by J. S. Cooper
“Rhett?” She frowned as she looked at me, concern in her eyes.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” I laughed and she leaned forward to kiss me, her eyes full of love. I ran my hands down her back and grinned. Who was I kidding? Of course, Clementine would never leave me. We were made for each other and I was Rhett. I was the man that every girl wanted to be with. And Clementine had been lucky enough to catch me. There was no way she’d even look at another guy. No way at all. I tried to ignore the voice in the back of my head that reminded me that I still checked out other girls. It wasn’t like I was looking to hook up, but how could I not check out the goods?
Chapter Two
Clementine
All good things one day begin.
If I knew the words I’d sing,
I’d sing it loud so we could hear.
We have only this one chance. Let’s take it my dear. Let’s taste it my dear.
“Back to Blue” by David Berkeley - The Fire In My Head
Rhett’s blue eyes looked confused as he held me in his arms. I touched his shoulder softly to let him know that we were good. I decided not to tell him that I’d had a scare last week. I didn’t think it was the right time. No, I don’t want a baby right now, Rhett, but last week I thought there was a chance it had happened anyway. That would go down real well. I hid a smile as I imagined how shocked and scared Rhett would look. He’d be like a big baby himself. There was no way I could deal with two babies right now. And I knew he’d be mad at me. I was the one that hadn’t gone and gotten the pill and I was the one that had asked him to enter me without a condom on. I bit down on my lower lip. I’d been stupid. Even though he hadn’t come inside of me, I knew the risks.
“What are you thinking about?” Rhett asked me softly.
“I’m thinking that this is an all too serious moment, right now.”
“So what do you want to do?” He batted his eyelashes at me and I laughed. I’d never seen a guy that was so cocky and self-assured. Only my Rhett would think he could bat his eyelashes and get sex.
“Isn’t that something girls are meant to do?” I said and then giggled.
“Huh?”
“Bat their eyelashes when they want sex.” I teased him. “And just in case you got the wrong idea, no we’re not about to have sex.”
“Why not?” He pouted.
“Because I have homework and we need to tidy up.”
“Well, we don’t have to tidy up...” His voice trailed off and I wanted to burst out laughing. Rhett was in such denial about the mess in the apartment. He was constantly blaming me for being a slob, but most of the mess was his. He was under the mistaken impression that he was some sort of clean freak because his place back home had always been clean, but that had only been because he had a maid that tidied up behind him.
“Excuse me Rhett Madison?”
“It’s your clothes everywhere.” He shrugged and gave me a look.
“Rhett, my clothes are everywhere because you pull them off of me, because you want to have sex everywhere.” I rolled my eyes at him. “Do you really think I’m disrobing and changing in the kitchen?”
“Your bra was on top of the fridge the other day.”
“Because you came behind me when I was cooking.” My voice rose and I laughed. “You’re in some serious denial. You know that right, Rhett?”
“Who me?” He shook his head. “I think not.” His lips turned up in a grin and he paused. “Well, now that you come to explain it a bit, I guess I can see some of your points.”
“Uh huh.”
“I just thought you’d be a bit tidier Clementine O’Hara.” He flashed his teeth. “Considering you’re a young Southern lady, I thought you’d know how to keep house a bit better.”
“What?” My jaw dropped open at his words. “Are you joking right now?”
“Bad time to joke?” He winked at me and I wrinkled my nose at him.
“Rhett, go and do something. I need to study.” I looked at my watch and sighed. “Holden is coming over tonight.”
“Hole who?” He froze and his eyes became alert.
“Holden, my assignment partner.” I said slowly and looked away. “I told you about him, remember?”
“Noooo,” he drawled. “I’ve never heard about him before in my life.”
“You most probably weren’t paying attention to me.”
“I don’t remember you mentioning him.” He shook his head.
“Remember I told you, his brother went to school with David Berkeley.”
“Who the fuck is David now?” He frowned at me. “Another guy you want to study with?”
