Page 7 of Experiments in Love
Our bar neighbor laughed. “I’m thoroughly enjoying the interesting bits and all the teasing he’s done about the scene he wants to explore.”
“Thank you.” He was so sweet…and polite for making sure I knew he was still excited about our plans. “I’m glad I don’t have to worry about surprising you. Entirely too many people ask what you’ve been thinking about but don’t actually want to know.”
“Me. I’m too many people.” Francis groaned again. “Okay, I’m peopled out already. I don’t even want to be around me at this point. If I go home, are you going to be okay?”
“Yes.”
Our neighbor looked concerned, though.
“Don’t worry. He lasted longer than I thought he would and he’s actually talked this time. His level of peopling is getting better. We actually left his apartment.” It was impressive. “And he talked to you a lot.”
Neighbor Man nodded. “I’m proud of him then. It sounds like he’s getting out of his comfort zone and doing interesting things. It’s also good that he knows his limits.”
“Interesting things. Yes, anything involving Kennedy is always interesting.” Francis managed to straighten and pushed his beer over toward me. “Here. Thank you for my drink. Thankyou for keeping me entertained and reminding me why I go out so rarely.”
“See you for pizza night.”
Oh.
I turned back to Neighbor Guy. “I’m Kennedy. We only do pizza night once a week because it’s a low interaction activity. We watch movies and he ignores me while I talk to the TV. But I’m not eating junk food every night.”
Neighbor Guy smiled wider but turned to talk to Francis as he started to leave. “I’m Anson. I was supposed to meet a friend, but he had to cancel unexpectedly. I’ve been coming here on and off for years. I know the owner. He can vouch for me if you’re worried.”
Francis shook his head as he waved. “No. You haven’t yelled at Kennedy yet and you’re still smiling. You’re safer than his last five dates at the very least.”
Probably.
“Have fun at home. Do something relaxing to recharge.” I didn’t think I was exhausting, but he said I drained his battery when we went out in public. “Thank you for coming to hang out with me. I liked the movie.”
Giving me a smile, Francis waved at me too. “Me too. I’ll see you Wednesday.”
“Does this mean you’re mine for the rest of the evening?” Anson raised one eyebrow but smiled when I nodded. “Come here then. You’re entirely too far away.”
Yay.
That meant touching.
Maybe if I wasn’t too annoying, he’d cuddle me?
Fingers crossed because he looked like a good cuddler.
Chapter 3
Anson
I wasn’t sure how I’d happened to have such mischievous perfection dropped in my lap, but I wasn’t going to question fate.
Especially when it pushed the smiling cutie to plop himself down next to me. “Hi.”
“Hello.” He was going to be distracting if I wasn’t careful. “I have a few questions to get out of the way before we get back to talking about your fantasies. Is that okay?”
“Yes.” His eyes lit up. “Oh, that’s a limit, isn’t it? I could say no. I mean a color or fruit or something. I won’t. But I could have.”
“That’s correct. It’s a limit and you could’ve said no or safeworded for a variety of reasons and that would’ve been okay. I want you to be honest about your limits, but if you weren’t comfortable answering my questions, we’d have slowed down the evening.” He was blinking at me. “Does that make sense? It wouldn’t have been a punishment, but we can’t do a scene and I’m not going to touch you until I can ask questions to figure out your limits.”
When his eyes went wide, I could almost see a light bulb going off over his head like we were in a cartoon…hopefully a dirty one.
“Yes. Like the yellow color in the stoplight system. If I couldn’t answer your questions, it would be like telling you we needed to slow down and pause. In this case, pausing would mean no touching and no shenanigans.” He frowned. “I want shenanigans and touching, please, so I will answer questions.”
