by Lexy Timms
Don’t dwell, don’t dwell, don’t dwell, I thought to myself repeatedly.
I changed out of my old designs and put on the new ones. I didn’t linger by the mirror. I threw on my t-shirt and climbed into bed.
To try and improve my self-esteem, I looked over the photos Justin took of me on the rooftop. I wanted to give all of the credit to him for making the pictures look as impressive as they did, but I had to admit, I played a substantial role. I looked good and I made my underwear look good. I was amazed by how easily Justin’s pictures were still able to keep my undivided attention, even after looking at them a hundred times.
Chapter 19
Justin
I arrived at Kayla’s apartment at 5:54 with seconds to spare and a bottle of wine. I looked at myself via my phone’s camera, making sure I was satisfied with my appearance. I waited until my phone read 5:55 before knocking on the door.
She answered the door, beaming. She was wearing a sundress that immediately captivated my attention.
“You’re right on time,” she said.
“You look… I don’t even know what to say,” I stammered.
“I can’t believe you haven’t gotten tired of me yet,” she said, shaking her head. She stood on her tiptoes and kissed me on the cheek.
“I’ll never get tired of looking at you.” I held out the bottle of wine for her to take.
“Thank you, kind sir,” she said, looking over the bottle. “I’ve never had this brand before.”
“Well, there’s a first time for everything,” I said while stepping through her doorway. I was immediately hit by a delicious scent. I was weary about eating a meat pie, but I realized that my willful ignorance had led me astray. The smell was enough to draw me straight to the kitchen table.
“You smell that?” she asked me, reading my expression. “How psyched are you?”
“Honestly, I’m excited,” I laughed. “That smells so good. I’m ready to eat right this minute.”
“Well, we can’t eat right this minute, but we’ll be able to very soon,” she said while placing the wine in the fridge. She pranced over to the stove and continued her food preparation. “It should only be another five or six minutes. You want to go on a little self-tour and look around while I finish up in here?”
I nodded and set off to explore her apartment. Its size and design reminded me a lot of my own place and I attributed that to us both living in Newark. But, where my place was dressed up to be a bachelor pad, her place was decorated as if done so by professionals.
As I walked through each room and admired the layout, I came to realize just how much nicer her place was than mine. There wasn’t a trace of dust on any surface or object. Her brightly colored walls illuminated every room, even the ones in the dark. She had a different potted plant placed in each room, each one adding something different. The bathrooms were spotless and all the floors in the house were insanely clean.
I glanced out onto her tiny patio, seeing only two lawn chairs and a small table outside. I couldn’t tell, but even her outdoor area looked like it had just been detail-cleaned.
When I got to her bedroom, my eyes were immediately glued to the beautiful wardrobe leaning against her wall. While the blue and green paint looked new, the wardrobe itself looked like it had aged over time. The left door was wide open, revealing hundreds of outfits.
Glancing over into her closet, I noticed hundreds more outfits hung up. I was only imagining how many shoes she must have had.
I returned to the kitchen where Kayla was just moving her baking dish filled with Shepherd’s Pie from the oven up onto the stove. It had a thick, creamy lair of mashed potatoes on top, but underneath, I knew there would be ground beef and cheese.
“I’m ready, let’s eat,” I said.
“It’s too hot!” she warned. “Just wait a few minutes for it to cool.”
“Ah, you’re killing me, darling,” I growled.
“I don’t want your mouth to get burned,” she said.
“I know. You’re just looking out for me.”
She walked up to me, giving me one of my favorite looks that I came to love from her photos. She gripped my pants, pulling my groin closer to her. She moaned, biting her lip as she felt me instantly start to grow inside my boxers.
“What do you think of the place?” she asked.
“I think it’s a hell of a lot nicer than where I live,” I admitted. “My place is like… where I live. But, your place is like… like a home. Does that make sense?”
“Sure,” she chuckled. “You know, if you think that, you would have loved where I lived before here.”
“Where was that?”
“I lived in a small house about two miles west of here,” she answered. “I mean, it was small compared to a lot of the other houses it was around, but it was spectacular. I wish I still lived there.”
“What happened?” I asked her. “Why did you move?”
“I couldn’t afford to live in a house,” she admitted. “I miss it, but I probably shouldn’t have ever bought it. It was sort of an impulsive decision.”
“…You felt impulsive, so you bought a house?” I wondered.
“That’s right and I’ve still got some of my nice things stuck in a stupid storage space in Jersey City.”
I moved my hands up and down the curves of her body. I wanted to run my hands up her sundress and gently caress her bare skin.
“Don’t get too worked up, baby,” she mumbled. “We should eat first…”
I agreed, letting go of her body. She took out plates and silverware while I poured the wine into two pristine wine glasses.
“You know, while I’m thinking about it…” I began. “I wanted to apologize for my off behavior the other night at Teddy’s.”
“What do you mean? You didn’t act off during the meeting. You said you needed time. I understand that.”
“I’m not talking about during the meeting,” I corrected. “I’m talking about after. When I got… I don’t know, weird.”
