Chapter 14 Late Night Tip
Late Night Tip
Jamie
Eve Ambroise: I’m on my way over. Please tell me you cooked something.
Jamie Gallagher: I didn’t. But I do have plenty to eat.
Eve Ambroise: Ew. Don’t be crass.
Jamie Gallagher: Lol I wasn’t. Weirdo. Picked up some BBQ from Preacher’s.
Eve Ambroise: Oop. Leaving rn.
Jamie Gallagher: Keep an eye out for bears.
Eve Ambroise: …
“Evie…”
With Eve’s tongue rendering Jamie speechless, his unfinished thought hung in the air, as his mouth had been agape for the last ten minutes.
He squeezed the fistful of her ponytail he’d been clutching as she licked him like a lollipop.
He tried to watch, but in the haze of his euphoria, his eyes wouldn’t even stay open.
“Shit,” he whispered.
With her hand wrapped around his length, Eve continued to pump him gently as her mouth worked the tip.
She alternated between long, delicate kisses that made his breath hitch, and flicking her tongue against him, making his entire body quiver.
She seemed unhurried in her mission to torture him, surely getting her own pleasure from watching him twitch beneath her, listening to her name repeatedly fall from his lips in a dazed mumble.
It had only been a few weeks of the two of them doing this weird little dance, but he knew that much about her.
In fact, Jamie had learned a lot about Eve through their semi-sexual relationship. Or not-quite relationship. A situation? Situationship.
She liked to kiss. It was unexpected for someone so guarded. But then, so was all of this. Her kisses were hungry, like she was looking for something, and Jamie hopelessly wanted to be the thing that she found.
She needed to be in control, but she was trying to let go. Figuring out how to be free. And he wanted that for her, too.
She hated being cold.
She wasn’t exactly comfortable being naked, and it was a shame, because her body was exquisite.
He marveled at it all that first night: from the majesty of her muscles to the elegance of her long fingers and the roundness of her backside.
He fantasized about drinking from the curve of her back and then feasting on her pussy for dessert.
Eve was an enigma that he delighted in trying to unravel. He told her she was a puzzle, and he meant it, beguiled by how much she confounded him. And while he still didn’t have all the pieces, he was definitely starting to see a clearer picture.
“Let me know when,” Eve said. He’d also learned that she didn’t quite like surprises.
“ When ,” Jamie blurted, and it was immediately followed by a gruff and unceremonious grunt to signal his release. His hips reflexively bucked upward as his thighs went numb, but she didn’t stop sucking and stroking until he was empty.
She was gentle but efficient, and once certain he was done, she massaged him back into his boxers, leaving him only semi-erect. She pulled her shirt back into place and sat up on her knees to gaze upon her work: He was frozen in place, a sated smile dangling from his lips.
“God,” Jamie said in one growly breath, lacking any other coherent thoughts as he lay there senseless from the waist down. Eve seemed to approach this whole thing like a series of to-do boxes that needed to be checked, but he supposed that was part of her charm.
Eve simpered, clearly satisfied with herself. “It was good?” she asked. She crawled up to her side of the bed, falling into the spot beside him.
“I’m convinced this is some elaborate ploy to kill me.”
Eve nodded as she wiped her mouth. “It’s not,” she said, “but I appreciate the confidence boost.”
Jamie turned onto his side and adjusted his pillow to see Eve’s face.
“Can I return the favor yet?” He asked the question already figuring the answer, as it had been the same for more than two weeks now.
Still, he reached out to her waist, his fingers playing with the elastic lining of her panties, just waiting for permission to pull them off.
“No.” She denied him with a smile and used her index finger to push his face back in the other direction. “You better go get yourself some ice cream if you want something to eat.”
He laughed as he rolled back to his side of the bed; he enjoyed her playfulness and the fact that he’d gotten to see a lot more of it lately. It was how he learned that she had a tiny dimple in her right cheek when she let her giggle loose.
“All right,” Jamie said, “but you know I won’t be here during the week anymore, so this’ll be your last chance for a while.”
Eve sighed, and he detected a flash of disappointment somewhere in it. “I’m aware,” she said. “I’ll be busy writing, and not at all thinking about you. So don’t worry.”
