by Adriana Peck
I step outside, get into my truck and start the engine. I don’t have to be at Nancy’s for another few hours, but I thought I’d swing around town, see the old stomping grounds.
As I drive down the dirt path leaving my parent’s house, I feel like I’m on the right path. For once.
As goody-goody two-shoes as that sounds.
◆◆◆
When I hear back from Nancy later, I’m standing in the middle of the grocery store inspecting a row of magazines. They’re either guns and ammo magazines or sports car magazines. There’s a few ones I recognize, but I’m surprised at how much is new to me here. Even some food brands are new to me, too.
I feel my pocket buzzing, I pull out my phone.
It’s a text from Nancy, her address included with a smiley face.
I respond, telling her I’ll be on my way.
I grab a sports car magazine, shrugging as I inspect the front pages and head to the checkout.
◆◆◆
Nancy’s apartment isn’t that far away from me, it’s certainly closer to Twin Orchard’s Main Street than my parent’s place. When I pull up to her apartment complex, a three-story row of white buildings with wooden stairs between units, I pull out my phone again. I check which apartment number is Nancy’s, and I hop out of my truck, searching the long line of the complex to find where I’m going.
I finally find the right spot, and I head up the wooden flights of stairs to take me to Nancy’s.
When I’m sure I’ve got the right one, I knock on the door.
There’s a hay-woven autumn-colored wreath hanging on the door, and I inspect it for a moment as my heart begins to race. I’m afraid I’ll do something stupid, say something stupid that’ll send this all crashing down—
The door flings open, and Nancy’s standing there, grinning from ear to ear.
She’s changed out of her work uniform; Nancy’s got this cute-ass graphic tee-shirt on with some tight jeans. I can’t complain one bit, and I think she catches me eyeing her up and down.
“Hey,” she smiles.
“Hey.” I can’t help but return the grin. What can I say? I’m happy to see her.
She stands back, holding the door open for me to see her apartment inside.
“Want to come in?”
I step inside her place, looking around as she closes the door behind me. Her place is decorated wall-to-wall, tapestries and pantings adorning every square inch possible. She’s got these cute little metallic stands sitting along the walls, potted plants atop them. There’s a balcony to my left, and it lets in this beautiful golden sunlight that warms me as soon as I step over to it. Her kitchen’s about as big as my parent’s, surprisingly, and I step into the living room where I see a two-seater couch and a TV next to the balcony doors.
“What do you think?” Nancy asks me.
I grin. “I love it,” I say. “Really. All these decorations are tight.”
Nancy giggles. “Tight, huh? I’ll take it.”
I turn around, facing her. “You feeling better after shitty work?”
“Much better,” she beams. I can see she’s barefoot, walking across the carpet over to me. When she’s standing right in front of me, I can see that I’m a good six inches taller than her. She has to get on her tiptoes to look at me eye-level.
She looks up at me, still beaming like I’m the best thing that’s ever happened to her. Her golden hair looks perfect in this light, I can’t stop staring into those emerald irises of hers. Seriously. She looks like a freakin’ painting, in a good way.
“You good?” I chuckle.
“Oh, yeah.”
She brings her arms up, wrapping them around my neck gingerly as she stands on her tiptoes. I get the hint, I don’t waste a single second.
I lean down, kissing her as my arms come up to grab her waist. I can feel her weight shifting forward as she pulls closer to me.
Our kiss extends itself, and we pull back only momentarily to catch our breath before diving back in.
I’ve been waiting for this ever since I first laid eyes on her.
And I’m not talking about when I came back to Twin Orchards.
I bring a hand up, running my fingers through her straw-blonde hair. I grab a handful, pulling on it gently. Nancy moans softly, passionately, so I pull just a little bit harder.
I can feel an excitement pulsating just below my waistline. I wonder if Nancy anticipated for that.
She pulls back for just a moment, her smile even bigger than before.
“You want to move to the couch?” I ask.