“Oh,” she said. “You mean in the parking lot?”
“Yeah, I don’t know what came over me.”
“I got the feeling that you were upset with the way I treated you around Bethany,” she inferred. “Am I right?”
I shrugged. “Not…”
She smiled, blushing slightly.
“I knew you weren’t going to make out with me in the booth or anything,” I said. “I didn’t even really expect you to do anything at all. I don’t know what I wanted. I think I was just overwhelmed by everything that was being presented to me. I’ve been getting a lot of opportunities all of the sudden. I went from having no options to having too many options. It’s stressful.”
“I get it,” she said. She patted my hand before I could move the glasses over to the table. “You have nothing to be sorry about. Don’t think of it ever again.”
I was happy to take that advice, because I felt embarrassed just reliving that moment in my head again.
I shoveled my first serving of Shepherd’s Pie down my throat at a remarkable speed. I wondered if I was coming across as a glutton, but I enjoyed the food too much to care.
“Have as much as you want, really,” Kayla said, proud of her meal.
“I will,” I assured her. “You wouldn’t happen to have a full pan of that sitting in your oven for me to take home with me, would you?”
“I’m afraid not,” she frowned.
“You’ll just have to invite me back and make it again,” I suggested as I went for another forkful of meat and potatoes.
“I’ll make it for you the next time you come over.” She winked.
I waited until I had chewed most of my bite before I shifted back to one of our earlier conversations.
“So, I have to keep digging here.” I took another quick bite of my food and a swig of wine before I continued. “Because, when I’m feeling impulsive, I might go out and spend a little more than I should at a bar or a club. Maybe I’ll go out a
nd buy expensive camera equipment that I can’t actually afford. But, buying a house? How did that even come about?”
She looked down at her plate, taking a quick bite before giving me my answer.
“My parents passed away almost ten years ago. They left me a good bit of money. I burned through a lot of it during the first two years after they had died. I was living in my parents’ house for those two years, but I had to get the hell out of there. So, I moved into a house. But, that didn’t work out.”
I suddenly felt a strong urge to not eat. I put my fork down and kept my gaze locked on her face.
“I’m glad I was able to get out as cleanly as I did,” she continued. “I had an amazing realtor help me. After I sold the house, I moved in here. I think I’ve made this place into a home though.”
“Yeah, you definitely have, don’t worry about that,” I said. “I’m so sorry about your parents, Kayla.”
“It happened a long time ago,” she shrugged. “I miss them, but I’m not sad like I used to be. Sometimes I even see them when I dream.”
My curiosity got the better of me. “Do you mind if I ask what happened?”
“I don’t really want to talk about it,” she replied. “I swear it’s not because I’m sad or anything. I just… let’s just stick to more pleasant talk, shall we?”
She then took over my job of rapidly eating huge helpings of Shepherd’s Pie. I wasn’t sure if she was eating to fill the silence or to distract herself from the past. Or, maybe she was just hungry.
“On that note, perhaps we should discuss your company and the jobs you offered me,” I said.
She smiled and nodded, allowing me to continue.
“I don’t think I can accept a full-time position with you guys,” I proceeded. “I want to do your numbers for you and help you get started right away. I’ll camp out here with you for the next couple of days and work with you until you’re sure you’re ready. I’ll gladly keep working with you when I can in the future if you’d like to hire me as an independent…”
“Justin, I know you’re just trying to help me,” she said. “I’m the one that’s got a serious investment in all of this. I never should have put you on the spot like I did the other night. I’m sorry.”
“What’re you talking about?” I asked. “I want to help you because I like your business plan and I think you’ve got a great future ahead of you.”
“You’re just saying that because you want to have sex with me,” she said.
“I’ve already had sex with you, haven’t I? So I’ve no reason to lie right now.”
She shrugged, returning to her food.
“Kayla, when will you believe me when I say that I’m into you? How many memory cards do I have to fill with your picture before you finally believe me? You’re my muse…”
“I’ll never believe that someone like you would ever be seriously interested in someone like me,” she said.
“Oh, really?” I pushed my plate away and leaned over the table. “Why?”
“Justin, come on.”
“I want to know why,” I pressed. “Is it about your weight? I promise you, out of the two of us, you’re the only one who thinks about your weight. Personally, I think your figure is breathtaking.”
“Right, I’m the ‘flavor,’” she said, moving her own plate away. “You like me right now, because ‘I’m not like any woman you’ve seen before.’ You met Bethany, she has a figure like mine and she’s better at flirting.”
“I disagree with both of those statements,” I said quickly. “If you want total honesty, I would have preferred to have that dinner meeting with just you.”
I reached for her hands, but she kept her them safely tucked away in her lap.
“Kayla, if you don’t believe the things that I say, then maybe you’re right,” I said. “We should maintain a strictly business relationship. If you’re not going to trust me, at least it should be related to work and not anything else.”
I realized that it was melodramatic, but I decided to slide my chair out from the table and stand up. This got her to finally look at me.
