It's Complicated

by Missy Johnson

  “Hoarder, much? You keep fucking everything,” she mutters. She shakes her head and examines an old movie stub that I had stashed in a drawer. I walk over and snatch it from her.

  “This was the only movie my mother ever took me to,” I explain.

  “Oh.” She winces. “Fuck, sorry.” She hesitates for a moment before sitting back down on the bed. “I thought she left when you were born?”

  “She did,” I nod. “She and my dad decided to give things another go when she moved back from London. It lasted about three weeks,” I say, forcing a laugh. “She said it was too much and motherhood wasn’t her thing. So, she went back, and I haven’t seen her since. That was when I was five.”

  “Harsh,” she says. We’re both distracted by a sudden flash of light. We look over and see the light in Nick’s room is on. My heart races. I turn back to Kayla, who is grinning at me like an idiot.

  “You’re about to see something you can’t unsee,” I say with a grin. “You might think you’re ready for this, but trust me, you’re not.”

  “Will you stop it?” she grumbles, shoving me off the bed. I laugh as I fall on a heap on the floor. I creep over to the window, Kayla hot on my ass. “Why am I nervous? My stomach is churning,” she says, shaking her head.

  “Because this is creepy,” I exclaim. “We’re sitting on my bed, in the dark, waiting for my hot neighbor to get undressed. If we were dudes, we’d be thrown in prison for this,” I add.

  “Technically, we’re now crouched beneath your window, but I get your point,” She laughs. “But who cares? If we were dudes, they’d make a movie about this,” she retorts. She strains her neck to look through the window and squeals. “I think he’s coming.”

  “Wow, that usually doesn’t happen till after his shower,” I quip, poking my tongue out at her.

  I glance over and see that she’s right. Nick enters his room, unbuttoning his shirt as he walks. He shrugs it off, placing it neatly over the end of his bed. I swear I can hear Kayla salivating at the sight of his smooth, tanned chest. Hell, who am I kidding? I’m just as worked up. Maybe more so, because I know what’s coming.

  “God, I’m tingling already,” Kayla sighs, a dreamy expression on her face. “Look at that chest,” she sighs. “I heard from my neighbor that Mindy Henderson’s mother ended up in hospital for a week with a split vagina because of his dick.” I snort because she speaks so matter-of-factly. She raises her eyebrows at me. “True story.”

  “Bullshit. It was a few stiches, and she was out the same day,” I murmur, craning my neck to get a better view. “Don’t believe everything you hear.”

  “They were right about the size of his package, weren’t they?” she points out.

  No. They underestimated it.

  Her attention turns back to Nick when she realizes he’s unbuckling his belt. I hold my breath and watch as he slides it free from his lean waist. Next, he unbuttons his pants, lowering the zip slowly and deliberately, like he knows that he’s being watched. I can barely take the anticipation that is building up in my chest as he slides his pants lower…and lower…until…

  “Holy shit! Fuck me with a stick! How could any woman handle that?” Kayla growls, shaking her head. “What did you say his wife died of? Cancer, or a big fat cock?”

  “Kayla!” I snort, gasping as wine shoots out of my nose. I turn around and sit back down in shock. She did not just say that.

  “What?” she asks innocently. “Don’t tell me you weren’t thinking the same thing.” She glances down at me and shakes her head. “Why are you down there and not up here, watching this?” she asks like I’m insane.

  “Because your insensitivity knocked me over,” I retort, cringing as I replay her words in my head. She grabs my arm, pulling it hard. Reluctantly, I get back up on my knees and peer out the side of the window.

  Kayla groans. “This is fucking incredible, Anna. Look, he’s stroking it. God, what I wouldn’t do to feel that thing slide between my legs. I wonder what he tastes like. Though I’d struggle to close my lips around that, I think. Brings new meaning to the phrase, ‘more than a mouthful’, huh?”

  “Kayla,” I gasp, burying my face in my hands. Tears are streaming down my cheeks, I’m laughing so hard. I look up again, just in time to see him slide his hand along his shaft, before flicking the light off. I sigh, disappointed that he’s done.

