by Raquel Belle
“Because you don’t back down, and you’ve surprised me, constantly,” I said. Something crossed Anthony’s eyes, like a bad thought popped into his head, but he covered it up. He took my hand and led me back to the kitchen.
“Have I ever told you that I can cook?” He said.
“Um…yeah,” I said, confused at the shift in mood. I sat at the bar, while he took stuff out of his refrigerator to cook dinner.
“By the way, Naomi and her ex, who’s possibly not her ex anymore, want to hang out with us and do something. That sound cool to you?” Anthony rummaged through a low cabinet for a bowl and glanced up at me, curious.
“I’d love to meet them,” I said. “You okay?”
He nodded and looked at me as if I was the weird one for asking. “I’m great. I think I want to make us seafood for dinner though. I might have to go out. Do you want to come, or do you mind hanging out here for a little bit?”
I hated the smell of any sort of seafood market and scrunched my nose prematurely. “I’ll hang out.” I was still confused as to why we weren’t in his bed at the moment. Because that’s where I thought we were headed from our conversation in his bedroom.
“The remote for the TV and stuff is in the sectional cubby hole thing,” he said while walking swiftly to the door. He left all the food and vegetables out on the counter. I watched as Anthony got his jacket and shoes on as fast as possible. “I’ll be right back!” Then he was out the door.
“Okay, I guess I’ll just be waiting right here…”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Anthony
I was sweating, and it was only nineteen degrees outside. I got in my car and sat behind the wheel for a minute. Beth needed to know about the fucking Common Templars meeting. But I didn’t know how to tell her at this point, and part of me didn’t want to because it’d just fuck things up, and we’d be back where we started. Well, she would hate me, and I’d hate myself.
“Fuck…” I turned on the car and pulled out of my spot. The phone rang and Naomi’s face popped up on the screen. I answered. “Yeah?”
“Whoa, bad day? Are we still on for that double date thingy?” I sat at a red light and tried to imagine how Beth would react if I told her about the meeting over dinner. But the urge not to ruin anything was so much stronger than my guilt at the moment.
“Hello? Anthony?” Naomi said.
“Oh, um, yeah she’s down. Where should we all go?”
“Jess said there’s a popup gallery bar opening tomorrow until next Tuesday. I feel like, if we go during happy hour tomorrow or Thursday we can get away with a smaller crowd,” she said.
“It’s in the city?” I asked, referring to Manhattan.
“No, actually, it’s in Park Slope.”
“Perfect. Beth lives in Brooklyn. Tomorrow sounds good.”
“Okay…you alright though? You sound stressed,” she said.
“It’s …nothing. Well, not nothing. I’m lying to Beth, and it’s fucking eating me alive, but I don’t want to tell her and ruin everything,” I said, all in one breath. The fish market wasn’t too far from my place. I found a parking spot on the street a couple blocks away from it.
“You’re lying to her about what?”
I got out of the car, grabbed my phone, and started walking through the freezing cold. “You know these features we’re working on, and the whole thing with that source?”
“Yeah, it sounded confusing,” Naomi said.
“Well, that source called me and invited me to another meeting with the secret society, and I went and I didn’t tell Beth.” Naomi didn’t say anything for a moment. I picked up my pace, realizing I hadn’t worn a heavy enough jacket for the rapidly falling temperature.
“Anthony you have to tell her. There’s no getting around it. Especially if you think it’s going to mean a lot to her. The worst thing would be for her to find out from someone else.”
“Either way, she’s…fuck, alright.” I hung up and quickly bought some lobster. The fuckers squirmed in their box the entire ride back to my apartment. I found Beth curled up on the couch. She looked so small on the huge sectional, just watching TV.
“Hey,” she said, “what do you have in those?” She got up and followed me into the kitchen.
“Lobster, if you don’t want to watch me kill them…” I said.
Beth grimaced and slowly backed away. “I’ll let you take care of that.”
