by J. C. Allen
“It’s not other stuff, Allison, it’s not like I’m asking you to meet my mom.”
He laughed, but it still felt like he was dancing around the truth with his joking. Still, I figured if that was how he wanted to talk, it was the style I had to follow.
“Please don’t ever ask me to meet your mom.”
His reaction, that of laughing harder, worked a little bit to calm me down.
“Look,” Zeke said, trying to regain control of himself. “I told you I’m not an asshole. On some days, at least. I’m at least gonna feed you before I work up your appetite again, and then maybe after too. Don’t read into it so much.”
“I’m not…”
“You are. You’re an overthinker baby, just relax.”
I exhaled and stare at the wood floor. Maybe I was.
But as I had said, I did want those things. I’m not sure there was any level of thinking that was too much given that dissonance in my head. The perfect answer just wasn’t coming to mind.
“Okay, fine,” I said. “But no pet names then.”
As much as I liked him calling me baby, it just made me feel like I belonged to him in some way… and I though that I didn’t really want to. It would feel too good. Is it any wonder that I overthink things? Damnit…
“Fine. I’ll just call you Allison. You’ll call me sex god.”
I laughed aloud. Zeke was just…
“You’re more of a dufus than me.”
“I thought we said no pet names,” he said with a joking tone.
“Whatever, Zeke,” I said, emphasizing his name.
“Well, now that that’s out of the way, I’ll be there to pick you up in about twenty minutes.”
Damn! He really knows how to go from zero to sixty at the snap of a finger. It’s amazing.
And I’m perfectly happy with that.
“Okay, sounds great, Zeke,” I said, again emphasizing his name. “See you then.”
He just made me laugh more than any other guy I had ever dated. I had to be the goofy one typically, and most of the time, the guys had told me to tone it down. Zeke and I, though, seemed more like two jokesters than anything else, and it made this feel easier. Easier for what, though? What are you trying to build toward, Allison?
I grabbed my purse and left my room, heading to the kitchen to take allergy medicine and put something in my stomach. I grabbed a container of orange juice and prepared to find a way to kill twenty minutes when, lo and behold, Jenna appeared.
“Zeke was here last night?”
I spat my orange juice back into the glass in shock. Where did she get that idea from?
“What?”
She laughed. She was still in her long night shirt and still had sleep in her eyes.
“Zeke. You um, shouted his name.”
“I didn’t.”
“You did, I didn’t have that much to drink and the last thing I would hallucinate is you screaming some dude’s name.” .
“Drinking doesn’t make you hallucinate.”
I was trying to avoid admitting the somewhat embarrassing truth, but it was a battle that I was losing very rapidly. At some point, I just had to give up.
“Whatever. I know what I heard. Did he come in through the window?”
She was cackling now. I tried to ignore her, but when she slapped my ass in a playful manner, I knew she wouldn’t be so easily ignored.
I ignore her and she slaps my ass, I give up on drinking my juice and face her.
“Zeke wasn’t here last night.”
“So why were you screaming his name like you were having sex?”
I laughed and scratched at my neck. It was better to just be honest about it all—maybe it would get her to move on from things quicker.
“Um, because… we were having phone sex.”
She tossed a yogurt cover and wagged her spoon at me as she sat down.
“I knew you could be naughty. It must have been good. I mean, you were really screaming like he was actually there.”
Oh God, I was that loud? Fuck…
“You listened that long?”
“I didn’t have a fucking choice, you were really loud Allie.”
Wow. Well, guess I’ll have to be more careful.
“Oh. Sorry.”
The one concern I had with that was that it might mean Zeke wouldn’t be coming over any time sooner, especially since I was that loud on phone sex, not even the real deal.
Not that, to be honest, I think Zeke minded too much. He seemed like he wouldn’t care in the slightest about having me at his place, especially with its multitude of options and the chance to ride his bike.
“That’s okay. I’m glad you’re having fun,” Jenna said.
Then she dropped a massive bombshell, one that seemed especially surprising in comparison to all of the pushing she’d done earlier in the trip.
“I decided to abstain from men this summer.”
“What? Why?” I asked her, though my voice was much calmer than my actual reaction.
“To cleanse myself before I meet real men in the work place.”
She said it so casually, like it was so obvious. I was just… I was just confused.
“You mean… other art students?”
“Sure. They can be really intense you know. Or other professors and anyone else I may run into.”
“I get that,” I said, which wasn’t really true, but it didn’t seem like the kind of thing I wanted to get into too much. I only had to kill a few more minutes before Zeke showed up, anyways. “It should be fun. I’ll just be slumming it with my camera.”
“Have you decided where to go?” she asks me.
I shook my head. Photography gave me the chance to go anywhere in theory, but in practice, since a lot of my income was on a month-to-month basis, I had to be careful with what I did.
Still, all I had was a fuck buddy and a whole lot of questions.
