CHAPTER NINE
Tim
Natalie’s exams couldn’t have come at a worse time. I stood in the kitchen thinking of how often we’d taken breaks for quick nourishment between bouts of the most amazing sex I’d ever had in my life.
I’d grabbed for her over and over again. That had never happened before. I was a fuck and leave kind of guy. I never stayed over at a woman’s house, and I never let them stay with me.
But Nat? My God. I’d never wanted her to leave. Ever. I’d wanted to lock my arms around her and keep her with me forever.
A weird thought ran through my head of that creepy nursery rhyme about Peter, the guy who kept his wife in a pumpkin shell and never let her leave.
I snort laughed and picked up my phone to text Natalie about it.
She got me. I never had to worry about her thinking I was strange or unusual in any way.
She thought I was completely normal. Well, either that or we were both… unique in the same way. I grinned. God, I loved that girl.
I was turning to put a dish in the sink as the thought ran through my mind. I loved Natalie. I was in love with Natalie.
I dropped the dish and watched it break into several pieces as I leaned on the counter, shocked.
I closed my eyes. This wasn’t good. I couldn’t love Natalie. It was too… dangerous. The last time I’d been in love was with Annika, and I couldn’t ever seem to forget what happened with that.
I started pacing around my condo, wondering if I’d made a horrible mistake. I couldn’t survive having something like what happened with Annika happen with Natalie. What if she cheated on me?
God, just the thought made me want to hurl.
I couldn’t even eat breakfast before I left for work, and I’d never been so thankful to have several projects to balance at once when I got there. I did my best to bury myself in all the work and not think about my relationship with Nat at all.
Of course, that only lasted until I got in my car to drive home.
After I got there, I sent her several texts, but she didn’t respond.
I knew she was incredibly busy with exams. She’d told me she’d be in the library and pulling all nighters and things I hadn’t had to do since graduating a couple of years ago.
I still hated not being able to communicate with her.
I felt like if I could just talk this through with her, I’d feel so much better.
Frustrated, I tossed my phone on the couch and ran my hands through my hair. This sucked. I was basically left to my own thoughts for the next couple of days. And they weren’t great.
I kept sending her texts, which I realized was going to be annoying once she turned her phone back on. I just hoped she looked through some of them. The last one I sent her was to tell her I’d canceled the party Friday, but I wanted her to come anyway so we could talk about things.
Maybe she’d at least see that one. I knew her finals were supposed to be over by Friday afternoon, and I hoped she’d come.
I needed to know that I could get her alone and have us focus on figuring things out between us.
Friday at work, I took my lunch out to some outside tables set up for the workers to enjoy the outdoors.
It was actually hot as fuck normally. July in Georgia at noon on any day is going to be sweltering.
But at least there was a breeze out this afternoon.
I sat with a couple of work friends who were around my age.
They’d been to my condo for my get-togethers several times.
Sam took a bite of his sandwich and chewed thoughtfully. “I hate you had to cancel that party for Friday.”
I squinted at the sun even though I had sunglasses on. “Why?”
“I just… well, are you with that Natalie girl now?” Sam asked, a little too casually. It got my radar up.
“Why?” I asked again. I didn’t mean to sound so defensive, but I couldn’t help it.
“No reason. I just… well, she’s beautiful. I was kind of hoping to make my move, but I’ll back off if she’s your girl.”
Terrence laughed. “He doesn’t have girls. Not like that. Besides,” he turned to me, “Cora is gunning for you, man. You know that, right?”
I frowned, about to ask which one Cora was, when Sam interrupted.
“Natalie is ten times the woman Cora is,” he insisted. “She’s got those eyes.” He shook his head, and I realized he’d put a lot of thought into this. And I hated it. “They’re not really blue, but they’re not really green. I could stare at those eyes all day,” he sighed. “She is… gorgeous.”
“She is beautiful,” Terrance agreed. “But Tim doesn’t do the same girl twice, right? And Cora.” He let out a low whistle. “She’s got that porn star body.”
Oh. Now I knew who he was talking about. Yeah, she was fucking hot. But she wasn’t anything compared to Nat.
It was Sam’s turn to frown. “But you wouldn’t treat Natalie like your other women, right? Haven’t the two of you been friends forever or some shit like that?”
I nodded, getting more and more uncomfortable with our conversation.