“Wait, wait, come back for a second,” I said. She did, and I stole a kiss. She looked so happy, I figured, why not wait until after our double date to tell her about everything. It’d make sense to tell her while we were going over the last hour of the recording.
Naturally, I threw myself into cooking. I made garlic butter lobster with risotto and a roasted mushroom and asparagus side. For the hell of it, I also made a white wine cocktail to go with everything, then set the table and called Beth into the dining room.
She gasped. “Oh my god, Anthony…”
It was much later in the day, and everything smelled really good. My stomach growled audibly. I laughed. “Sorry! I got carried away. I didn’t eat all day.”
Beth gently pushed me to the head of the table and made me sit first, then she sat at my right hand. An image flashed in my mind of us being married and sitting like this all the time to have dinner. It was weird to have that flash in my head out of nowhere, but I liked the thought and the image.
“Anthony you spoil me, you know that?” Beth sipped the drink I made, and her eyes lit up. “Were you like, professionally trained or something? This is impressive!”
“I read a lot, including cookbooks. When I was in college I went through a phase where I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be a journalist or a chef so…” I shrugged and reached for a serving spoon, but Beth put her hand on mine.
“Let me serve you. Tell me how much,” she said. I sat back and smiled up at her. She took my plate and portioned out risotto, lobster and the veggies for me before she took some for herself. I waited for Beth to start eating before I did.
She took a bite of the lobster and risotto together. “Oh my god, Anthony… Anthony…” Her eyes were wide with surprise and delight.
“It’s good?”
“I feel like I’m having sex with you right now, it’s so good,” she said and took another bite.
I cracked up. “Wait, so does that mean the sex is good too?”
Beth rolled her eyes at me. “You have to ask?”
“Yes, I need to know. Is it the best you’ve had or…?”
“I really opened up a can of worms, huh?” She said. A blush crept into her cheeks.
“There’s no escaping, so just tell me. I can take it,” I said, grinning.
“No, because you’ll never shut up about it,” she said. We stared at each other for an entire minute, with me smiling and waiting, and her, trying not to smile.
“I don’t want to admit it!” She said, laughing.
“I’ll take that as Anthony, you’re the best sex I’ve ever had then,” I said. She couldn’t hide her smile, as she shook her head at me and forked up some asparagus. I smiled. “You’re not denying it, though! Does that mean you’ll never leave me?” I started eating, getting through two bites before she answered.
“I’ll consider it…” she said.
“Consider it,” I said and reached over to hold her hand. She hid her smile with another bite of food, but she was blushing.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Beth
I was beyond excited to be going to a popup gallery bar. It was two of my favorite things mashed together, so I was hyped, like a kid waiting for Christmas morning. I sat in the passenger seat of Anthony’s car, literally bouncing.
“What’s taking so long? Get in!” I leaned over to see what he was doing. He stood outside the car, texting.
“Just making sure that they’re on their way,” he said, and got in.
“Okay, so explain everything to me again. Naomi and Jess broke up…�
�� He’d given me bits and pieces of the story, but I wanted to make sure I didn’t mess up and think they were a couple if they were still separated.
“Well, they’ve been together for years, and I honestly thought they were going to get married. But when Naomi started seriously talking to Jess about it, Jess flaked and broke up with her. It was a horrible breakup on both ends, but since I made them talk they’ve been getting close again. Naomi hasn’t told me if it’s official yet, but they’re basically back together. Don’t ask outright or say it, just treat them as if they are together,” he said.
I nodded. “Got it.” Of course, I had a lot to say because it seemed like this Jess person has a hard time with commitment. But every situation is different, and once emotions were involved, it made everything so much harder.
“Jess actually found out about this place, so I think you guys might have similar interests. She’s at every artsy event she can find,” Anthony said.
“We’d be friends, yes,” I said, and he laughed.