“Maybe somewhere abroad, see the world,” I said, thinking aloud. “I could find a studio and work there or be a photographer’s assistant, follow them around.”
“You should just do what will make you happy honestly. Sit down and have a heart to heart with the universe.”
I appreciated Jenna’s quirky response, especially since the longer I thought about it, the more it made sense.
“I think I will.”
“Or have amazing sex. That helps people make decisions too.”
That might be more right than you think. But not really something I’m looking to discuss right now.
“Okay, Jenna. We’ll see how that goes. Speaking of, Zeke is coming to pick me up.”
“Wow, sex in the day time. I like this guy.”
“Well he is taking me to lunch first. And then… sex in the day time.”
“I’m jealous.”
Says the girl who is swearing off men for the summer. But, hey, to each their own.
I ate one last piece of chocolate and washed it down with water. I grabbed a mint and chewed it to eliminate the weird orange juice and chocolate taste before Zeke showed up.
Marissa came down a short while later, but I was saved from them when the doorbell rang. I smiled as the two of them teased me even more.
I opened up the door and fond him holding a piece of paper.
“What the hell is that?”
11
Zeke
“My sex god certification.”
I handed it to her and watched her look at it, making a face. Admittedly, even for me, a guy who wasn’t afraid to tell the truth no matter how arrogant it might have sounded, this might have been a little over the top. I recognized that there was a difference between saying something in the moment and then doubling down on it by literally making a certification like that of it.
But you know what? If the worst that happened was that Allison got so bothered and annoyed by it that she ended things, then it wasn’t a bad outcome. And if she liked it, well, the sex was going to be that much better. I didn’t see a l
ot of true, negative downside to it.
And besides, when she saw what it actually was, I don’t think she was going to be too disappointed.
“Why are you showing me this?” she said, giggling and handing it back.
I folded it and stuffed it in my back pocket as we walked to my bike. It was pretty clear from her reaction that I had gotten exactly what I had hoped—for her to be amused, smiling, and aroused thinking about what I had put on it.
And, when she looked closer, she’d see that there was a practical reason for it as well.
“To show you I’m clean. And so you can show me those blowing skills you spoke so highly of.”
I chuckled. OK, there definitely was a little bit of selfish reasoning for what I did. But, you know what? I wanted to feel those lips on my cock, and I had done all I needed to do to assure Allison all would be fine and all would be well. I had been around Allison for too long without feeling her put her mouth on me to not want something more. That was just the absolute truth.
“Zeke…”
“What, now you have a clean mouth?” I said.
Before she could respond, I kissed her like I’d been imagining for so long. It felt like an eternity had passed since I last kissed her—and now I was determined to make the kiss itself feel like an eternity.
Her lips coaxed over mine, and I darted my tongue against hers before I tasted her. I slid my hands down her body and gripped her ass in her leggings; it fit in the palm of my hands right where it was juicy. I groaned into her mouth. My cock was already half hard, and I couldn’t think of anything other than fucking her right over my bike. That was something I had never done before—my bike was one of the few sacred spots that I typically didn’t stain with sex—but with Allison, I felt like being especially sacrilegious. I felt like breaking a few barriers with her.
I had to break the kiss because I didn’t want to scare the neighbors into calling the cops. She also seemed a little more hesitant than normal, perhaps because her roommates were not too far away.
“I hope you’re hungry. For actual food, because I am.”
I smiled and pulled back. She licked her swollen lips and nodded. She looked mighty satisfied, but she also looked enormously relieved that I was giving her a pass like this.
“Yeah, let’s go.”
We got on the bike and I drove off toward my favorite diner. It didn’t take long, but I relished every moment of feeling her body against mine as we went. I parked out front and saw that it was mostly empty, which was both promising and pleasantly troubling for what I had wanted to do with Allison that day.
I smiled at Allison when I took off her helmet. It felt natural to reach out and hold her hand… but just before my hand made contact, I stopped myself. I didn’t want to scare her off when clearly she was having some boundary issues.
Amazing how suddenly I’m afraid to hold a woman’s hand when I grabbed hers at the bar before I even knew her name. Goddamnit, this girl has done something to me. And I can’t help it!
“I didn’t know diners were a real thing,” she said as we sat down in our booth.
I chuckled at her from across the booth and pressed my knees to hers from across the seat. The poor out-of-town girl had a lot to learn—but fortunately for her, I was quite the willing teacher.
“They’re a real thing. I come here all the time.”
“You bring all your women here?” she said with an arched eyebrow.
“I don’t eat with them.”
I had meant it as a compliment to her, to say how special she was, but then I remembered that it was precisely that type of conversation I wanted to avoid. I realized as much when I saw her expression freeze. She bit her lips and gave me a funny look. I sighed and leaned across the table, determined to say this the right way. I wanted to be able to say things like that without chasing her away; she needed to understand that just because we were casual didn’t mean I couldn’t treat her like shit.