“I really did love the Shepherd’s Pie though,” I said kindly. “I really would love to have it again sometime soon.”
“What’re you doing?”
“Well Kayla, I don’t feel like I can do or say anything right,” I admitted. “I think all I do lately is make you upset. I’m obviously not good for you.”
“That’s not true,” she said.
“Well, you would know when I’m telling the truth, wouldn’t you?” I asked sarcastically. “If you want to email me those numbers…”
“Hold on, are you seriously leaving?” she asked flabbergasted.
“Tell me why I shouldn’t,” I demanded.
She stood up from her chair too. She walked up to me, staring at me like she had on that first day I took her picture. I was already feeling weaker.
“I’ve had such a hard time believing that you could want anything else other than fun with me,” she said. “I know you say you want more and maybe I really believe you mean that. I would love to go out on a real date with you and see where things would lead. But, you don’t know what’s going to happen.”
“Nobody does,” I added.
“See, I do know though,” she argued. “We’ll go out with each other and spend a lot more time together. You’ll keep being charming and amazing like you always are and it’ll all feel wonderful. But soon, you’re going to get bored. I’m work-oriented and I’ve a lot of goals that would eat up the vast majority of my time. I can’t abandon my dreams for any one person. I’m a career girl. And sure, you’re working a lot and who knows, maybe we’ll be working together so often that it won’t feel like we’re apart for too long. And maybe that’ll be exactly what we want or maybe it’ll just make you so sick of me that you start to...”
Before she could speak another word, I put both of my hands on her face and pulled her to me. We shared a long, passionate kiss that neither of us was willing to break. As we kissed, our hands held onto each other with a soft, warm embrace.
While I tasted her succulent mouth, I began to notice another alluring aroma. Since it seemed to suddenly appear just as Kayla was kissing me, I deduced that the scent was coming from her. I couldn’t tell what it was exactly, but it was one of the best things I had ever smelled in my life.
I lifted her into the air, keeping my arms wrapped firmly around her body. Our lips remained together and our hearts were both hammering away in perfect rhythm.
Chapter 20
Kayla
Eventually, Justin lowered me back onto the ground. We took this opportunity to separate our lips, collect our breath, and readjust our clothes.
“I’m sorry I’m so crazy,” I muttered to him. “Did you do all that just to shut me up?”
“Yes and no,” he replied. “I’ve been wanting to kiss you for days. The timing just worked out well.”
I chuckled, returning to his soft lips. I could feel his rough stubble at times, but I liked it. We kissed for several minutes, our hands and minds wandering all the while. He stayed above my dress for the majority of the time, but eventually, his hand found their way under my dress and onto my ass. He squeezed it with his strong hands, making me want his body more with each passing moment.
I tilted my head back slightly. “Do you want to move to the bedroom...?”
“Don’t we have to wait at least an hour after we eat?” he asked humorously.
“I think that’s only for swimming,” I said, wrapping my hands around his torso. I got a grip on his ass, giving him some squeezes of my own. “If you’d rather not, we don’t have to.”
With the same abruptness with which he kissed me, he took my hand and pulled me away from the table toward my bedroom.
“Justin, wait!” I said through my laughter. “Slow down, cowboy!”
“We’ve been going slow, baby girl,” he said quietly. “I’m ready to go a little faster.”
“I want it all,” I said. “But, just… let me change into something else for you.” I hesitated a moment and then pushed forward. “Something I made.”
He chuckled. His mischievous grin forming on his face. “I cannot wait.”
We shared another kiss and I retreated into the bedroom, shutting the door softly behind me.
* * *
I’d changed a bit ago, but I decided to make him wait. I knew the anticipation would be torture for him. I felt that a nice alternative might be him storming into my room, unable to wait another second. I knew the alternative was unlikely, since we didn’t know each other that well yet.
“You awake out there?” I called out to him.
“I’ve been awake, supermodel!” he responded.
I opened the door as softly as I had closed it. The darkness concealed me up until that moment, but the last of the sunlight in the sky managed to pierce through my windows and shine a light on me.
I was in a soft, transparent nightgown made by my own design. It left nothing to his imagination, but that was intentional. There were strategically placed holes cut into certain areas of the gown and not just in the crotch. He practically salivated as the light illuminated my tits and the rest of me.
“You think a lot of men would buy these for their girlfriends?” I asked him almost shyly.
“In a heartbeat,” he whispered. “For Christmas, birthdays, and any fucking day of the year.”
I turned around so he could see my backside. I stuck out my ass, hoping he might lunge onto me and grab it, desperate to touch me.
“How badly do you want to take this off of me?” I wondered aloud.
“I don’t know, I could dig a little foreplay with that nightgown on, young lady.”
“Are you sure you could even last that long if we just kept making out? Always getting close, but never quite there… I think you might explode in my hand the moment I touch you.”
“You’re on,” he said, throwing off his shirt. I never got tired of seeing his finely shaped body or his gorgeous film strip tattoo. I wanted to bite his nipples just as badly as he wanted to bite mine. He marched toward me and I glided into the doorway.
