CHAPTER TWO
“Wait, no, leave it,” Krystal said as Gabe tried smoothing his hair.
He laughed. “Really?”
“Yeah.”
He shrugged and let his hand fall away, then sat down and started pulling his shoes back on. That had been a very fun and intense threesome. Although he was definitely feeling a mild frustration at a lack of getting all up in Liz.
He had been dreaming about sex with her ever since she and Krystal had gone back to prepare and wind down their lives in this town.
“Why?” he asked as he finished getting dressed.
Krystal, from her place sprawled in the middle of the bed, naked and grinning dreamily and glistening with sweat, giggled. “It looks hot. And it’s, you know, it’s sexhair.”
“Fair,” he said. “Now, um, that that is out of the way–”
“Oh right,” Krystal said, her bitchiness snapping back into place in an instant as she rolled over and glared at him, “we got that out of the way. Because it was such a chore!”
“–we need to discuss our plan here.”
“Something’s come up that I have to deal with,” Liz said.
“What is it?” Gabe asked, turning towards her.
He stopped as he actually looked at her now that she was finished getting dressed, and felt probably what they both had been feeling when they saw him with his new look.
“I have to go back to my workplace and...what is this? What is this look?” she asked with her shy grin.
She was wearing some business casual in the form of a white button-down and light gray slacks.
She looked incredible.
“Those clothes...are so fucking hot,” he murmured.
She laughed and looked down at herself. “What really!? I mean seriously?”
“Yes. Seriously.”
“I told you,” Krystal said.
“But you’re biased. I mean, so is he, clearly, but it’s interesting to get that reaction. Why?”
“I don’t know. I mean a lot of it is that it’s, you know, you, but at some point I realized that I really like women in men’s clothing. Which that seems to be designed more like men’s business casual. No idea why. And just...fuck, you look good in that.”
She giggled, blushing now. “I...okay, whatever. I’m-we need to focus. I gotta swing by work, Gabe, will you go with me?”
“Lemme check with the others, but almost certainly yeah,” he replied.
“Thank you.”
“Ugh, Gabe!” Krystal groaned as she sat up a little and looked down at herself. “You came so much. Like, I think this is the most you’ve ever busted inside me.”
“I missed you,” he replied.
“Curious to see what it’s gonna be like for me,” Liz murmured.
“I guess we’ll have to find out.”
She smiled at him a little deviously. “I guess we will.”
She turned around and walked out of the room. Gabe found himself staring at her sweet, broad ass that filled out those pants so nicely. He began to walk out, then hesitated, realizing he was sort of just walking out without saying anything to Krystal.
“Hey, so, I’m glad we’re...here together,” he said.
She snorted. “What the fuck?”
“I don’t want you to feel like I’m ignoring you.”
“Oh, babe, no. Go. Liz needs you and we’ve got work to do here. It’s going to be a hectic day. Get going, I want to be in your bed by tonight.”
“Very good point,” he said, then he walked over to her, leaned down, and kissed her on the mouth. “I love you.”
She had been in the process of saying something but stopped, a look of total surprise coming onto her face again. Then she began to blush badly.
“Well, I love you, too,” she murmured.
He laughed. “You’re still getting used to it.”
“Oh, and you aren’t!?”
“I mean I am, but clearly I’m farther along the path than you are.”
“Just get going, fucker!”
He laughed and headed out of the room. Coming back into the living room, he found Liz updating Ellen and Holly about the current events.
“Hey, where’s Chloe!?” Krystal called.
“Oh my fucking God, you are so scatterbrained!” he called back.
“Hey fuck you!” she snapped with a surprising venom.
He hesitated and looked at Liz, who was wincing a little.
“Scatterbrained has become a sensitive word for her this month,” she whispered.
“Sorry, I, uh, hit myself, um, down there, on accident, while I was trying to clean all your stuff out,” Krystal called out haltingly. The water turned off.
“That’s fine,” he replied. “She had to deal with family stuff.”
“Oh. Right. Duh. Ugh, so much shit going on lately, I can’t fucking keep up…” she groused, her voice fading out as she walked back into the bedroom and mostly closed the door.
“Shit,” he muttered.
“I’m sorry, I completely forgot,” Liz said, rubbing one arm awkwardly.
“No, it’s fine. I just...hmm. This is not quite what I was hoping for, or even expecting. I was kinda hoping she’d be more, I don’t know, relaxed?”
“Well, the pressure’s on now,” Liz replied.
“How do you mean?” he asked.
“You handed her this perfect life–us this perfect life–so now she has to live up to it. That’s how she feels, even if she knows she shouldn’t feel that way. It’s...ugh, it’s complicated. She needs therapy. We both do, but like she really does...well, come on. You two can hold down the fort, right?”
“Oh yes, we’ve got this,” Ellen replied easily. “This whole scatterbrained thing is an old, old hurt of hers. I’ve been dealing with it since high school. I know what to do. Go on. We’ll be here, getting this stuff sorted and packed.”
“Thank you so much,” Liz said. “I already got the truck, it’s out there to be loaded up.”
“Perfect. Have fun, you two,” Ellen replied.
“Yep, just me and my new boyfriend,” Liz beamed, taking his hand in her strong, callused one and walking him firmly to the front door.
Gabe let himself be led happily by her.
A few moments later, they were in her vehicle and driving through chilly gray streets.
“So what exactly is this about?” he asked. “Because this feels like it’s about something besides what you said it was.”
