Chapter Twenty-Two
Twenty-Two
It took Stella and Max a while to finally get up and shower. The shower itself was longer than it needed to be because having Max scrub her down became less about getting clean and more about feeling very, very good.
By the time they were done, and Max had given Stella some of his clothes to wear, Stella was hungry again. Thankfully, they had leftovers from the restaurant, so she sat at Max’s counter, patiently waiting as he heated up their food.
Now that the deed was done, Stella wondered if maybe she should’ve told him it was her first time. She had almost said something, right there in the heat of the moment, but then she’d chickened out.
Never being in a relationship was one thing, but being a virgin on top of that felt like one step too far.
What if it made things weird? What if he thought she was mentioning her virginity because it was a big deal to her and not because she just wanted to make sure they didn’t go too hard or too fast?
She wasn’t lying when she said he was big.
Still, a part of her felt like she’d lied. A small white lie, but still a lie.
That said, she could barely focus on that when the most pressing matter was that she’d just had sex. S-E-X. Sex!
Stella thought she would feel different, but besides feeling like she would walk funny for the next few days, she felt the same.
Maybe happier? That was probably the endorphins.
And Max. The man she kind of lied to. Maybe?
She really liked him. And yes, it was partially because the sex was better than she thought it would be, not that she thought he’d be bad, but she expected it to at least hurt.
Instead, at most she felt a slight pinching feeling at first, but that lessened as she got more used to him.
And of course there was a little blood, but she had been told to expect that and he didn’t seem bothered by it, so that was fine.
What Stella really liked about Max was simply him. He was kind and made her laugh and was always checking to make sure she was okay. He probably would’ve handled the whole “Oh, by the way, I’m a virgin” thing well, actually. Why hadn’t she just told him?
“What are you thinking about?”
Stella blinked up to find Max leaning on the counter in front of her. Without thinking, she said the first question that popped into her head.
“When did you go to Howard?”
The question felt abrupt as she said it, but she couldn’t tell him what she was really thinking about.
Besides, the thought had been circling in her head ever since he’d handed her a long-sleeved Howard T-shirt and Howard sweatpants to wear when she got out of the shower.
He was wearing a Howard hoodie and the same sweatpants.
Clearly he had Bison pride. She was pretty sure that was the school’s mascot.
“Class of 2010,” he said. “Did you also go there?”
The excitement in his voice had Stella wanting to say yes, but she knew that was silly.
“Georgetown,” she said. “So close, yet so far. You were also there much earlier than me.”
Now Max squinted at her.
“How much earlier?”
“Class of 2018,” she said. “So not that bad.”
Max blew out an exaggerated breath of relief.
“You had me scared for a second there,” he said.
Stella rolled her eyes. “You know, if my age was a concern, you could’ve asked me way before we did any of this.” She waved a hand between them to indicate all the sex they’d had.
Max gave her a sidelong look. “I was never concerned about your age. If I was, I wouldn’t have approached you at Red as Sin.”
Stella guffawed at this revisionist history.
“Mm, I don’t think you approached me as much as my boobs approached your drink.”
“Yes, but I was the one who said we should get a room,” Max pointed out.
“After I said you should—”
The oven dinged behind Max, interrupting them. He leaned forward and pressed a quick kiss to her lips, a small gesture that made her feel warm all over.
“To be continued,” he said. “Why don’t you sit on the couch and I’ll bring this over?”
“Do you need any help?”
“Can you grab us some drinks? I have beer in the fridge.”
Stella grimaced, a natural reflex upon hearing the word beer, but Max’s back was already turned so he didn’t see it.
Hopping off the stool, she went around the counter to the fridge and happily discovered that, along with the aforementioned beer, Max also had an unopened bottle of wine. Stella grabbed it and a can of beer.
Stella held up the bottle to Max, who was now transferring their food to plates.
“Corkscrew?”
Max’s brows rose, but he nodded his head toward the drawers by the sink.
“Second drawer on the left,” he said.
“Thank you,” Stella singsonged.
At first she didn’t see it, but then she realized that unlike the rinky-dink corkscrew she and Chelsea had been using since they turned twenty-one, Max’s was electric.
“Fancy,” she murmured to herself.
“Hm?” Max asked.
“Nothing.”
In a matter of seconds Stella got the bottle open, and after a few tries, she found the cabinet with the wineglasses.
By the time she was done, Max had already moved to the couch with their food and was waiting for her.
The whole thing felt very domestic, and as hard as Stella tried, she couldn’t stop thinking about what it would be like to do this every night.
She was once again getting ahead of herself, except this time she wasn’t hypothesizing about what could happen with a crush or someone she’d gotten one drink with.
She was losing herself in the fantasy of being with the first and only person (so far) she’d slept with.
Were her friends right? Was she getting caught up in her feelings because they had sex, or were her feelings real?
And even if they were real, what if this was just sex for him, nothing more?
“Hey, you okay?”
Stella found herself seated on the couch next to Max, their drinks on coasters on his coffee table, with no memory of walking over from the kitchen. She disbanded her spiraling thoughts, deciding she could think about all of that when she wasn’t about to have second dinner with a great guy.
“Yeah, I just spaced for a second,” she said.
Max didn’t look convinced, so Stella reached forward and grabbed the rest of her quesadilla, taking a small bite so she’d have something to do besides meeting his skeptical gaze.
“Mm, still good,” she said. She leaned back, cuddling in next to Max. He relaxed beside her, raising an arm so she could get even closer.
“So,” she asked. “What are we watching?”
Max pressed a kiss to her temple and handed her the remote.
“Whatever you want.”
Stella grinned. “I love that answer.”
Max chuckled, and the soft rumble of it vibrated through her in the best way. Taking the remote she turned on New Girl, and for the rest of the night she stopped worrying about what would happen and focused on what was.