Page 68 of Green
“Aren’t we lucky things are the way they are, then?”
“Shut up and kiss me.”
“I thought you’d never ask.”
And there we were, kissing each other for real, in fake New York City.
While my hands were feverishly exploring his back and butt, he was ever so slowly undoing the buttons on my blouse. He traced his fingertip along the top of the bustier, kissed my neck, my collar bone, my breastbone, and then the mounds of flesh that were protruding from the top of my dress. So slowly, with such control. There was so much tension between my legs, it felt like he was pinching me down there, but his hands were cupping my breasts.
You think you know a guy and then he looks at you with lusty eyes and bites his bottom lip and suddenly he’s a sexy mysterious stranger in a dark stairwell who’s introducing you to a side of yourself that you didn’t know you had.
Apparently, tonight I was meeting the side of myself that was a drunk shameless hussy who had completely forgotten that she told this guy he’d have to work for it.
“You know what I think?” I said. Or maybe I slurred it. My tongue felt loosey-goosey, but maybe it was not as bad as it felt. “I think…that…this dress…would look good…on…your…bedroom…floor.”
I felt the warm air on my skin as he laughed while kissing my neck. It took me a moment to realize that he was now slowly buttoning my blouse back up.
“I’ll let you tie your blouse the way you like it,” he said, as he pulled away from me and straightened himself out. “We should go.”
“Are you taking me home?”
“Which home would you be referring to?”
“Yours. Ours. Yours. Take me back to your place and screw me.”
He shook his head. “You are wasted.”
“I’m being wasted on you tonight, apparently.” I snort-laughed and high-fived myself, because that’s what sexy classy sober ladies do on dates. We snort-laugh and high-five ourselves.
Apparently, we also get very angry and quiet when we realize that our dates are not taking them back to their place for end-of-date sexy classy screwing. Once I realized that Theo had been driving on the 10 freeway and was slowing down to exit for Chloe and Ethan’s place, which was in the opposite direction of his place, my whole body stiffened and I was convinced that seeing Carly had changed his mind about me. It made perfect sense.
I didn’t say anything when he went through the McDonalds drive-through and asked what I wanted to order, because I was so hangry and I needed to eat something so I wouldn’t have another hangover. He got me two cheeseburgers and large fries, which is exactly what I wanted, but I didn’t thank him becausefuck himif he wasn’t going to bang me.
After snatching the greasy paper bag of food from him, I did what I’d wanted to do ever since seeing him with Carly. I remembered that his ringtone for her wasLet’s Get It On. He didn’t have ringtones for everyone, and didn’t have one for me as far as I knew. I pulled out my phone.
“Who are you calling?”
When I heard the upbeat jazzy intro, I recognized it immediately. He looked around, and realized that I had called his phone. He said nothing. He looked a little embarrassed. I ended the call, because I knew all I needed to know right then. It was Harry Connick Jr.’s version ofI Could Write a BookfromWhen Harry Met Sally. “And the world discovers as my book ends, how to make two lovers of friends.” What a cheesy dork. It wasn’t a sexy song, but I had no doubt that it was personalized exclusively for me.
When he parked at the curb in front of Chloe and Ethan’s building, he said: “Hang on, I’ll get the door for you.”
When he opened the door and helped me out of the passenger seat, he pulled me into him, kissing me on the cheek, then gestured towards the building. “Door to door service.”
“Well. Thank you for the lovely evening,” I said.
He grinned and grabbed me by the waist. He licked his lips and pulled me closer with one hand, with the other he tilted my chin up. “Good night, Gemma,” he said, as he lowered his mouth down to mine, so slowly that I swear I could feel each second ticking through my entire body, but when his lips touched mine, everything slowed down even more. With one hand on the small of my back and the other gently running fingers through my hair, he had me gripping his arms so I wouldn’t lose my balance with my eyes closed.
When I caught my breath, I whispered: “Are you sure you don’t want to go back to your place?”
“This is what you wanted,” he said in my ear. “You wanted to live apart from me so I could pick you up and drop you off, so I could work for it, remember?”
“I know, but—”
“You are not going to be intoxicated the first time we have sex, Gemma Kelly. You’re going to be high onmeand you’re going to remember every single second I spend on your body making you gasp and moan and come like you’ve never come before.”
Well, when you put it that way…
I kissed him on the cheek, went inside, shut the door and tiptoed through the quiet apartment, holding my breath and covering my mouth with both hands, because I was one inhale away from belting out my favorite Harry Connick Jr. song.
