even mind doing the dishes. I laugh to myself as I think he probably has one of those motion activated faucets that turn on when you run your hand over it.