Chapter 29
TWENTY-NINE
REID
We are tangled in the layers of my duvet, and I’m giving Anni sweet, little kisses around her face.
She closes her eyes, and I softly kiss each one and then kiss the corners of her mouth.
I feel light as air, relishing in this perfect moment of bliss with her.
Her hands fall along my body, and she squeezes my ass.
She giggles, and I nuzzle my nose against the side of her hair while my hands trace up her torso and land on her soft breasts. I gently squeeze and flick them.
She lets out a soft moan against my neck like she did when I was massaging her, increasing the heat between us.
I lean my hips down and grind into her abdomen, and she treats me to another moan, urging me closer.
“More,” she whispers. She kisses my neck and nips at my shoulder as I line my hips with hers.
She swings her legs around my back and arches up to meet me as I enter her in one swoop, both of us buckling in instant pleasure that shoots from my toes to my head.
I close my eyes and rock against her. Her moans turn into gasps as I pick up the pace, and she is digging her nails into my back.
This is a moment I’ve been waiting for years.
We are finally connected. I open my eyes, and I’m sitting naked in a college lecture.
Shit…it was just a dream. I open my eyes now, and I’m drenched in sweat. I definitely did not have sex, but you can’t tell my penis otherwise with the force at which it levitates. I glance at the window before checking the time. The sky looks like a peach smoothie outside.
5:13 am
A little earlier than I prefer, but not the worst. I get up and start running a cold shower to calm down from that dream.
I haven’t had a sex dream since college.
Not a good mentality to start our new friendship.
I don’t know where that will go. We planned to get drinks on Friday with Chloe and Tyler.
I’m hesitant, but I could use a couple more friends here as well.
It sort of feels like I’m living in a daydream. The girl I dated in college moved to the same small town as me, brought me my favorite coffee order, and asked to be my friend again after all these years. When will I wake up and realize she was never there?
Turns out she and Chloe have the same numbers as they did in college.
It took less than a day for Chloe to start a group chat with the three of us.
I decided to leave out Tyler until they meet him.
Then I’m sure he will be added to the mix.
All of this is so sudden it is going to take some time to get used to.
Also going to try to refrain from having sex dreams about her.
I can’t help it. Especially now that I know it was Annika I massaged.
I picture running my hands down her spine and along the soft curves of her hips.
The goosebumps raised as I exposed her skin.
I’m getting hard again just thinking about it, dammit.
She’s always had a spark about her, but there’s something different about her now.
Maybe something bolder or a mystery she’s holding in.
I admire her for just quitting a steady job and pursuing a creative passion instead.
I don’t even know how I would start to do something like that.
I shake my head under the cold water. Friends, we are friends.
I can’t let myself get swept up in her again.
I can’t help it. I think of every moment we’ve ever shared every time I look at her.
It feels like I am flipping through an old journal, getting hit with waves of nostalgia.
It feels both comforting and distant. Like coming home after a long trip.
She feels like a reminder of home. I need to force myself to change this mindset.
If she wants to be friends, I need to remember to take it easy, and if I want her as a friend, I don’t want to chase her away again.
My heart (and my sexual fantasies) need to take a back seat on this one.
I haven’t been on a run in weeks, but this accidental early rising seems like the perfect opportunity to get out, breathe in some fresh air, and clear my head.
Quickly, I realize why I don’t like going on runs in my neighborhood, there are way too many hills, and I never learned my lesson about going slow at the start.
I just start running way too hard, and then it comes to bite me in the ass ten minutes into it.
Probably a metaphor for my love life. I decide to head toward the Main Street since it is relatively flat, and I feel like my heart is going to fall out of my chest after that last hill.
I head past the wellness center and notice a familiar mop of red curls in the distance.
I totally blanked that Carrie gets into the bakery before the town wakes up to start baking.
I’ve thankfully avoided running into her since we broke up.
When was that? A month ago? Two months ago?
I’ve lost track of time, honestly. I ran into Annika only a few days ago, but it feels like it’s been a lifetime.
I need to make a game-time decision to run by and hope she doesn’t notice me, or I can run down the nearest alley in the hope that it’s not trash day.
I’m closing in on her. All right, I’m going to start sprinting as soon as she walks into her bakery.
I slow down and see her grabbing a box from her Subaru parked out front.
She passes the sidewalk, thankfully not noticing the man struggling on his two-mile run, and heads inside.
That’s when I book it. My fear of running into my ex propels my legs into gear as I take off down the sidewalk.
I probably look insane since I was running at a snail’s pace and then picked up to cheetah speed.
Although, I probably look more like a zebra about to be hunted by a cheetah.
I push past and am so close to passing the bakery when a bearded man emerges.
We collide, and my momentum flies me shoulder-first into the sidewalk, skidding to a stop.
I look up at the man I ran into, and he’s angrily gazing down at me.
He dramatically squeezes his shoulder as if I’m not the one with sidewalk burn on my entire left side.
“Hey, dirtch, watch where the fuck you’re going.” The bearded man flips me off and heads inside. He looks so familiar to me for some reason.
The box he’s holding is unscathed from the collision, but he acts like it’s precious cargo.
Did he call me a dirtch? I need to remember to ask Claire at the front desk what that means.
She just graduated high school so is more in the know with the lingo these days.
I manage to peel myself off the sidewalk and start to hobble away.
Except when I hear the jangle of the bakery door flying open again.
“Babe, this is the moron who ran into my fresh figs and made me spill your latte.” Shitshitshit.
Did he say fresh figs? No way she ended up going out with Mr. Fig.
Is it too late to take off sprinting? Honestly, I don’t think I could even try to sprint because my ankles decide to give out, and I trip just as Carrie emerges from the cafe with Mr. Fig behind her, his arms crossed in front of his chest. Carrie wears her signature bitchy scowl on her face.
I always thought it was just her morning face, but maybe this is her default.
“Reid, what the fuck are you doing here? Can’t you just leave me alone?” Whoa, is she serious right now?
“Hey, trust me, I hate this as much as you. I was just going on a run. I didn’t realize the entire Main Street was off-limits. Besides, your meatball man ran into me too. I think my shoulder is dislocated.”
She turns back to me aggressively. “Everything has to be about you, doesn’t it? You can’t think of how your actions affect other people.”
“I don’t know where this is coming from. Have you been sitting on this for a month?”
“It’s been three months, Reid. Wow, you are unbelievable.
I can’t believe I wasted nearly a year on you.
And his name is Griffin. He’s a fig farmer.
” Confirmed, the bearded man is Mr. Fig, after all.
“And at least he wakes up at five with me every morning to help me set up the bakery. At least he drives me up to Eugene to get me the special flour for my scones. At least he makes me come more than once.”
I shake my hands before me, trying to get her to stop her rant. She’s letting everything she’s been stewing on fall out of her mouth. Good thing Missy and poker ladies aren’t around again, they’d spread this like wildfire.
“I don’t want to finish this conversation or talk to you ever again, Carrie, so if there’s anything else you need to get off your chest, go for it, and I’ll make it my life’s mission to avoid you.”
She reaches into the box she is holding and chucks a muffin at me. I duck just in time and avoid taking a bran muffin to the head.
“Hey, what the hell?” I turn to run far away from them just as I see her reaching in to get another muffin to throw at me.
“Fuck you, Reid!” I hear Carrie yell and hear another muffin plop behind me, missing me again.