16. #PinterestWorthy #2
I pause in sandpapering so he can spin the appliance, which is secured to the ceiling by a hook-screw and three bent and twisted wire hangers. He looks at me appreciatively.
And since I put my shirt back on because sandpaper and bare tits don’t mix, I know he’s appreciating my ingenuity and not my body.
Oddly, it’s just as satisfying.
“I’d make an excellent anything,” I joke, glad to be back on more solid ground after our mind-melting lotus sex.
“I don’t doubt it.” His sincerity almost makes me blush.
Vance watches me work in silence for a while. It’s happened so often this past week that I find it comforting. His presence is almost a habit at this point.
One that I tell myself will be hard to quit. One I don’t want to quit.
“So is that the issue?”
“Huh?” I shake off my thoughts to see Vance looking down at me with concern.
“Your being good at so much. Is that the concern you have over what to do now that you're graduating?”
I grimace. “When you say it like that, I sound kind of arrogant.”
He shrugs. “You can’t help it if it's true.”
Laughing, I toss the rag to the side. “I’d be surprised at your lack of derision, but I guess when you're surrounded by people like Julie Starr on a daily basis you’ve become immune to boastful people.”
“Nah, it isn’t boasting if you can back it up. And seeing how Starr made youngest commander ever at NASA, and you’re a Baylor Business Fellow who’s graduating early with honors, you're both able to make those kinds of statements without sounding conceited.”
“How did you know I was a Business Fellow?” I mean, I wasn’t hiding it from him, but I also never brought it up.
He looks smug at my surprise. “You’re not the only one with connections.”
I tilt my head to the side and shift my features into disbelief.
“Okay, okay.” He holds up his hands. “I may have looked over your shoulder a few times while you were on your phone ignoring me.”
“Should’ve known.” I pick up the finer grit sandpaper and go over the appliance once more. “You become so needy when I’m working.”
Vance chokes. “Me?” Clearing his throat, he straightens, looking affronted. “Needy?”
“You can’t help it if it's true.” I smirk, throwing his words back at him.
He smirks back. “Brat.”
We both chuckle.
“Seriously though.” He reaches around me to steady the mixer so I can sand it more easily. “Why are you so concerned with not knowing what you want to do next? Lots of students are in the same boat.”
“But not all those students have the advantages that I do.” I glance around the room. “Just look where we are.”
“Your glitter room?”
“No, you idiot.” I snort. “My penthouse . Which I own free and clear.” I circle in Vance’s outstretched arms to reach the backside of the KitchenAid.
“The ability to have something as superfluous as a glitter room is just the icing on the cake that is my ridiculously lucky life.” A tightness forms in my chest as I say this out loud.
My hand moves faster over the metal. “I mean, I not only have no student debt hanging over my head, but I’d be able to get into any corporation just based on my last name even if I wasn’t top of my class.
” I stop, slightly out of breath, and lower my hands.
“I don’t even have to work. I could just be useless the rest of my life.
My mom did a good job of that.” I chance a glance at him, expecting derision or confusion over my guilt for being born so privileged. I find sympathy instead.
I back up, toss the sandpaper to the side, and pick up the damp rag again.
“I just…” I sigh, hating being unable to put into words what I’ve been feeling this past year.
“I just feel like I need to do something worthwhile.” I try and laugh off the rush of emotions I’m feeling.
“Hashtag first world problems, am I right?” I reach up to wipe down the fine layer of dust I just created.
But before I can finish, Vance draws me in for a hug.
“No matter what you do, I’m sure it’ll be worthwhile.”
I give myself a moment. No, just a fleeting second to enjoy his embrace. Because even though it feels great, after our lotus sex, I need to get us back on track. Back to friends with bennies, stranger danger no strings attached sex.
No more emotional eye banging during climax.
I reach down and palm him over his jeans. “Wanna do something else worthwhile?”
And as expected, he does.
“You almost done?”
“Yep.” On my stomach, I swipe Mod Podge over the KitchenAid base.
“You know what I don’t get?” Vance is still shirtless, his skin sparkling like a teenage heartthrob vampire.
There is glitter in all the places glitter shouldn’t be.
Hashtag totally worth it.
I point my glue-coated brush at him. “The fun of do-it-yourselfing?”
He snorts. “Yeah, I totally don’t get that, but that wasn’t what I was talking about.”
“What then?” I focus on painting a thin, even coat over the sanded metal.
“Why you don’t have a Christmas tree.”
My brush slips, the question unexpected. “Ah, well, I guess it just seemed sad.”
“It seemed sad not to have a Christmas tree at Christmas?” He glances around. “I mean, you have a glitter room. I figured your penthouse would be decked out like a stripper themed North Pole.”
I gaze at him in awe. “Sometimes you amaze me with how well you understand my aesthetic.” I chuckle. “Stripper themed North Pole. Classic.”
“So?” he asks, not letting the absence of a Christmas tree go.
Sighing, I finish Mod Podging the last section. “If you must know I just really didn’t feel like buying and decorating a tree all by myself.” Dropping my brush, I screw the glue cap back on and raise my hand. “Now help me up.”
He takes it, pulling me to my feet.
Whether it was what I said or how I said it, thankfully he lets the Christmas tree conversation die and studies the hazy coat of glue I just spent a lot of time doing. “You probably could’ve paid for someone to do all this, you know?”
“But then it wouldn’t be from me.” I brush off my bare ass, my skirt and panties tossed and forgotten in the corner. “And besides, I—” I burp, fighting a sudden wave of nausea.
“You okay?”
“Yeah, fine.” I take a deep breath, and the sick feeling recedes. “I was just lying on my stomach too long.”
He gives me a concerned once-over. “Are you sure you shouldn’t get that checked out? Weren’t you feeling off the other night too when I brought over Jimmy John sandwiches?”
“Anyone would feel sick with the amount of food you are trying to force feed me,” I say, exasperated. “I mean, do you have a fat fetish or something? Because I swear my clothes are getting too tight.”
“Yeah, but in all the right places.” He smiles at my glitter boobs, only to frown a second later. “What are you doing?”
“Hmm?” I glance down, not having realized that I was rubbing the right one. “Oh, I guess my boob hasn’t recovered yet from the woman’s fist of fury. It’s sore.”
His lips twitch. “Fist of fury?”
“Hey.” I plant my hands on my hips, knowing the waist slimming, boob swaying affect it will have. “You weren’t so amused when that woman’s sock-Croc nailed you in the nads.”
He busts out laughing. “Nads?”
“Gonads.”
“Yeah,” he says between laughter. “I know what nads refer to. I just haven’t heard it in a long time.”
I lift a single brow in his direction. “Seeing how many years you’ve already lived I find that hard to believe, old man.” I rub my left one now.
“Har, har.” He eyes my chest. “I thought you were punched in the other boob?”
“I was, but this one’s hurting too.” I shrug. “Probably getting my period.” I snort. “Or I’m pregnant.”
I laugh, but Vance doesn’t.
His body stills, and the smile slides off his face.
I can’t help but find his reactions amusing. “Relax, old man.” I wave my hand over my glitter speckled hoo-ha. “IUD.” Then point to his crotch. “Condom.” I walk over to the built-ins where the glitter bomb controls are. “Def not pregnant.”
He swallows. “Right.”
Men are such touchy creatures. “Come on.” I wave him over. “The engineer in you will love how this works.”
His walk is slow, almost a shuffle, but he comes over. I spend the rest of my day teaching him how to glitter bomb and play Fortnite.
But the silence isn’t as comfortable as before.