  “Aww, that’s it? I feel ripped off. Where’s the encore? I think I’m gonna write a letter of complaint.”

  “You’re not a paying customer, Kales. Give the guy a break. It must be tiring lugging that thing around all day,” I joke.

  I sit back on my heels, still watching him as he moves around to the other side of his bed. Then he walks back over to the window and glances out. My heart stops because I swear his eyes meet mine. It’s only for a second, but long enough for me to completely lose my shit.

  “Fuck!” I gasp, my heart thudding in my chest.

  “What? Oh!” Kayla cries as I yank her by the hand.

  We scramble to the floor as though a bomb had just been detonated, collapsing onto our stomachs. Somehow, my bracelet catches on the curtains, bringing them down with me. My arms flailing, I fight my way out from under what feels like a mountain of netting, almost hyperventilating. I am so mortified. I can’t even think about what just happened without wanting to pass out.

  “Anna, what the fuck?” hisses Kayla. “Are you trying to get us caught?”

  My heart pounds as I blink back tears. If that were my intention, then I’m pretty sure I just managed it. What am I going to do? It's obvious that someone was watching, and I know for a fact that he knows exactly which room is mine.

  “Fuck,” I curse. I’m panicked and not sure what to do. Do I confront this or just pretend it never happened? Pretending it never happened is looking pretty damn good. Kayla puts her hand on my leg, trying to calm me down.

  “It’s okay, Banana,” she says, using her nickname for me. “I’m sure he didn't see us.”

  “It's my room, Kayla,” I growl, my cheeks hot with embarrassment. “Who the fuck is he going to think was perving on him? My father?”

  Kayla giggles, her eyes sparkling. “That’s putting a kind of fucked-up image in my head.”

  “Kayla,” I growl, almost in tears.

  She winces and nods, going back to soothing me. I hate that she can still find this funny. She gets to go home, knowing he has no reason to suspect that she was involved. This was a disaster. I was never going to be able to face him again. I might as well pack up and move to another country.

  “Calm down, Anna,” Kayla sighs as if I’m being melodramatic. “Maybe you could work this in your favor?”

  “Really?” I snap sarcastically. “And how do you propose that?”

  I stop listening because nothing she says from this point is going to change the fact that I’m fucked. And without all the benefits of actually being fucked.

  “You better go,” I mumble. I rub the sides of my head and try to think of what to do.

  “Go?” she laughs. “Why don’t I just go and bang on the guy’s door and announce that we were perving on him? Me leaving right after the fact is a tiny bit obvious.”

  She has a point.

  “Fine.” I toss a pillow on the floor and lie down. “You can take my bed.”

  “Uh, Anna? Should we put the curtain back up?”

  I frown in the darkness. I don’t know what to do. At this point, I don’t think anything is going to make things worse. There is no way out of this mess short of relocating and changing my name. Which suddenly isn’t sounding like such a bad option.

  Because the other thing I forgot to mention?

  Nick isn’t just my neighbor. He’s also my dad’s best friend.

  Chapter Four

  Nick

  As I turn to walk to the bathroom, something catches my eye. I glance back to the window and peer outside. I frown because I could've sworn that there was a curtain on that window less than five m
inutes ago. I stand there for a moment, suddenly feeling nervous. It's Anna's room. I'm sure of it. Could she have been watching me? I glance down at my naked form and cringe.

  What was I thinking parading around in front of an open window like this?

  That’s the problem. I wasn’t thinking. Whenever I walk into my room and see that stupid lace netting, I found myself thinking that nobody could see in. But with the bedroom light on, everything could be seen from the outside. Anyone could stand there and watch me.

  Including Anna.

  Why would she want to, though? That’s the bit I don’t understand. The thought of her watching me like that and seeing me naked makes me think things I probably shouldn't be thinking. It's not her age that bothers me because, at thirty-seven, I'm really not that much older than her. It's the fact that I'm such good friends with her father, Dan, that makes her off limits.