Liz looked over at him, her expression vaguely concerned. “Wow, Krystal was right.”
“About what?”
“I’m not going to be able to hide anything from you. I mean, not that I want to, but you can just...read me like a book, apparently.”
“I wouldn’t go that far. I’m just...tuned in.” He paused. “Is my haircut seriously that good?”
She snorted. “No, Gabe, it wasn’t just your haircut.
Although...that was a lot of it. I always liked your hair but wow I didn’t know it would look this good like this.
You’re also just...different. In a good way.
Also, we really missed you. Now that we’ve actually agreed to this whole thing...
I want you around! You’re my boyfriend. I’ve never had a boyfriend before. ”
“That makes sense.”
“Good. Now for what this is about...it’s a little petty.” She paused. “More than a little maybe.”
“I’m listening…”
“When I began winding things down at work, naturally, people were curious why. I didn’t spill the whole thing, but I did let them know that Krystal and I had begun dating a very cute writer who was making some decent money and we had decided to move in with him in another town.
But this one bitch was just plain not having it.
She said I was lying, and a couple of the less nice guys agreed with her. ”
“Ahhhh. So you want to do what Holly did once and rub me in their faces?”
“Did she really?”
“Oh, yeah. Her ‘friends’ had the same reaction. They literally didn’t believe her about us.”
“They said I used fucking AI to make the photos of you I showed them. It’s just-ugh! So fucking annoying. I don’t know why but gaslighting just really gets to me. Fucking horseshit.” She sighed suddenly. “I hope this isn’t unattractive.”
“I don’t think there’s much you could do right now that would be unattractive,” he replied.
She snorted. “Seriously?”
“Oh, yes. You are just...so insanely hot. I am so into you.”
“Well, I am quite, um, very into you, too.” She laughed softly, then cleared her throat. “How is everything going with your writing? I feel kind of bad, it’s been more or less radio silence from us, but that’s because we’ve been so busy winding shit down here…”
“No, it’s fine. I mean we’ve been busy, too.
That’s basically just how it’s been for me: my nose was to the grindstone.
I wrote and wrote and then wrote some more, all month.
Almost every day.” He paused. “Actually, yeah, I wrote something literally every day since you guys headed back down here, including today.”
“That’s crazy,” she murmured.
“I am...motivated. And it’s easier to focus now. I pretty much shotgunned the sequel to Tall, Blonde, and Beautiful.”
“Are you really calling it My Tall Blonde?” she asked, grinning.
“I am, indeed. Ellen all but demanded it. It’s a five-part series of novellas and I managed to get it all written this month. I need to edit it, but Ellen and Holly are finishing up their own editing jobs, so I am taking a much-needed break.”
“Much-deserved break.” She sighed. “It’s definitely going to take some...
adjusting, for me. Getting used to this new life of not having to work a job that I’d say I more tolerate than enjoy.
You should know that I am...restless. I’ll be in and out of the house a lot, going all over town, exploring. I’m hoping that won’t be annoying.”
“Live your life the way that most suits you,” he replied. “And I’ll let you know if you’re bugging me.”
She regained her smile. “That is very appreciated. And I’ll return the favor. Although I’m admittedly hard to bug. And here we are.”
“This is more or less what I’d been picturing whenever you described your job,” he murmured as he leaned forward and looked up at the bland four-story office building cast in steel and glass. She parked them near the main entrance.
“It got old fast,” she murmured, looking up as well after turning off the engine.
“So, do we actually have something to do here, or are you literally just showing me off?”
She laughed. “I do actually have something to do. I have a few questions I need to answer and something I forgot to grab from my office. Come on.”
They got out and began walking towards the entrance.
“How do you want me to be?” he asked.
“Hmm. I guess...yourself, but a bit reserved. And perhaps just a touch cocky.”
“I have to admit, this is kind of killing me.”
She stopped just shy of the door. “What is?”
“It’s kind of painful hearing you and Ellen and Chloe and once even Krystal admit that you all like that. After hearing about how women don’t really like cocky, arrogant douches…”
“Oh. Shit, sorry. I’m-I admittedly am not as up to snuff on this kind of stuff, being a functional lesbian for my whole life. I guess, if it helps, it is not a quality we like very much. I imagine Ellen and the others must have said that a little goes a long way.”
“That is true,” he conceded.
“Exactly. And the thing is...it’s obviously hard for me to speak for straight or bisexual girls, but based on what I’ve heard, when you see a girl with an idiot, more often than not, she’s either also an idiot, or she’s tolerating it because she thinks she has to.
And believe me, if you’d started out cocky this wouldn’t have happened. ”
“That does help, actually,” he said after thinking about it.
“Look at it more like, you earned your cockiness. Plus, you’re just so damned good at it.”
“Wait, what? I am?”
“Yes. The little I’ve seen, it’s just-nuance! You’re perfect with nuance, with subtlety. Just a little look, a little lean, a tiny adjustment in your stance or the way you walk, and it just hits harder than it should.”
“I definitely think you are biased. So are the others.”
She shook her head, surprisingly firm. “No. I mean, we are, but no. This is something that’s pretty obvious. Now, let’s go inside.”
Gabe stepped up to her and slipped his hand into one of the pockets sitting over her backside, settling it on her big, firm ass. She made a small sound of mock annoyance and looked at him with her mouth open in an ‘are you truly daring to do this?’ expression.
He looked back at her passively.
She sighed, grinned, and led him inside.