She nods eagerly, and I let go of her hair for just a moment while we get situated on the couch. I sit down, Nancy sits next to me as she turns, stretching her legs over my lap as she leans into me. I wrap an arm around her shoulder, pulling her in close as we start kissing again.
With each kiss, I feel Nancy’s weight shifting more and more on top of me, her legs pressing down on my groin.
I pull back for just a moment.
“What is it?” she asks, a look of concern suddenly splashed across her face.
“Nothing,” I say, grinning. “I just…think this is cool, that’s all. You’re cool.”
“You’re cool,” she says back to me.
She leans back over, and we get back to kissing as I feel her weight shifting more and more on top of me. A few minutes later, I can feel her ass is planted squarely atop my crotch, and I know she can feel how hard I’m getting.
Well, good. It’s her fault.
Nancy shifts her weight, bringing one leg on each side of me as she straddles me. My hands move from her waist to her ass, grabbing her as Nancy gives me a pleasurable moan of approval.
She starts grinding her hips, and I feel the urge to grab her and pin her down on the couch growing stronger by the second.
But I don’t give in.
Nancy leans back, grinning as we stop to catch our breath. Her golden hair is messed up, ruffled, and I lean up and try to fix it a bit as she giggles.
“Maybe we slow down just for a bit?” Nancy says, still panting. “Have that cup of coffee for real?”
I shrug. “Works for me.”
She grins, gets off my lap as she bounces over to the kitchen. I sit up, my legs and brain completely turned to jelly after the last few minutes. Amazing how women can turn on a dime like that. With guys like me it’s an on/off switch.
“How do you take your coffee?” Nancy hollers from her kitchenette. I lean forward, still seated on the couch.
“Black,” I call back.
“Me too!” she beams. I can hear her smile from here. I hear a pantry open and shut, a pot fills with water before it’s dumped in a tank somewhere. The faint gurgle of the coffee maker powers on, and Nancy steps back into the living room, still smiling.
“I think that was pretty neat,” she says. What a fucking tease.
I lean back in the couch, nodding. “We can resume whenever you want,” I reply. “I had fun, too, you know.”
“Maybe after we get to know each other a little more,” Nancy replies. She waltzes over to me, sits down on the two-seater couch next to me. I can feel her body heat pressing up against me and I know I still want her as bad as I did just a few minutes ago.
I want to grab her, pin her against the wall, take her right now. But if she wants to pump the brakes, then I’ll pump the brakes with her.
There’s a ding, and Nancy perks up. “Coffee’s done,” she says. She gets up with that same spring in her step, bounds over to the kitchen. A pantry opens and closes, and a few second later Nancy returns with two coffee cups, one in each hand. She hands me one mug, a blue-painted one with a logo of a dolphin in the center.
“You painted this?” I ask, taking a shot in the dark.
Nancy beams. “I did!” She blows on her coffee to alleviate some of the steam emanating from it, grinning at me as she takes a cautious sip.
“I bet you did a lot of the art on these walls here, too,” I say, gesturing ar
ound the room with my steamy cup of coffee.
She nods. “Which one’s your favorite?”
I peer around, checking out the paintings that I can see hung up around us. There’s one of a streetlight that’s really cool, set against a sunset backdrop. A watercolor of an orange tabby cat catches my eye, and I wonder if Nancy has a cat sleeping around here somewhere I haven’t yet seen. I lean over, glancing over Nancy’s shoulder.
“That one,” I say, pointing at the painting next to the key rack.
Nancy looks behind her, grinning. “The cactus?”
“Yeah. I like that one the best.”
Nancy turns back to me, beaming like I’d just won the lottery. “Mine, too,” she says.
“You a painter, then?”
“Technically I’m a waitress at a coffee shop.”
I shake my head. “That’s your job. You’re a painter. You did all these. And they’re the best I’ve seen in a long-ass time. I’m not just saying that.”
Nancy shrugs, and I can see her cheeks reddening.
