2. Seth
Two
Seth
I make a mental note to tell Grace to get the maintenance check on her lock because no one should struggle this much to open it. These extra seconds it’s taking me to open her door could be the seconds a creeper needs to hurt her.
I finally open the stupid door and lay all the grocery bags on her kitchen counters. I put the items I’m not using before I take a couple of pots and pans to cook dinner. Grace must be tired from the driving, and she is emotionally exhausted from her family. We exchange messages here and there during the holidays, but the few we exchanged she complains about the incessant talks about marriage and why she doesn’t move back to Clear Spring.
I’m prep the ingredients when I hear the front door opening. There is no way Grace is back. It’s not even close to the time she said she would arrive in Maxwell. I peak my head to check who from her friends is walking in. I only know who she is because of the few photos of her around Grace’s bedroom.
“Who are you, and why are you in my sister’s apartment?” Margaret points at me with the keys Grace made for her the year she started studying at Maxwell College.
I reach for my phone and quickly dial Grace.
Grace barges into her own apartment. I could tell how stressed she is. The wheels of her brain are working overtime even though we already decided what to say.
“Maggie, I don’t have a text from you saying you’ll be here,” Grace says while she looks around, accessing the state of her apartment.
“I was dropping some take out for you to have as soon as you arrived, but instead of finding an empty apartment, I find a man cooking for you. Mind explaining who he is because I don’t think you have enough money to pay for a personal chef.”
I extend my hand to Grace, who is biting her lips. She takes it and intertwines her fingers with mine before stepping closer to me.
“Seth is my boyfriend,” Grace says.
“Your what? When did this happen? Why haven’t you told me? Why doesn’t mom know about this? How long you’ve been hiding this?”
“How about you and your sister sit down in the living room and have your talk while I finish the food?” I ask them. Grace looks at me like a scary puppy. I lean into her ear. “You can use our real timeline. I’ll back up everything you say,” I whisper.
Grace takes a deep breath before letting go of my hand to pull her little sister to the living room couch. I could hear their voices over the sound of the food being cook but I don’t focus on it. If Grace sticks to our friends with benefit timeline, there is no need for me to listen over their conversation.
I take Grace’s luggage into her room as the pasta sauce thickens. When I come back, Grace and Maggie are setting the table. Her little sister gives me a tight lip smile before turning back to setting the cutlery for us.
She waits for a whole three minutes before the dam of questions to me releases.
“Do you know any of my sister’s friends?” Maggie asks.
“I’ve met Soraya and Maia a few times.”
“So they know about you two help you keep it a secret from us.” Maggie points to Grace.
“Maggie, you know our mother. If she knows I have a boyfriend for a year, the conversations about marriage would triple.”
“Why do you hate the topic of marriage so much?”
“Because is unnecessary pressure. It’s a decision between me and whom I’m dating. The more people want me to marry, the less I want to. Right now, work stress is the only pressure I can deal with. I’m happy with Seth just the way we are. Whenever it doesn’t work for one of us, we would have that conversation.”
“I guess I understand. You’ve always been the odd one in the family.”
I grab the dried tomatoes Grace pushes to the side and pop them on my plate. Grace smiles at me and whispers a small thank you.
“At least someone would eat the things you don’t.”
“Oh Maggie, is glorious to be a picky eater and have someone who would eat anything.”
I catch her little sister’s smile that comes after a sigh of relief. We might not be in a real relationship, but if this diffuses any concerns from her family and lowers her anxiety.
“Well, you look happy and your secret is safe with me until you are ready to let the rest of the family in,” Maggie says while reaching out to Grace.
“We should do this more often. I know your sister is busy with school, but I’m sure she would enjoy homemade food,” I say.
“That would be wonderful. It would save my budget so much.”
“Oh God, don’t enable her. She might even move in, and I outgrow the sharing a room. At that point, I would rather give her the apartment and move in with you,” Grace says.
“I wouldn’t mind that.” I lean over and kiss Grace’s cheek.
“Of course you wouldn’t mind that.” Grace pushes me and I chuckle.
The rest of the evening goes well. I peck her lips goodnight and spend another night sleeping alone in my too cold and too big bed.
I pull Grace closer to me. I bite the inside of my cheek at how clingy I’m acting around her. She spends the first weekend of the year with her family and the first weekend she was back in town we were both busy. I closed a new project and she straighten up her place and caught up on some work she couldn’t finish while she was in Clear Springs.
We are halfway through January when we finally can spend a lazy Sunday morning together. I keep ignoring how much my body and my heart miss her. I miss her body, the sound of her voice, and her laughter. I miss her singing in the shower and dancing around the kitchen as I cook and she watches with the occasional tasting of the food or me.
