Tommy (SDO):Shits a mess here. You should be glad you didn’t stick around.
My eyebrow rose with curiosity.A shitshow was always interesting but Tommy had grown pretty tired of SDO’s means of operating in the last few months. Even when I was working there, I wondered how much longer she’d put up with being someone’s employee.
I typed out a quick response:
Haha,drinks soon? I want gossip.
The familiarwhooshtold me it sent as I went back to my closet. For some reason, the message made my heart race, anxiety bubbling in my chest as I thought about what could be going on in my old office.
Shaking it off, I walked out to the living room where the lease renewal sat on the coffee table. There had to be something I could do to help Sy. She’d been running all over town looking for a new place to live and shopping for roommates.
I let out a sigh as I washed my coffee cup in the sink. As I did, Sy’s keys turned in the door and the silence of the apartment was broken by the clatter of her arrival.
“Hey,” I shouted over the running water.
Out of breath, Sy threw down her bags of groceries by the fridge. “Hiya. How are you?”
A shrug was all I could muster. “Fine, nothing interesting.”
“I doubt that.” Sy offered a gentle smile as she crashed onto the couch.
It took too much willpower to keep my eyes to myself, her sweaty thighs straining against her jeans.
Despite our best efforts, it had been far harder to move past the incredible sex we’d had than either of us had hoped. There was still a tension in the air, like if one of us caved the other would be right behind them.
But there was no way this would end well… right?
I set my mug on the drying rack and wiped my hands with the hand towel before joining her on the opposite side of the couch. It was a small sofa so getting any distance was near impossible.
Cramming myself into the corner, I crossed my legs. “How was your shift?”
Sy sunk deeper into the couch, closing the distance between us as she melted. “Ugh, fine. That weird dude came in again and talked to me for like forty minutes. But otherwise, it was fine.”
Watching her, my body eased. Only a few inches away now, I could feel the hairs on my legs standing up like my whole body was reaching for Sy.
Before I could stop myself, I shrugged. “I could come by and pretend to be your girlfriend if that helps.”
I would’ve said that exact thing a few months ago and Sy would have laughed, we would have scoffed at the idea that we could ever date. But now it felt like a real offer, like a real possibility.
I knew how it felt to kiss her, how it felt to hold her in my arms. I hadn’t gone to acting school but I knew it wouldn’t be hard to sell that role.
Rubbing the back of her neck, Sy giggled and bit her lip. “Honestly, he’d probably be a creep about that too.” Sy looked up at me, her jaw tensing as the thought set in.
My hand drifted down to the couch, resting inches from Sy’s legs. It was way too easy for my brain to picture slipping the denim off of them.
Shaking my head, I sat upright. “Do you want to go to Metro for Pride karaoke tonight? I know it’s last minute.”
But Sy didn’t miss a beat, leaping off the couch and heading to her room. “Definitely, let me get changed.”
We could have gone to Winnie’s but the longer train ride out to Brooklyn felt safer, it would be harder to stumble home and get in bed together again.
I disappeared into my own room, throwing on a pair of gray, distressed jeans and an off-the-shoulder tee. Throwing my hair up into a ponytail, I headed back into the living room where Sy was already throwing on shoes.
The less time we were alone in this apartment, the better.
“Ready?” I asked as I slipped my feet into my sneakers.
Sy nodded and threw open the door, “yep.”