Page 99 of XX Love Affair

“What? My own twenty and younger club that I can be my freaky self in?”

“You just turned twenty. You saying you can’t wait eleven more months to turn twenty-one for real?”

“Unlike you, I still experience time as an excruciatingly long ordeal. It will be another five years before I’m realistically twenty-one and dancing in the club again. Let alone with a good cocktail. Ugh. You’re such a purist when we go out.”

“What are you talking about? I buy you wine and mimosas all the time. You seldom get carded.” Delia knew where she was likely to get carded and only took Helena there with the knowledge neither of them was drinking that night. Otherwise, she figured Helena knew more about cocktails than anyone else, so what was the point of shielding her for no reason?

“Anyway, what’s my present? My own private island?”

“You’re taking the fun out of this.”

Helena rearranged herself so she was simultaneously taking up her whole half of the king-sized hotel bed and firmly ensconced in Delia’s arm. A phone was soon knocked off its charger as Delia held it over their heads and bypassed the lock to get to a page she had brought up in her browser for this moment. “I get fixated on certain kinds of fun, okay?”

“So I’ve noticed.” Delia passed her the phone. “What do you think?”

Helena stared at an apartment near her college. “What am I supposed to do with this?”

“If you want, you can move in on January 2nd.”

Helena jerked up, eyes as wide as the grin now on Delia’s face. “What are you talking about? You better not be joking. I’d fucking die to have my own place and not have to live in a dorm with a girl who has night terrors twice a week!”

“I’m not joking. One of my clients in The Boyle Group owns that building and renovated the unit after a SWAT team destroyed half the place looking for the wrong guy. He mentioned how difficult it would be to rent out with that shit in the news, and when I realized it was in the same neighborhood as your campus… duh. He gave me a good deal, too. Below market rate. I opted for a year’s lease and have already signed. If you don’t want it, I’ll sublease it to another student.”

“But I’m a freshman.” Helena was on her knees, the phone dropping between them. “I’m required to live on campus.”

“I’ve already taken care of it with your housing department. You might be surprised what a generous donation to your campus gets you in return.”

“For me?”

Helena still always had that look of disbelief that insinuated she couldn’t understand why anyone, least of all someone like Delia, would want to spoil and take care of her. It went beyond their sugar baby jokes, of course. Because I love her. Because I want her to be happy with her own space and flourish like the adult she is. Because Delia liked the idea of having a place to crash when she was in town to visit Helena, let alone a bathroom to keep a spare toothbrush instead of setting up shop in a different hotel room every time.

“You’ll have to sign some paperwork to make it all legal, of course,” Delia explained as Helena erupted into squeals of happiness, “since you’ll be the only resident and have to take responsibility for the place’s care, but I think you’ll like it. It’s a corner unit with a balcony. You can invite classmates over for drinks you totally didn’t buy with your fake ID.” Delia grinned as Helena fell atop her. “Just don’t sleep with them.”

“Trust me…” Helena gave Delia a big kiss before picking up the phone again to take a look at the listing. “Nobody I go to school with holds a candle to your pussy-crushing stamina.”

“Where the fuck did you learn language like that?”

Helena flopped back down, the whole bed shaking beneath her. “College. I get the occasional offer.”

“You manage to turn them down!”

“Because I know you’re turning down your offers as well, honey. Crazy how being in a relationship works.”

“Please don’t tell me people are coming on to you with the words ‘pussy crushing.’”

“Why don’t you try it out on me and find out?” Helena tossed the phone onto the floor and rolled on top of Delia. “You have to know by now that I like my sex dirty.”

“You’ve got an XXX mind in a world desperate to be no more than PG-13. Trust me, I’ve noticed.”

“Use it while I’ve got it, right?”

Delia was more than happy to test that out on Helena’s behalf. All the better if she could keep doing it for the years to come.

THE END

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