If I was okay with friends with benefits, why was it bothering me so much that Sam was interested in asking her out? I put my sandwich down, no longer hungry.
“You gonna eat that?” Terrance said, staring at my Publix sandwich. I pushed it towards him, and he accepted it with a huge smile.
I slapped my hands down on the stone table. I couldn’t stand to sit here a minute longer. “Back to work for me. Catch y’all later.”
As I walked away, I heard Sam say, “He never answered me about Natalie. I don’t know if I can take my shot or not.”
I wasn’t ready to acknowledge that I might not be with Natalie and that she would be up for grabs. Mainly because the thought literally made me feel sick. I tuned him out and buried myself in work for the rest of the day.
***
Friday night rolled around. I’d texted Nat to tell her the party was off, but that I’d still like her to come over. She seemed to have still not turned her phone on, which was actually starting to piss me off.
I wanted to talk to her before we both showed up at my parents’ annual Fourth of July barbeque tomorrow. I needed to prep her on what our relationship could and couldn’t be. I hoped she’d be on the same page as I was, and if she wasn’t—well, then I hoped she wouldn’t be upset with me.
I hoped we could move on from this and just have it be a blip in our friendship.
I’d ordered a couple of party trays from the store just in case people, especially Nat, showed up. And I had plenty of wine and beer in the fridge, too.
I was sitting on the couch staring at my phone like some pitiful teenager. I kept hoping Nat would text me back, but nothing was coming through. She hadn’t even read any of my texts this week. Maybe her exams had gone longer than she’d thought they would.
That’s when I heard the knock at the door. I couldn’t help the small grin that played over my lips.
I opened the door. “Nat, I’ve told you that you don’t have to knock…”
I stopped, my mouth hanging open for a minute. It wasn’t Natalie. It was that Cora girl Sam and Terrance had been talking about.
And she came dressed to impress. My eyes scanned her body, taking in every curve that she had displayed so… well. Her dress was skin-tight, short, and extremely low-cut. She had an almost obscene amount of cleavage on display. I felt like I should offer her a shirt or a jacket to cover herself up.
Not that I wasn’t enjoying the view. I wasn’t blind, and she was absolutely my normal type. Large breasts, round ass, tiny waist, tall, blonde, tanned, long-legged… she had it all. I looked away guiltily as she smiled at me.
“Aren’t you going to invite me in?” she asked. She was carrying a tray of desserts.
“Oh, um, sure.” I stood aside to let her in. “But I should tell you,” I said as she walked in and set the tray on the island in the kitchen, “that the party got canceled.”
“Oh, that’s a shame,” she said, looking around. She didn’t sound surprised at all. “So, is it just you and me, then?”
“Yeah.” I was having trouble not staring at her, even though it felt disrespectful to Natalie.
Did I want to fuck this woman? I sure wouldn’t mind.
But it didn’t feel right until I’d at least told Natalie that I wasn’t looking for a committed relationship.
That I was down with a friends with benefits situation as long as she knew I’d be sleeping with other people.
That should make me happy. It was what I wanted. But… I couldn’t quit imagining her with other men. I knew I couldn’t tell her that I was going to sleep around but I didn’t want her to. What a caveman attitude.
I swiped a hand over my face. I was almost of the opinion that what had happened between Nat and me wasn’t worth all this stress.
But then I couldn’t help but recall how…
explosive it had been. Over and over again.
Our need for each other hadn’t waned the entire weekend.
I’d never had sex as many times in as short amount of time as that in my life.
And I could’ve gone back for much more if she hadn’t had to leave.
Then when she’d showed up again mid-week? It had been just as great then, too.
It was pretty difficult to erase sex like that from my mind. I’d never had the chemistry I had with Natalie with anybody else. Not Annika, not anyone.
“Tim?”
I jerked my head up. “What? Sorry.”
“I was just asking if you minded if I hang out with you tonight?” Her eyes looked sultry, and she wasn’t trying to hide the fact that she was staring at my crotch. She took her perfectly manicured blood red fingernails and traced them over the highly visible mounds of her breasts.
“What did you have in mind?” I heard myself asking as my body responded to her. My player ways were taking over. They’d had enough practice over the years, that was for sure.
She giggled, her tits jiggling in that bodycon dress. “I think you know, baby. I’ve been wanting to take that big dick of yours for a ride ever since the girls were talking about it down at the country club.”
I blinked. She was not shy. “What girls at the country club?”