Grace buries further into me, sliding her leg in between mine. I press my lips together, hoping she was deep in sleep enough not to feel it. I feel a smile stretching her lips and I knew she felt it.
“I swear people do not know about your sex drive,” she whispers against my neck.
Her breath sends goosebumps all over my body. “What does that mean?”
“That you don’t have the face of a man who can have sex multiple times a day.”
“I could say the same thing to you.”
Grace pulls her head back and looks at me. “And no one needs to know. I enjoy having a squeaky clean image.”
I smile and tuck a strand of her hair behind her ear. ‘I hope I’m the only one who can see both sides of you’, I think and forbid myself from saying out loud. We have a great arrangement. I don’t need to mess it up with these feelings bubbling up in my heart. I deal with them during the nights I’m back in my apartment alone in my cold bed.
I feel her hand sliding inside of my pajama bottoms before her hand wraps around me. She sets a rhythm that has me moaning in no time. I don’t let that stop my hands from making its way into her panties and enjoy how wet she is. She sucks in a breath when I insert two of my fingers in her and start searching for the bundle of nerves that will drive her crazy.
“Seth,” she moans, her jaw going slack and her hand losses its rhythm.
“Yes?”
“Tell me there is an unopened condom close to you. Please .”
Her please goes straight to my cock and I turn my torso enough to grab a new condom. She throws the blankets to the side and takes the two pieces of clothing she’s wearing. I discard my pajama pants and roll the wrapper on me.
Grace pushes me back into the bed as she straddles me. I watch her, transfixed, as she sits on me, taking in every inch of my dick. I let her bounce up and down for a few minutes before I change the angle.
Now we are closer. I have one arm wrapped around her waist, the other one is holding her head as I kiss her deeply. I sink my heel into my mattress to thrust into her slow and deep. This is the closest I can get to making love to her. Slow morning sex rarely happens between us, but when it does, I relish in it. I take as much as she allows me. Kiss her deep, long and dirty. I keep to positions that would have our bodies press together and looking at each other.
Sometimes I think she might have been harboring the same feelings I have because she stares into my eyes, into my soul for the entire time until pleasure is too much that she has to close her eyes and throw her head back in ecstasy.
I don’t stop thrusting into her and kissing each inch of her body in front of me until she is trembling from her orgasm. I follow her a minute later, shooting my come into the wrapper. We try to catch our breath when her phone rings. I’ve been around Grace long enough to recognize the ring tone.
I pass the phone to Grace. She takes a deep breath before answering the call.
“Bestie, how are you?”
I catch a drop of her sweat before it lands in her eye, and she smiles at me.
“Wait, Soraya, why are you crying?” Grace’s face turns serious.
“HE DID WHAT? That asshole. Give me twenty minutes for a quick shower and get dressed. I’ll be at your place in a jiffy with breakfast and ice cream. Yes, I’ll bring rum too.”
Grace ends the call and tosses her phone to the other side of the bed before getting off of me. I take care of the dirty condom as she moves around her room naked.
“Is Soraya okay?” I ask.
“Her fiancé broke up with her. He cheated, and he is marrying the other woman.”
“Are you serious?”
“Dead serious. She caught them. Seth, their wedding was like in six months.”
“Calling an asshole was nice of you,” I say.
“It was that or asking you to commit murder.” I hear her say over the sound of the shower.
I chuckle as I search for her beige duffel bag. It is better if she has the bag ready in her car instead of having to come here to make an overnight bag. If she needs it, she will have it already, and if she doesn’t need it, then there’s no harm. I pull most of her comfort clothes, the ones I know she likes, and she uses often around the apartment.
“What are you doing?” She asks, a towel wrapped around her wet body.
I have to take a deep breath to control myself. Grace’s focus is to comfort her best friend, whose five year long relationship ended in such a nasty way. I can take care of myself after she is gone, and I can fantasize about her wet, naked body.
“Making you a bag. You don’t know in what state you’ll find her. You might want to stay with her for the night. Safe yourself the drive back.”
“You are one smart cookie, Seth,” Grace says after pecking my lips.
She pauses and before she overthinks her actions; I chuckle and finish packing her bag. She turns and dresses behind me. I walk Grace to her living room before I hand her the overnight bag. “Give Soraya a big hug from me. She is a wonderful woman and deserves so much better. I’m gonna take a quick shower before I go back to my apartment.”
Grace tilts her head; her lips press into a thin line. “I’ll let her know. See ya later.”
I feel the sudden awkward air between us. I want to kiss her goodbye, but now I’m not sure I should. I nod and watch her walk out of her apartment.
I take a quick shower, leaving the fantasy about her wet body for another time and in the safety of my bathroom. Once in my place, I try to distract my brain from overthinking the sudden awkwardness just before she left.