“Okay, don’t freak out again… but, there is a difference between one-night stands and fuck buddies. So, buddy up.”
I reached across and squeezed her cheek as she swatted me away with a gentle smile.
“Okay Zeke, we’ll do this your way,” she said with a smirk. She looked like she was contemplating what I said, but I was happy to not have to say anything else on the matter. I just wanted to enjoy our time together, not have to explain myself every ten minutes. “What’s good here?”
“Fuck. Everything.”
“How helpful.”
That’s more like it.
I got the same thing I always got, a burger and fries, and she got chicken and waffles. She sipped her juice as we waited on our food, and frankly, I had to really try not to stare so much. She just had this air about her that was calming, and I only wanted to breathe it in as much as I could, for as long as I could.
Who’s trying to be casual and who’s trying to be more serious here again?
“So…” I said, trying to find something to talk about, but I was strangely feeling cautious about my words. “What do you do when we’re not having sex?”
She laughed and shook her head at me. To some extent, I was pretty sure she was still getting used to someone who spoke to her like I did.
“I um, take pictures. I’m sort of a photographer.”
“What makes you ‘sort of’ a photographer?”
I tilted my head at her and arched an eyebrow. It was pretty awesome to have the ability to make her melt on the spot from the flirting I gave her.
“I guess… not having a website basically,” she said with a short laugh.
“So make a website. Is that what you went to school for?”
“Technically. I majored in something else but that’s what I want to do, it’s just hard to get into.”
See? This is nice. We can have a conversation about each other and not have it feel weird.
“That’s how the arts are. So I’ve heard.”
“Well it’s true. How do you know that?”
I shrugged my shoulders. I didn’t want to give her too deep of an answer for a relatively simple question.
“I watch a lot of TV.”
She just giggled and got a sweet smile, and it was one of those moments where I almost felt detached, realizing how much she was staring at me and how sweet it was.
“Actually…”
She dug in her purse and pulled out a camera, one of those serious looking, professional ones. Is she about to take a photo of me? Of us?
“You mind?” she asked, lifting it to her face.
I shook my head with a chuckle. Of course I didn’t mind. I may have been in a weird state, trying to figure things out with Allison, but I still had a healthy ego.
“This is what I was made for.”
She giggled and clicked off a few photos. Even as I spoke to her, she took photos, as if she wanted to capture the “serendipitous” moments. Or something like that, that’s just my guess.
“What made you want to do this? I mean, you seem like the committed type of girl is all I’m saying.”
Oh, why did I have to chose that word? That was stupid, Zeke, really stupid.
“How do I seem committed?” she said, looking concerned. “I don’t think someone can seem committed.”
She leaned back in the booth and bit her lip. Whatever thoughts I had about the poor choice in words, though, were eliminated when I looked over at how her shirt dropped off her shoulder, exposing the smooth skin of her neck and shoulder. The lace of her bra strap looked so delicate on her that I just wanted to bite it off. I had to make myself concentrate instead of letting my mind stray, because otherwise, there was a decent chance we were going to repeat what had happened at the gas station.
So, instead, I smirked at her and sipped from my straw, knowing I had to answer the question she had posed to me.
“I have a feeling. I’m good at pointing these things out.”
She rolled her eyes at me and sighed as she crossed her
arms. I was either digging my own grave or setting myself up for a hell of a comeback, and it was unclear which it would be at this point.
“I’m not the committed type,” she said. “I just only had committed relationships in the past. And it was difficult, not very fun at all.”
“So…” I said, noticing an opportunity for some humor. “You want to slum it with my type?”
“What’s your type?”
She arched her light brow, and I looked over the light hairline of her hair. She knew exactly what my type was, she was just playing games with me right now. And, well, it was one of the rare times that the “game” was something worth playing.
“Non-committal. As much as they come.”
She narrowed her eyes at me, pretending to be serious, before she started giggling.
“I could tell as much. Did some girl break your heart or something?”
She seemed so casual about it, as if the topic wasn’t serious. Though for someone else approximating me it might have been true, it wasn’t for me.
“No. I’ve never been in a relationship before at all. It never seemed that fun to me either. I just find this to be a lot easier.”
“But you don’t usually take your other conquests out to lunch, do you?”
She’s good.
“Nope. Cause I never wanted to have sex with just one person before.”
I was pretty sure I hadn’t even thought that point through as much as I had. It was just… it was just the truth, but to hear it stated as I had was quite the shock to me. Maybe it was just being around Allison that opened up my tongue, or maybe it was the time I’d spent before with her, but either way, my words were coming out in a very strange way right now.
“Okay. Why me then?”
This time, though, her tone suggested she actually wanted to know the answer. I didn’t even know if I actually knew yet, so I fed her the same line I told myself. I knew, though, the reasoning was only temporary, and not the kind of thing that would last.