Page 48 of True Sight
“I mean, I have friends, but not a whole football team like you do. I have Ellie, who’s my best friend from London. She stumbled into my life a few years back and never left.”
“Ha, I have one of those too,” he barks. When I study him for a moment he continues. “Her name is Margaret.She’s actually best friends with Magnolia but we’ve become close. She’s a story for another time, continue.” He takes another bite of food and waits for me to speak.
“So there’s Ellie, like I mentioned, and then there’s Alex?—”
“She teaches at the studio,” he says, finishing my sentence for me.
“That’s right,” my voice perks up, a little shocked that he remembers.
“I look at your teaching schedules, I know who she is.”
“Are you keeping tabs on me, love?” I say jokingly.
“What if I am?” His eyes flick to me as the corner of his mouth tips up. There’s a growing heat in my belly that if I don’t get control of will grow wildly out of control. Our eyes are glued to one another, the glow of the candles warming the brown of his irises even more than they normally look. I’m trying to find a way to respond when the largest boom of thunder followed by a deafening crack of lightning explodes outside. I nearly jump into his lap out of fear, the surprise of the storm outside shaking me to my core.
“Shh, you’re okay, it’s just the storm. You’re safe, I’m here.” He has an arm around me and is shushing me, trying to calm my racing heart rate. Whether it is the storm or the way his arm feels around me that is causing the near fatal beats per minute I can’t tell.
“Why don’t we watch a movie or something? To distract from the storm?” he offers, tucking his chin down to speak to me. I haven’t let go of him yet and I’m silently hoping I’ll never have to.
“I don’t know how we would do that seeing as how we have no power and no Wi-Fi,” I remind him.
“Ahh, but sweets, you’re with me which means I have away around that. Go and grab your computer. We’ll watch right here.”
I do what he says and grab my laptop, thankful I had left it plugged in all day. When I come back, he pats the spot next to him on the couch, so I lower myself down and curl myself in next to him. He takes my computer from me after I log in and connects it to his phone’s hotspot, allowing the machine to stream off his phone’s signal instead of Wi-Fi. Then, he logs into Netflix and hands the laptop back to me.
“Alright, you pick out the movie. I picked last time, so now it’s your turn,” he directs, nodding towards the laptop before draping an arm on the back of the couch behind me.Breathe, just breathe.I scroll through the options and pick out an old eighties movie I’ve never seen but looks fine enough. I hand him the laptop to hold, lean over, and pull the blanket over our laps, trapping us both underneath it. When he doesn’t pull away, I lean in and settle myself against his arm as he sets the laptop down between us and hits play.
The last thing I remember before falling asleep is the sound of an old laugh track and how he smells of aftershave and Old Spice.
21
CONRAD
My eyes blink open and squint at the bright lights that are shining around me. Looking around, I can tell that the power has come back on but the storm is still here. Heavy rain is falling outside and the trees are still swaying in the wind. But we have power again, which is a good sign. I don’t even remember falling asleep last night, just the fact that Henry did before me. Not wanting his apartment to burn down, I had gotten up and blown out all the candles before carefully lowering myself back down next to him on the couch. I should have woken him up and told him to go get into bed. I should have gone home and slept at my own place. But looking at him last night and the way he looked so peaceful as he slept, I couldn’t do either of those things. I didn’t want to do either of those things. I didn’t know why I didn’t want to but I knew the last thing I wanted to do was to be away from him. So instead, I carefully lifted the blanket, fit myself back into my seat, and let his head rest on my shoulder before falling asleep myself.
The more I wake up, the more I realize at some point lastnight we both shifted and are now lying horizontal on the couch. I’m laying with my head resting against the arm and he’s halfway on top of me, spooning me with his head on my chest. I can feel he’s still asleep, the rise and fall of his chest against mine tells me as much. One of his hands has fallen off the edge of the couch so I grab it in mine and lift it back so it is tucked at our sides. Annie is asleep on the floor next to us, curled up in a ball with her head tucked into her legs. Without much thought, my free hand comes to his hair and starts to curl a piece of it in a circle. This is something I do to myself when I’m deep in thought, but it’s the first time I’ve done it to someone else. I watch my fingers twirl his hair and can feel myself starting to drift back asleep. For once, my heart isn’t panicking and it doesn’t feel like it’s sprinting behind my chest. For once, I feel totally at peace. My eyes grow heavier as I spin his hair between my fingers until the sound of his voice startles me awake again.
“That’s lovely.” His groggy morning voice vibrates against my chest, causing a shockwave of energy to shoot through my entire body. The feeling of a distinct hardening in my lower half makes me wish more than anything that he would get off of me.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you up.” I snap my hand away from his head and look uncomfortably towards the ceiling.
“That’s alright, it was a nice way to be woken up.” He opens his eyes and glances at me with a sleepy smile before a look of realization passes over his face. Part of me thinks he’s going to say something about the current arrangement of our bodies, but he doesn’t. “We have power again.”
“We do,” I agree. “Must have come back on sometime last night.” I keep my words short and am trying my best to not think about anything that will cause the growing situationin my pants to get worse. But the way he’s laying on me and the sound of his voice is making that difficult.He’s just a friend, he’s nothing more than a friend,I repeat in my head.
He turns his head so he’s looking up at me from my chest. “Let me make you breakfast, as a thanks for last night.”
“Okay.” I swallow hard and clear my throat that’s suddenly very dry.
“Are you okay?” There’s a slyness to his voice that makes me think he can feel what I’m hoping he can’t.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I quip and force a smile. “My leg is just falling asleep is all.”
“Oh, sorry, let me move then.” He pushes himself up but as he does, his hips press into mine and I know he feels what I feel. I keep my eyes glued on the ceiling but can see him glance up at me with a shy smile. The awkwardness of the situation is almost unbearable.
“I’m gonna go use the bathroom,” I say quickly as I roll myself up from the couch and dart for any ounce of privacy I can get.
“You do that…” His voice lingers at the end before he moves for the kitchen.
