Page 76 of True Sight
The afternoon turnedinto evening without me hardly noticing. This is what happens when I get deep into a new project—my mind blocks out everything else around me and the world falls away. This is a major reason I preferred to work at home because at home, it didn’t matter that I didn’t talk or move or even remember to eat. At home, I was left alone to my own devices to work in whatever way I wanted to work. But today was different because today I was working from home with Henry.
After he got back from running with Annie, he hopped in the shower to clean up and came out of my bedroom without a lick of clothes on. My hands flew to cover my eyes at the shock of it all and he teased me relentlessly for it. After demanding he go and put on some clothes—no matterhow much I didn’t really want him to—he came out wearingmyclothes which were several sizes too small and stretched sinfully over his well defined muscles. Every hour on the hour, he’d come by my desk and touch me in some way. A kiss on the shoulder, a flit of his fingers across my back, a hug from behind. And each time he’d pull me out of my focus and fill me up with a little more of his energy which would push me through to the next hour. I’m well into another new hour of work when his voice cuts through the quiet apartment.
“Conrad, mate.” I turn to look at him. He’s sitting with his feet up on the couch, a strong arm draped across the back of it with his laptop in his hand.
“Yeah, sweets?”
“Are you getting hungry at all?”
“Uhh, not really. Why would I be getting hungry?”
“Because it’s nearly seven,” he points out before looking towards the window. I follow his gaze and notice that, sure enough, the sun has gone down for the day.
“Oh shit, I’m sorry, the day completely got away from me. Here let me just do one more thing and I’ll?—”
“No it’s okay. I’ll start dinner while you finish your work.” Closing his laptop he stands and sets it down on the coffee table. Then, he takes a few steps and comes to meet me at my desk, draping his arms around my shoulders and murmuring into my ear. “You know, it’s kinda sexy to sit and watch you work.”
I scoff at his statement and shake my head. “No it is not. I’m notsexywhile I work.”
“No, you are. Definitely sexy. The last thirty minutes I just sat on the couch and watched as you did your thing. Did you know you twirl your hair when you’re really focused?”
I press my lips together. I can’t believe he noticed that. I tilt my head back and kiss him on the cheek before he shows me how much that isn’t enough for him and kisses me on the lips. After another squeeze he stands and moves towards the kitchen. I listen as he mulls around, opening the pantry and then the fridge. My fingers are moving across my keyboard, only interrupted by the sporadic click of a mouse. I feel bad for spending all day getting lost in the project but I also know that if I get the majority of it done today and tomorrow, I’ll have all of Thursday and Friday to work on his project. We’re in the last six weeks before opening day and there’s still a lot to get done.
“This kitchen is abysmal, what do you eat during the day?” His voice sounds through the apartment with so much disgust you would have thought something far more foul had happened than me not having any groceries.
“I usually eat out, honestly. Especially when I’ve been too busy to go to the store. Work has been insane lately.” My eyes don’t leave my computer screen as I talk.
“Well this is absolutely outrageous. You must have groceries in your home, Conrad. Eating out all the time isn’t very healthy, not to mention extremely expensive.”
“I hate cooking,” I state flatly. “It takes too long, finding recipes is annoying, and then I’m the one who has to clean up the mess since I’m the only one who lives here.”
The sound of his feet moving across the floor makes my ears perk up. “Let’s go.”
His voice is behind me now and he already has his shoes and jacket on.
“Go where?”
“To go to the shop, dummy. You need a proper feeding and we certainly can’t make that happen with what’s in yourkitchen already. Let’s go.” He bends over and grabs my hand, pulling me out of my seat.
“I don’t know, I think you could feed me in other ways if you wanted to,” I tease, reaching to pinch his ass. He turns around and scowls.
“Very cheeky, mate, but not now. Later, after a proper meal and a quick shop. Come, come, it’s already late.”
I groan as he stands by my front door and waits for me to put my shoes on. After I pull on my own jacket to stave off the chilly November evening, he takes a step closer to me and kisses me hard.
“After dinner though, I’d be happy to provide dessert, free of charge.” Then he gives me his classic Henry wink and I feel myself getting hard all over again.
An hourlater we’re back home after the single most excruciating trip to the grocery store I’ve ever been on. A trip to the grocery store is just that: a trip. Not a vacation, not an extended stay.
Not the way Henry does it.
Everything that caught his eye needed to be carefully inspected for ingredients, nutritional information, and to ‘ooh’ and ‘ahh’ at the ‘cute packaging.’ On more than one account he would stop and stare at the shelves for at least a minute before picking up three versions of the same thing. After carefully inspecting each one, he would pick his favorite and pop it into the basket after making what seemed to be a potentially life altering decision. No amount of huffing and puffing on my end seemed to speed him up either and part of me thought he actually liked getting me all riled up. We walked up and down the aisles together, sideby side and passed knowing glances between us. I tried to make it look like we were nothing more than friends but at one point he bumped my shoulder as I watched him pick out canned tomatoes and I couldn’t stop myself from reaching for his hand. We shared a smile, and he gave me a wink, before we dropped our hold on one another. My heart was grateful that he understood that I wasn’t ready to be an ‘us’ yet—at least not publicly.
It’s not that I’m embarrassed of him or even worried what other people will think about us. Fuck what other people think, I only care about what he thinks and what my friends think because they’re the only ones that matter to me anyway. And Annie, but I don’t think she cares about what I do with my personal time as long as I feed her twice a day, take her on a walk, and let her sleep in bed with me. My not wanting to tell other people about us has nothing to do with what they might say, and more about the fact that once people know, there’s no going back. Everything will change and I’m not ready for that change. I like my life, my friends, my job, as it is. Once people know that I’m…what I’m…all of that will change. If he’s okay with keeping things between us for a while, then so am I.
“Can you get me the tin opener?” he asks, tapping his index finger on top of the can of tomatoes we bought. I chuckle at his name for the ‘can opener’ and add it to the mental running list I have of ‘Henry Terms.’ His English accent is sexy enough on its own but the use of quirky English versions of my normal, boring American words add a layer of cuteness to him.
“Here’s thecanopener you asked for.” I pull the tool out of a drawer next to the oven and hand it to him. When he grabs it, I don’t let go and use the joint connection we have to pull him into a kiss.