“You’re totally just saying that,” she giggles. “But thanks. You’re really sweet, Jake.”
I chuckle, taking a quick sip of my coffee to buy myself some time to think.
“I’m alright,” I reply simply. “Not much to it.”
Nancy looks past me out her balcony window, sips her coffee innocuously. I follow her gaze behind me, turning to face her a moment later.
“You wanna step outside?” I ask.
She nods, hopping up from the couch as I follow closely behind her.
Her deck is small, wooden, but it’s plenty of room for the two of us. The view here is pretty sweet; the usual tree-line surrounding Twin Orchards is at eye-level, allowing us to see the beautiful orange glow of the sunset in front of us. I’ve never stopped to watch the sun set before, ever. But with Nancy I could.
“Nice out here,” I say, leaning up against the wooden railing as I finish what’s left of my coffee.
“Yeah, it sold me on the place,” Nancy replies. “I like to come out here, just to think. Every once in a while.”
“What are you thinking about now?” I ask.
She shrugs. “Just what’s possible,” she replies.
I don’t know what she means by that, so I just shrug and nod, setting my empty coffee mug down on the railing in front of me.
“I thought a little bit about what you said last night,” Nancy says.
“What’d I say?”
“The thing about getting engaged. If we did that, even if it wasn’t real between us. We could make enough money to get out of here for good.”
“Today was that shitty, huh?”
Nancy chuckles darkly, sipping her coffee.
“It was, and I’ve had a lot of days like today recently. Every time someone dropped a plate, every time a customer sneered in my face, I thought about what you said. These people here start rumors about people for fun. Talk is cheap, but actions speak louder than words. And everybody’s actions seem to be pretty shitty lately,” she says. “Everyone…except for you.”
I shrug. “Least I can do,” is all I can think to say.
We watch as the sun sets over the tree-line, the sky going from orange to red to blue to black around us. I don’t know how long we’re out here, but I know that every second I get to spend with Nancy is a blessing in disguise. What few clouds there were in the sky dissipate, and I can see the stars are beginning to come out.
After a while, Nancy sighs. “I guess I should probably call it a night. I’ve got to be up early for Nora’s tomorrow.”
I nod. “You should think about finding another job. Something to do with your art. I’d buy that cactus painting in a heartbeat.”
Nancy grins up at me. “You would?”
“Oh, yeah.”
I pick up my empty mug, turning it in my hands as I inspect the logo of the dolphin on the side.
“I’m glad you came over, Jake,” Nancy says.
“Me, too.”
“We should do this again sometime,” she says.
I nod, still inspecting the coffee cup in my hands. I look up at her. “I’d like that,” I agree.
We head inside, and I hand Nancy my coffee cup as she takes it to her kitchen, sets it in the sink.
I grab the doorknob in one hand, turn to face Nancy.
She bounds over to me, grabbing my face in her hands as she kisses me one last time. It’s the best one yet; this kiss is going to be the one I’ll miss her for the most, I just know it.
“I’ll see you around?” she asks.
I nod. “I’ll see you around.”
And with that, I open the door, leaving her apartment as the door closes behind me.
That was nice.
Really.
As I head back to my truck, I can’t help but grin. The old me would’ve gotten mad at Nancy ending that make-out session early, but I couldn’t care less about that.
I seriously can’t wait to see her again.
Twelve
Nancy
Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god.
I totally fucked that all up.
When I close the door behind Jake as he leaves, I can’t help but feel a sinking feeling in my gut.
I know I was too stupid, forward, waaaay too eager to pounce on Jake as soon as he walked into my apartment. I just couldn’t help myself, seeing him dressed like that, smiling the way he does. And when I pulled back, I know that was stupid, too. He was confused, I’m sending him mixed messages all the way to the top.
I doubt he’ll ever want to see me again after that shit-show tonight.
But I can’t read his thoughts. I have no idea what he was thinking as he left, and I know the anticipation of finding out is going to kill me.
