Chapter 22 #2
I snorted, “Yes,” then I felt his lips brush the back of my neck, and his hand teasing the tip of my hard dick that I was springing. I groaned, “Jimmy, that might be hard, but I have to pee so bad and you are squeezing my bladder.”
That made him loosen his hold a little with a guilty, “sorry.” And another kiss on the back of my head, for it to get lost in the dark void of my hair.
I slid out of his hold, missing his warmth and embrace instantly.
With my back to Jimmy, I adjusted my dick, so it didn’t look so obscene trying to escape its confinement.
After I peed and brushed my teeth, I went back to the bedroom, but it was empty.
Then I heard a bang from downstairs of metal hitting a hard surface.
I bolted down the stairs at a speed that made it seem I simply levitated over them.
In the kitchen, Jimmy was standing in front of the stove, looking down at the pan he dropped on the floor, hands on hips.
I took a relieved breath, snapping a smile and giggled when he looked up at me, his lips pursed. “You were trying to figure out how to pick that up, weren’t you,” full on teasing him, but also grateful he didn’t attempt it. “Shouldn’t you be in bed?” I raised my brows at him.
“I can’t lie there anymore. I need to do something. Something easy. While on my feet. Like cook you breakfast, instead of the other way around,” he looked back down at the pan on the floor, and exhaled in disappointment like he lost a game.
“Here,” picking up the pan and handing it to him. “Just please don’t overdo it, yeah?” I leaned up on my toes and tapped his lips with mine, and whispered teasingly, “I’m not in the mood to clean up blood today if you tear yourself open.”
“Yes, sir,” rolling his eyes and turning back to the stove. He made us over-easy eggs on toast and a couple of thick slices of bacon from the slab that was left for us. He seasoned the egg with a little pepper and added brown sugar to the bacon that he dug out from the very back of a cabinet.
It was simple but delicious. The pepper aftertaste mixed with the sweetness of the bacon made my tastebuds feel overstimulated. “Why did you have brown sugar,” I asked, seeming like that was an odd thing for him to have on hand.
He shook his head and laughed with no sound, just air came out before saying, “I attempted to make chocolate chip cookies once for a gathering I was invited to attend. Let’s just say, they weren’t exactly edible. They never saw the light of day outside this room.”
That had me giggling with my mouth full of food, “I wish I could have witnessed that. I am picturing you in an apron, flour everywhere, chips scattered, cookies burnt like the charcoal we dig for,” fully laughing now at the picture I created.
“Hey, they weren’t burnt like charcoal. They just…,” he sucked in his lips, the tip of his tongue sticking out a bit, trying to hold himself together. “They all melted together into one giant sheet in a rubbery consistency that I could have used as a door mat to wipe my feet on.”
I burst out laughing. I’m sure the neighbors heard me who shared his wall. It was the greatest thing I’ve heard in a long time. He just rolled his eyes, but chuckled, like it was nothing new.
After we were done eating, and while I cleaned, he asked, “Would you like to go to the library today?” I spun around so fast in surprise by the idea, I flung soap bubbles and water across the room.
“Is that okay? How is your back? Where is it located?” I was being cautious. I didn’t know where the library was or if he should leave the house and be standing or walking for that period of time.
“Which question do you want me to answer first?”
The smartass, I squinted my eyes at him and flung more bubbles his way before turning back around to finish my task. Clearly, if Jimmy wanted to go to the library on his own accord, he was feeling up to it.
When I was done, the clock read eleven in the morning, which had to be the latest I had ever slept in till, unless I was sick.
We safely got up the stairs, Jimmy more nimble now than he was the last couple of days.
We got ready together, including changing out his bandage for a fresh one.
He looked like he was healing nicely, with very little residue leaking from the wound and that redness the doctor said he had was gone.
Before leaving, he pulled out three books from the spare room from one of the stacks, which he said he needed to return. I took them from him, so he didn’t have to carry any weight. Even though it didn’t seem like much, I didn’t want him to strain his back if he didn’t need to.
I found out it wasn’t very far, just two streets over from the mine. And since it was already late morning, the men that work the day shift were already underground. But we passed the occasional group of women, the random couple, some with their kids, out running errands or heading to the park.
Apparently, everyone knew about what happened, now that Richard was fired from the mine and taken in by the police in a very public manner.
One lovely looking lady even heard that because Richard no longer works for the mine and they lived in the Village, the company is evicting them, giving them two weeks to vacate the property.
Yikes.
All the attention from everyone had made me tense up, fear making my blood chill.
But what surprised me more than anything though, was that no one seemed to look twice at us, walking together.
With what David said about Richard screaming that he saw us together, I figured someone would say something rude or sneer at us.
But it never happened. Maybe it was a visual thing. Out of sight, out of mind?
I was craving Jimmy’s touch. I felt like I needed to hold his hand to ground me or something.
Jimmy must have felt it, because at one point he put his hand on my shoulder, acting like he was using me as a crutch.
But he was calming me without revealing anything.
We ended up walking the long length of Virginia Avenue until it started to curve.
We turned up Kearsarge Street at that point, which took us right to the library.
As we passed over E. Sycamore Street, I looked to the left and saw how close to the mine we were, the office in sight.
At the end of the road where it connects to High Street, the highest point of the mountain a person could be at, was the library. Standing outside the building, all the tension left in my body that Jimmy couldn’t calm evaporated completely.
Walking through the old doors, we entered the vestibule and I immediately knew I was entering a sacred space just from the smell of paper, ink, and wood.
Opening the next set of doors, we arrived in the center of a space that was like being surrounded by multiple time capsules.
Each area of the library was sectioned off by walls and windows, giving the reader a sense of containment and privacy while roaming through all the rooms. Spinning around while being surrounded by the enclosures with their walls and wooded shelves of books that would take me at least five different lifetimes to enjoy, I was in total wonderment.
It took Jimmy to guide me to the right by my shoulder to the desk to snap me out of the trance. No one was behind the desk, so Jimmy dinged the little bell that reverberated through the building, triggering a voice to be heard from one of the many closed off spaces and shelves, “Be right there!”
Jimmy’s mouth broke with his authentic smile that he didn’t show often. I think he needed this just for his healing process alone. I did notice him touching his back on the way here occasionally, but nothing to concern me too much since his face stayed neutral.
Out popped this woman with hourglass curves from around a shelf in the far room.
Beautiful brown shiny hair curled up and pinned in a half-back, half-down do.
She wore glasses, which as she arrived, pushed up her nose with a thumb.
She was dressed in a short sleeved off-white blouse tucked tightly into a forest green pleated skirt with a built-in clasp at the waist. She had the air of the utmost professionalism.
Until she saw Jimmy.