“Rhett?” I sighed. “David Berkeley, my favorite singer, remember?”
“Hmmm.” He shrugged and looked sheepish. “Oh yeah.”
“So Holden is coming over tonight so we can work on our assignment, so I need to get ready.”
“Get ready?” He raised an eyebrow and his jaw dropped. “Did you put a facemask on to get your skin all glowy for him?”
“Rhett.” I shook my head. “Don’t be an idiot. I meant get ready for our discussion, not dressing up.”
“Am I going to have to let this guy know what’s up?”
“No, we’re just friends.” I sighed and blushed. I didn’t tell Rhett that Holden was hot, really hot. And smart. I knew Rhett wouldn’t appreciate hearing about that. Even though he knew I loved him. Even though he knew he was my world. It was funny, I never would have thought that even gorgeous guys could be insecure, but they were as insecure as the rest of us. It still amazed me that Rhett and I were dating and that we’d gone from best friends to boyfriend and girlfriend with very few hiccups. Not that I wasn’t worried of course. A part of me was scared that everything would go down badly and I’d lose my best friend and my boyfriend. A part of me was scared that someone like Rhett couldn’t change. I mean, how many players went from multiple women to one girl? Not many, I was sure. And Rhett was gorgeous, so all he had to do was go out to have women hitting on him. It was hard dating someone with such good looks and charisma. Though I trusted him. I had to trust him.
“Are you mad at me?” Rhett sighed as he studied my face and I just gazed at him.
“No, I just get worried sometimes.”
“Worried about what?” He asked softly.
“If we made a mistake.” I looked down. “I don’t want to lose you Rhett.”
“All good things one day begin. If I knew the words I’d sing, I’d sing it loud so we could hear. We have only this one chance. Let’s take it my dear. Let’s taste it my dear.” Rhett sang softly at me and I smiled.
“I love that you don’t know David Berkeley’s name, but you know his songs. I love Back To Blue.”
“Of course I know his songs; you play them all the time.” He grabbed my hands. “But it’s true, Clemmie. We only have one life, we only have one chance. We couldn’t just walk away from what we have without giving it a shot.”
“Don’t you ever get worried though?”
“Never.” His blue eyes became serious. “There is no doubt in my mind that you’re the girl for me.”
“But you never wanted to fall in love or have a girlfriend or...” I stopped myself from saying get married. I knew that he didn’t want to hear the words married or baby right now. I tried to stop myself from giggling at the picture his face would make if I said the words marriage. Not that I didn’t want to marry him. Of course I did. However, I knew it was important to take baby steps with Rhett. It had taken him long enough to figure out he had feelings for me, I didn’t want to cause him to go backwards. Not when I’d been in love with him for so many years.
“Or what?” I could see him thinking as he stared at me. The blue in his eyes changed from a light sky blue to a more serious azure color.
“Nothing.” I said lightly and turned away from him. I could feel my heartbeat skipping, worried that he’d catch on to what I’d been thinking and flip out. I knew Rhett well enough to know that the words wedding
and marriage would cause him to have a heart attack, no matter how much he denied it. It would be too much, way too soon.
“Remember when we went to that movie theater and danced and sang that Hansen song?” He grabbed my arm and spun me around.
“How could I forget? The MMMBop song?” I made a face and he laughed.
“Yeah, remember how we were laughing and dancing?” His eyes crinkled as he recalled the spectacle we had made of ourselves.
“Yeah why?”
“We did that because we thought it was fun. We did it because we had no fear of what other people were going to think. We did it because we were together and we just wanted to have a good time.” He squeezed my shoulders. “We were each other’s rocks. We can do anything together Clemmie. I’m not scared about what could happen to us because I know that there’s nothing that could happen that we couldn’t get over. We’re still best friends first.” He grinned. “And that means I can still tease the heck out of you and not worry that you’re going to get all silly and girly on me.”