  Dan and I met when I first moved here with my wife, Marley, about seven years ago. He’s only a few years older than me, and we had so much in common that friendship seemed inevitable. Over the years, we became really close. Our friendship fizzled after my kids were born, and our interests changed. My focus became my kids while his focus was still having fun. Anna was a teenager by then, who was used to looking after herself. It was only in the last six months or so that Dan and I had begun to reconnect our friendship.

  I sit down on the bed, still naked, and still glancing over at the window. I haven't seen anything else to suggest that she's watching me, so I start to think that maybe I'm reading too much into this. Anything could've happened to that curtain. A loose hook, or maybe a rash decision to redecorate just happened to coincide with—I stop and let out a chuckle. Hell, even I can't convince myself of that.

  Wandering into the bathroom, I step into the shower and let out a long sigh. It’s been a hell of a day, and it feels good to just relax. Or at least, try to relax, because as much as I want to let the tension go, it doesn’t seem to want to let up on me.

  I soap myself up, running my hands over my body. When I reach my cock, I slide my fist along my shaft and grunt. I’m hard as fuck. I wasn’t intending to jerk off in the shower, but thinking about Anna watching me has gotten me quite worked up. Did she like what she saw? Did she touch herself while thinking about what it would feel like to ride my dick?

  No, if she’d heard the rumors, she’d be thinking the opposite.

  Resting my hand against the shower wall, I pump my fist, hard and fast until I find my release. It doesn’t take long. All I had to do was picture Anna on her knees in front of me, and I was gone. I know I’m going to regret picturing her later, but right now, all I want to do is clear my head, so I can sleep.

  I step out onto the bathmat and frown, the pang of guilt hitting me. Well, that happened faster than I was expecting. I shouldn’t have been thinking about her like that, and it definitely can’t happen again.

  “Fuck,” I hiss as I walk back into my room.

  The first thing I notice is the curtain is back up, and her light is now on. Well, that answers that question. Any doubt I had was gone. She was definitely watching me. The question is, what am I going to do about it?

  Ignore it and pretend it never happened.

  That would be the logical course of action. There is no benefit in pointing out the obvious and embarrassing the poor girl, but I wasn’t sure that I could resist. The smart-ass in me lives for moments like this. Maybe I should invite her over to play with my big model again. Wait, was that why she was so weird when I said that because she’d been watching me? I chuckle. I’m slowly warming up to the idea of hot, young Anna checking me out.

  Groaning, I roll over, not liking where my mind is taking this. One second I love the idea, and the next, it’s creepy. She's not the little girl next door anymore. She's a mature, attractive, twenty-something college student. The last thing I need is a complication that would come with thinking about her in any other way than my neighbor, or my best friend’s daughter. Of course, I probably should’ve thought about that before jacking off to her in the shower.

  Just as I’m about to drive off, I glance over and see Anna hunched over her car. She stands back from the raised bonnet and hurls a kicking assault on the front bumper, a frustrated look on her face.

  “Hold on for a second,” I tell my kids.

  I jump out and wander over to the fence, doing my best to act casual as I scale it. I want to help her out, but I also want to gauge how she reacts to me being there. If she was watching me, this exchange is going to be awkward and strained.

  God, she’s so nice to look at. I glance at her short black skirt as it gently flaps in the wind and barely covers her creamy white thighs that I can’t drag my eyes away from. Her long, toned legs seem to go on forever, and when she stretches out over the engine to reach a rag, I have to turn away. When I get my erection under control, I turn back and flush when I see her frowning at me. The only thing awkward and strange about this situation is me.

  “Hey. Is everything okay?” I ask.

  “Sure, if you count a flat battery as okay,” she snaps. She half commits to eye contact as she winces. “Sorry. I’m crabby because I’m running late for an exam I probably should’ve studied harder for in the first place.”

  “Studied harder for?” I chuckle. “Is that even possible with you?”

  “You sound just like my dad,” she accuses.

  “Which is probably where I heard that from.” I grin. “Need a lift?”