The gallery popup was in an empty Park Slope storage warehouse. Inside, it was brightly lit and filled with people, though there was enough space to move around and see each exhibit. The bar was centered in the warehouse, while the exhibits ran along the perimeter of the space. My eyes were drawn to a vibrant pink and blue painting. It looked like a Simpson’s doughnut and a comic character melded on the canvas. Upon closer inspection, a load of comic and cutesy characters were in a mass at the center of the blue and pink backdrop–which looked like frosting.
“That is so fucking cool,” I said, pointing to it.
“Oh, I see them. Naomi’s at the bar with Jess,” Anthony said. He pulled me away from the cool painting, and over to the bar and the two beautiful women. I recognized Naomi and her silver blonde tresses that hung down her back. She wore an off-kilter autumn sweater and thick tights fitted into expensive looking knee-high boots.
“Hey,” I said.
She beamed and hopped out of her chair to give me a hug. “I’m so glad you came out! This is Jess.” Naomi kept an arm around my shoulders and turned me towards her maybe-girlfriend. Jess’s brown hair was cut short. She had pretty blue eyes and wore something similar to Naomi, though her sweater was form-fitting, and she wore a leather jacket over it.
I extended my hand. “Hi, nice to meet you.”
Jess shook my hand. “Likewise, I heard the gallery thing was your scene.”
“I go to one at least once a month if not more. This is my kind of crowd,” I said, gesturing to the bar.
“Cheers to that, Anthony. Get the woman a drink!” Naomi said.
“I’m ahead of you on that one,” he said and handed me a lime martini.
“Have you guys looked at the artwork yet?”
“No, we were waiting for you guys to get here,” Jess said. “I’ve been itching to go around.” She grabbed her beer and Naomi’s glass, and then we made our way to the door and started walking clockwise. I had to say, hanging out with Naomi and Jess was fun. They were both great. They were both funny, and Naomi was really smart. She was like a tipsy Google—anything I wondered about or asked her, she knew the right answer.
We got halfway around the building by the time I finished my drink, and Anthony finished his. He laced his fingers with mine and told Naomi and Jess to wait up for us.
“So? What do you think?” Anthony said. We reached the bar, and he flagged the bartender.
“About Naomi and Jess?” I turned around and rested my elbows on the bar top. Anthony nodded and waited for me to continue. “They’re great! We should hang out with them more often. We all have similar interests.”
“Maybe we could set up a regular night out like your Sunday lunch traditions,” he said.
“I have a lot of those traditions. My closest friends and I have this thing where we hang out at a coffee shop every week, though, admittedly… I’ve missed a few of those recently. Whenever my brother comes home from college, we have a full day to hang out and catch up. Those kinds of things,” I said.
“So, let’s start one together. An Anthony and Beth friend hang out night. It can be with my friends or yours,” he said.
I laughed. “That’s a super long title.”
“Come on, what do you say? We have to kiss on it, though.” He leaned to the side, and his mouth hovered a few inches from mine. I was faced with the thought that I’d never started a hang-out tradition with any of my boyfriends. Anthony and I were still technically dating, and he seemingly had no intention of breaking things off anytime soon.
“I take my traditions very seriously,” I said.
“So do I.”
“Okay, deal.” I leaned forward and kissed him. Anthony grinned when he pulled away. He ordered us another round, and we found Naomi and Jess again. After the gallery, we went our separate ways. Jess and Naomi had both given me their numbers to hang out again without Anthony, which was cool and surprising.
“Did you like it?” I asked Anthony, as we rode back to my place. He’d brought clothes there to change after work and minimize the amount of back and forth he had to do.
“The artwork was dope. I had my eye on a couple of them. You know, for someone who likes galleries as much as you, the walls in your apartment are pretty bare,” he said.
“Right, because the starting price for art that I like is always five times the amount of my paycheck.”
“Naomi and Jess really like you. You’re the first woman I’ve introduced them to that they wanted to hang out with…without me.”
“Well, Anthony, I’m just that charming and fun to be around…” I said.
He smirked and took my hand to kiss my knuckles. One thing I loved about him was that he was so affectionate. Every touch or gesture from him felt so reassuring.
“You are charming and fun to be around. That’s why I’ve been hogging you,” he said.