I shake off the feeling, head into my kitchen as I start to wash off the coffee mugs from before. I start to take stock of tonight, running over the pros and cons of what just happened as I anxiously clean the mugs by hand.
I think I have feelings for Jake.
Like, actual, genuine feelings. Something I haven’t felt in a long time, not even since Darius after high school, really.
And I know it’s real, this thing between us.
I just have to hope Jake’s thinking about me right now, too. I’m terrified he’s already trying to move past me, get over me before anything real’s even started between us. And after he told me about the fake-engagement plot, I know he wants to skip town one day, too.
All these thoughts racing in my mind, I finish washing the coffee mugs and set them to dry on the rack next to the sink. I walk into the living room, plopping myself down on the couch where Jake and I were just making out only a few short hours ago.
I can’t stop thinking about him; his body, the way he grabbed me in just the right places when I needed it most. The way he got all excited when I straddled him. I want that again. I want that for real. Next time I’m not so sure I’ll be able to resist his charm like I struggled with tonight. That cocky smile of his, that nonchalant attitude. He’ll be the death of me, I’m sure.
I think back to all my past relationships; the boys I dated in high school weren’t nearly as charming or as funny as Jake was. Heck, I don’t really know how I ended up getting engaged with Darius, it just sort of happened. Sometimes you know that’s when there’s a lack of passion, and I’m glad things didn’t work out back then. If I was stuck with Darius, seeing Jake come back into town might’ve just killed me.
I know I’m going to see Jake again. I just don’t know when, and that’s going to drive me absolutely bonkers until then.
I flick on the TV, try scrolling through some channels to find something to distract myself. But nothing seems to work, and I shut off the TV a few minutes later. I check my phone again, notice the time—I really should be getting to bed like I told Jake I was planning on doing.
I get up, lock the front door, make sure the balcony’s locked as well. I flick off all the lights, head into my bedroom.
My room’s basically a mess, and I’m glad Jake and I didn’t take things into here when we were getting busy on the couch. Clothes are scattered everywhere, drawers half-open in dismay. My walls are adorned with posters, paintings just like my living room, but I’m too ashamed of the mess I’ve let this space become. In all honesty, it’s probably why I wanted to cool our jets to begin with. I grab the pile of dirty laundry sitting atop my bed, throw it down to the floor with the rest of all my dirty clothes. My dresser cabinets are half-opened, half-shut, and my closet’s wide open with clothes spilling out like it’s overflowing. My dresser mirror is as dirty as can be, too, and I know my room needs a good cleaning before I even consider bringing Jake in here.
I grab a pile of laundry from the floor, toss it into my hamper. I look around, seeing that’s not going to be good enough. I gather all the clothes on the floor and toss them in afterwards, I’m sure Jake’s probably a tidy personality, especially after being in the Marines for so long, and I’m afraid to know what he’d think to find out his girl is the messiest person in all of Twin Orchards.
After I’ve finished collecting my dirty laundry, I make a mental list of the cleaning I need to do in here before Jake comes over again.
I collapse on the bed, ready to pass out almost instantly. I check my phone again, and I see it’s well after midnight. I should’ve been asleep hours ago, really.
But I’d like to think it was all worth it tonight.
And tomorrow’s going to be a new day. Hopefully not as shitty as today.
As I drift off to sleep, I can’t get Jake out of my head. His smile, his cocky charm.
And the way he grabbed me as he pulled me in closer.
I moan softly, smiling to myself.
I really can’t wait to see him again.
◆◆◆
The next morning I nearly sleep in and miss my alarm, and I have to rush outside to make it to work on time. I make it to Nora’s ten minutes to nine, just a few minutes to spare. I don’t want today to be a nasty repeat of yesterday’s full-day rush, and I take the ten minutes before we open at nine to get everything ready for the full day ahead. Nora brought in more coffee beans, thank God. And I manage to clean off the tables and booths before our first customer comes in at nine on the dot sharp.