“Phew.” I laughed. “I thought you wanted to go to Copley Place, that mall downtown, and perform a new dance routine.”
“Hell no.” He laughed. “My dancing days are behind me.”
“We could do some twerking, Nicki Minaj style.” I grinned.
“I think I’ll keep my anaconda in my pants, thank you for very much.” Rhett laughed and winked at me.
“I cannot believe you know the name to her song, or that you even know who she is.” My jaw dropped as I stared at him. I felt warm and secure inside. I loved that Rhett could always push my worries aside so easily.
“I’m dating you. I know all the crappy musicians now.”
“She’s not crappy.” I rolled my eyes. “At least some of her songs aren’t crappy.” I conceded.
“I don’t mind if you want to practice your twerking though.” He pulled me towards him and squeezed my ass. “Preferably on my lap.”
“You’re disgusting Rhett.” I hit him in the arm. “I’m not about to twerk on your lap.”
“You weren’t complaining last night.” He licked his lips and playfully slapped my ass.
“Is everything about sex with you?”
“Is that even a question Clementine O’Hara? We’ve been best friends for years and that was never an issue, do you really think that’s all I want now?”
“I don’t know what to—”
“Seriously Clementine?” He cut me off and stepped back and his lips quivered. “Is that what you think of me?” I saw his eyes widen and he bit his lower lip. “Do you really think I’m capable of being that sort of man?” His eyes looked dolefully into mine and I burst into laughter.
“You’re such a goof.” I shook my head after my laughter subsided. “What am I going to do with you, Rhett Madison?”
“I’m going to plead the fifth as I’m not sure you’ll appreciate my answer.” He grinned and then winked at me again. “However, I can make it easy for you.”
“Make what easy for me?” I frowned as I watched him pulling his shirt off. I stared at his bare chest and tried not to burn my eyes out staring at his abs. I didn’t understand abs. How did they even exist? How did a stomach go from fat to a well-defined and chiseled piece of art? I ran my fingers down his six-pack and licked my lips. “You wish.”
“You do too.”
“Rhett, I already told you, Holden is coming over and we’re going to study.”
“I don’t know Holden and I don’t care about Holden. What sort of name is Holden anyway?”
“Rhett.” I frowned at him and ran to my phone when I heard it beeping. “I think that might be him.”
“He’s here already?”
“Yes.” I read my text messages. “Please be nice.”
“I’m always nice.” He looked at me with a surly expression. “Why wouldn’t I be nice to Holdy?”
“Holden.” I rolled my eyes.
“At least he’s holding and not grabbing.”
“Rhett!”
“I’d have to give him a beat down if he tried to grab you.” He cocked his head. “In fact I’d have to give him a beat down if he tried to hold you as well.”
“Will you behave?”
“Do you love me?” He asked me softly as I hurried around the apartment and grabbed every item that didn’t belong on the ground and threw it into our bedroom.
“What?” I paused as I grabbed up a pair of his boots and ran past him.
“Do you love me?” He stopped me from moving.
“You know I do.”
“Good.” He smiled and nodded. “That’s all I wanted to hear.”
“You’re crazy, you know that right?”
“I’m crazy in love with you.” He whispered in my ear and my heart started thudding. How many years had I waited to hear someone say that to me? Not even I could have imagined that my Rhett would have finally grown up and fallen in love with me. I’d never believed that fairytales could come true before. “Never forget that.” He said quietly.
“I’ll never forget that.” I looked into his eyes. “You know that right?”
His eyes continued to stare into mine and I saw that lost look that sometimes took over his face. The look that told me that even though he was here with me, he wasn’t really here. He was thinking about something. He was in another place. A place where he was young, lost, scared Rhett. A place where all his bravado and charisma, was gone. It was a place I’d seen him in many times before, but it was a place we never spoke about.
“Be a good girl or I’ll spank you.” He joked finally and looked away. “You better go and let Holden in or he’ll start to wonder what’s going on.”