“Oh? I thought you were waiting for me to slap you around?” I bit my lip to keep from smiling.
Anthony’s grin widened. “That, too, and a bunch of other reasons. I’ll show you a few tonight.”
We got back to my place and Anthony carried me through the door. My fingers were tangled in his hair, and he seemed set on tasting every part of me. His mouth slid from mine, to my jaw and neck. He kicked the door shut behind us, and we made it as far as the couch. He set me down and quickly shrugged out of his jacket and whipped off his sweater and undershirt. I smiled and reached out to run my fingers over the ridges of his chest and abdomen.
Anthony laid on top of me, and I wrapped my legs around his waist. He brushed his lips over mine and nibbled on them. Then, his hand slipped underneath my sweater and cupped my breast. He pinched my nipple through my bra before he pulled it down. My pussy clenched, and I rolled my hips against his, feeling the thick erection in his jeans.
“Am I making you wet already?” he whispered in my ear.
I knew his ego was still inflated after I admitted to him how good the sex was. The petty in me woke up, though, and I shook my head, smirking.
Anthony quirked his brow at me “Oh, really?”
“Really, you’ve barely touched me,” I bit my lip to keep from smiling too much. I didn’t want him to call my bluff.
His expression changed, becoming mischievous. “If I touch your pussy right now, and my fingers aren’t wet, I’ll go down on you for a few orgasms in a row.”
My pussy clenched, and I felt more moisture slick my cunt. “And what if they are?”
“Then you owe me that blow job,” he said.
I laughed. “Wow! Really?”
“Uh-huh…” Anthony moved back to sit on his heels, and I immediately rolled off the couch.
“Oh, so you lied!” He shouted and ran after me into the bedroom. I squealed when he almost caught me and darted to the other side of the bed. He stood across from me and crooked his finger. “Come here.”
“Hey, I’m supposed to be the one bossing you around,” I said.
He shook his
head. “Nope.”
“We didn’t even shake on it…” I backed towards the wall, and he knelt on the bed, waiting for me. I smiled. “So, it’s not a real bet then.”
He continued to wait with a winning smile on his lips. He looked stupidly hot in that position, as if he were doing a Giorgio Armani photo shoot—with his abs and pecks all defined, his hair a little mussed, and the perfect amount of stubble on his face.
“Come here,” he said, softly.
I got on the bed and lightly placed my hand on his hip. His lips pressed against mine, and our tongues caressed. I ran my hands over his stomach again and unzipped his jeans. He hadn’t been wearing any underwear, either. His cock fell out of his jeans, thick and hard, bobbing under its own weight.
I got down, on my hands and knees, and massaged his balls while running my tongue along the underside of his cock. Anthony hissed. He smoothed my hair back with his hands and held it out of the way in a ponytail. I ran my tongue around the tip of his dick and ran my fist up and down along his shaft. My lips closed around him, and he pushed gently on my head until his cock touched the back of my throat.
I looked up, to meet his eyes, which were half-lidded and filled with pleasure. I felt his cock twitch and harden even more in my mouth, then I pulled back and sucked him deep again, going slow until his entire body was tense. Then he pulled out of my mouth and sat back for a second.
“Fuck…” he said.
I smiled, smugly, and got rid of my clothes. Anthony shimmied out of his jeans and pulled me on top of him. I straddled his hips, and he rubbed my clit. There was no need for primer. I was already wet as I could be. Anthony held his cock in place as I lowered onto him.
“Shit,” I gasped. Something about this time felt different, warmer and I could really feel him inside me. Anthony’s mouth was half-open, and he massaged my breasts, as I began to bounce on his cock. I leaned back. “Oh my god…” My pussy massaged and squeezed him, as I circled my hips and found a good rhythm. Already, my body was starting to tremble and grow weak with an immense orgasm.
“Beth… Fuck, Beth, stop,” Anthony said, suddenly. He put his hands on my hips to still me, and then he lifted me off of him. “No condom…”