  She shakes her head with a little too much enthusiasm, color creeping across her cheeks. She still hasn’t met my eyes, and I’m starting to wonder if she’s going to go the whole conversation without even looking at me.

  “Thanks for the offer, but it’s okay. I can get a friend to pick me up on their way past.”

  “Your call.” I shrug as if it makes no difference to me. Inside, I’m a little disappointed at the missed opportunity to spend more time with her. “Hey, if you ever have a few spare minutes, come past my office, and I’ll show you that project. You’ll love it. I promise.”

  “I might do that,” she says with a hesitant smile. “Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome,” I say. “It’s kind of nice to see someone with such a passion for architecture. People look at me funny when I get excited over a sharp pencil and a precision edged rule.” I shrug. “Some guys watch porn. I watch Grand Designs.”

  She laughs loudly. “Whatever works for you, I guess,” she teases. She nods back at my car. “I guess you better get them to the school before they escape.”

  I turn around and see Max hanging out of one side window and hear Milly yelling to me from out of the other side.

  “Right. I’ll see you around,” I say, heading back to my car.

  So much for my new technique. I hope my flirting skills are better than my parenting.

  She thinks you whack yourself off to Grand Designs. Yep. Things aren’t looking good.

  I drop the kids off at school and then head straight into work. Shirley is off for the day, which is good because I don't think I'm going to get too much done today. The last thing I needed was her input as to why my head isn’t in it.

  I'm struggling to focus when Dan walks in. I look up and frown, trying to think up an excuse to get rid of him. Any other day I'd be happy to catch up with my friend, but I'm embarrassed about what I'm feeling toward his daughter. I feel so sneaky even speaking to her, even though nothing has happened apart from a few misconstrued comments. Unless you count the fact that she’s seen my cock. And I’ve jacked off to her in the shower. See? Nothing.

  “Hey,” he says, throwing himself down on the couch in the waiting room outside my office. He rubs his head and sighs. “Got any whiskey in there? I need a drink.”

  I grab a bottle of scotch off my shelf and wander in to join him. He grins as I hand him the bottle, twisting the cap off to take a mouthful.

  “Help yourself.” I grin. “Shouldn't you be at work, or something?”

&nbs
p; “Or something,” he nods. “I had a client book me for the whole day, and then they cancelled at the last second. All good, because they paid in advance. So, I thought I’d come and annoy you.”

  “Thanks, but I'm really overloaded here,” I mumble, trying to sound distracted.

  “You sure everything is okay?” Dan sits forward and looks at me, concerned. “You seem kind of distant.”

  “I'm fine,” I assure him. “I just have more work than I can handle and two kids who insist on pushing my buttons. Add to that my house is a mess, and things are fucking awesome.”

  None of those things were really that true—except maybe for my house being a mess, but I thought of a way to get rid of him, and I’m committing to it. The only way I can think of to have him leave me alone is to pretend that I don’t have time to even breathe.

  “Well, if you’re that busy, maybe you need someone to help you out?” Dan suggests.

  “Are you offering?” I chuckle. “Because you can’t clean for shit, and I wouldn’t trust you with my kids.”

  “Thanks,” he retorts. “No. I mean hire someone to help you. A babysitter or a housekeeper or something. It might even leave you more time for sex, then maybe you’d be less of an asshole. You know, considering all the women you have lined up to ride your ride.”

  I groan and sit down while Dan laughs.

  “You heard,” I say flatly.

  “Bit hard not to.” He chuckles. “You’re all anyone is talking about, according to Mandy.”

  “Fan-fucking-tastic,” I mumble.

  “Hey, you should be flattered. I’d love to have women lining up to fuck me, no strings attached. Hey, maybe you can start a rumor about your friend who’s bigger than you are?”

  “Fuck no,” I say dryly. “And I'm sure Mandy will be thrilled to hear that.”

  Dan and Amanda have been going out for around six weeks. It was the longest relationship I’d known the guy to have, so there must be something special about her.

  “So, can I get back to work now?” I ask, raising my eyebrows.