“I’m sure he’s already wondering that.” I laughed and kissed Rhett quickly on the lips. “Don’t mess the apartment up while I go down and get him.”
“Don’t be too long or I’ll send a search party down.” He called after me as I ran to the front door so that I could go downstairs to let Holden into the apartment building. I smiled to myself as I made my way down and tried to remind myself that I needed to speak to Rhett later about what was bothering him because something was obviously bothering him. I wasn’t sure if he was having cold feet about us. It was a weird situation that we were in, going from best friends to lovers and living together in such a short time. I felt like we’d never really gotten to experience what it was like to just date, without the pressure. We’d moved in together so quickly. We’d gone from Rhett and Clementine, best friends to Rhett and Clementine, serious boyfriend and girlfriend. There had been no in-between.
“Hey Holden, sorry about the delay.”
“No worries.” He grinned at me as I let him in. “I thought I had the wrong building for a minute.”
“No sorry, my boyfriend had clothes everywhere and I was just trying to tidy up before you came up.”
“Oh you didn’t have to tidy up for me.” He flashed his perfect white teeth at me. “I don’t mind a bit of a mess.”
“Oh I couldn’t have you coming over to a mess.”
“I guess it’s the Southern girl in you.” He laughed. “Most girls in Boston don’t care.” He winked at me and I could see that his green eyes were laughing. I stared at him and tried not to ogle him. Holden looked like a young Ben Affleck and I couldn’t stop myself from admiring his serious, studious expression. He was so unlike the guys I’d known back home.
“That could be it. Come on up. I’m sure Rhett’s wondering what’s taking so long.”
“And Rhett is your young man?”
“He’s my boyfriend yes.” I nodded as we walked up the stairs. “We were best friends for years and just recently started dating.”
“Really?” He seemed surprised. “And you guys are living together already?”
“Well, I know it seems fast, but we—”
“What seems fast?” Rhett stood at the front door and surveyed Holden as we walked into the apartment.
“Holden this is Rhett, Rh
ett, this is Holden.”
“I’m her boyfriend, Rhett.” Rhett held his hand out and his blue eyes narrowed as he took in Holden’s appearance. A part of me thought it was funny that he was acting so possessive and the other part of me was annoyed.
“Holden, her new friend.” Holden turned to me and gave me a smile. “At least, I hope you consider me a friend.”
“Of course I do.” I beamed at him. “You’re my first friend in Boston and at Harvard. It’s not easy being the new girl; especially being from the South.”
“What’s wrong with being from the South?” Rhett frowned.
“There’s nothing wrong with being from the South.” Holden said diplomatically. “I think there’s just an idea of what people are like who are from the South. Good ol’ boys and all that.”
“Good ol’ boys?” Rhett gave me a look and then turned back to Holden. “What does that mean?”
“Well you know.” Holden continued uncomfortably and I wanted to tell him to stop while he was ahead. “I think there are three sorts of people from the South: the rednecks or cowboys or whatever, the plantation folk that wish slavery was still around to pick their cotton and tobacco and the migrants from the North that wanted a slower pace of life.”
“Really now?” Rhett drawled. “I guess you just know your Southern boys well, huh? We’re all into Nascar, Country Clubs and going on about the good ol’ days.”
“Well, no.” Holden’s face turned red. “I didn’t mean to stereotype or say that was all that exists. I’m sure everyone doesn’t love Nascar and every guy isn’t into pickup trucks.”
“Rhett loves pickup trucks.” I grinned and punched Rhett in the shoulder. “And stop picking on Holden. He’s going to think we’re unfriendly.”
“No offense about pickup trucks.” Holden made a small face and Rhett rolled his eyes at me. I knew exactly what he was thinking, just from his expression. He thought Holden was an idiot. He thought Holden was a wimp and everything he disliked about guys from the North. Holden unknowingly was proving Rhett’s thoughts about how Northerners thought about Southerners and I knew that Rhett was going to let me know exactly what he thought as soon as Holden left.