As she spoke, she repositioned sideways across the bed, using Jamie’s torso as her headrest. The week before, she’d mentioned that she liked feeling the warmth of his body against the back of her neck.
And that she didn’t usually sleep well, but she did next to him.
She’d become comfortable with him, the effortlessness of their first few interactions swelling into familiarity already.
He wondered what she would do now that he’d be gone more often than not.
“I wasn’t worried,” Jamie said once she got settled. “Just thought you’d like to know.”
“Mm.” Clearly checked out of the conversation, Eve pointed to his nightstand, a cue to hand over her book.
She’d taken him up on his offer to read about the Islamic State, a decidedly strange thing to pick up every night after something like sex, but it had become part of their routine.
He’d be there beside her, reading whatever she’d picked out for him: He was currently deep into Kiese Laymon’s most recent novel; before that, a collection of Nikki Giovanni’s poems. Then they’d fall asleep, usually him before her, but not always.
“I’m gonna try to finish tonight,” Jamie said. “I’ve got just two chapters left.”
“You’re gonna fall asleep,” Eve said knowingly. She’d obviously learned some things about him, too. “But godspeed, my friend.”
Jamie smiled at being called her friend and opened his book to the place he left off.
As he set his bookmark aside, he thought of his son.
Jack had given him the placeholder years ago, something he made at school.
Kindergarten. Now he was starting third grade, and it was unfathomable how quickly it was all happening.
Even when he was with Eve, time didn’t quite make sense.
Jamie had known her only about a month, but in some ways, it felt like she’d always been there.
This pattern they’d settled into seemed to curb whatever had been aching in him.
Knowing that he would get to see her at the end of every day.
Keeping her company while she worked on her play.
Over at her cabin, she had constructed a corkboard and filled it with Post-it notes, some of which were connected by multicolored string, reminding him of that one scene with Charlie from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia .
But it really had been a privilege to see her work, watching her turn simple words into a work of art.
And he didn’t want to ruin it by asking for more from Eve, by asking for anything, really, but it did feel like there was still something opaque sitting between them.
Maybe not quite a wall, but a curtain, maybe a screen door.
He didn’t know if it was due to his having a kid, if her ex was still in her way, or if it was related to whatever triggered her panic attack.
But Jamie questioned whether he would ever manage to get her to let her guard all the way down.
“You’re tense,” Eve said, turning the page on her paperback.
“What?”
“You feel tense,” she repeated. “What part are you on?”
“Oh, it’s not the book,” he said. “I was just…daydreaming, I guess.”
She seemed to accept that answer until a few minutes later, when she started to yawn. “Daydreaming about what?”
“Just trying to remember if I have enough gas,” he lied.
“What time will you leave in the morning?”
“Probably around six,” he said, failing to stifle his own yawn. “I’ll try not to wake you.”
“Oh. Okay.”
They went quiet again for several more minutes, only the faint noise of crickets chirping in the distance intruding on the comfortable silence between them.
The room was cool, but Jamie felt hot with Eve lying against him.
At one point, she let her fingertips skim his leg hair, and he knew she was just trying to keep herself awake.
“You travel to Africa often?” he asked. It was in the interest of keeping her up, but he was also curious.
Eve’s eyes rolled up at him as she replied, “You know I’m American, right?”
“Of course I know that.” He was disappointed that she thought so little of him.
He knew she was from New York, and had lived in Atlanta and DC, and he’d even inferred that her dad was from Haiti.
“I was asking because you mentioned it earlier, spending a few months in Nigeria and Ghana. And you’re supposedly a doctor of African studies. ”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, oh .”
“Well, no, not often,” she said. “I’ve only been to six countries, eight cities so far. And it was all for research, so I didn’t get to enjoy any as much as I would’ve liked.”
“I’ve never even left the US,” Jamie said, a wistful regret in his words. And he was talking to someone who’d been everywhere, which only made him feel more uncultured. “Not even to the Caribbean.”
She looked up at him again, intrigue replacing whatever was there before. “Why not?”
“When I was younger, we never had the money to go anywhere. Now? I guess I just haven’t had a reason to go.”
“You don’t need a reason.”
“I know.” He recommenced reading and then stopped again. “But sometimes you need a push, you know?”
Eve nodded against him, offering a commiserating smile. “I do know…”