by Amy Brent
Melissa and I both burst out laughing. She shook her head at me. “Seriously Allie, everyone has been itching to see the two of you get together. All our friends talk about it. I can’t believe you and Steven never noticed.”
“No way,” I said, shocked. “People have been thinking he and I would be a thing all this time?”
“Yeah, for ages,” Melissa shrugged.
Suddenly, a shadow was cast over our table. Melissa and I both looked out the window and started laughing when we saw Chance and Steven pressed up against the glass making faces at us. We waved for them to come sit with us.
Seconds later, Steven was squishing in behind me and sitting in the chair beside me. He draped one arm across the back of my chair and leaned back. I could feel him looking at me. “What were you ladies talking about?” he asked with playful curiosity.
“You,” Melissa and I both said in unison. We started giggling once more.
Steven raised his eyebrows. “Oh yeah? About this morning?”
My cheeks burned fiercely. I shot him a horrified look, and he threw his head back and laughed. As Melissa and Chance started chuckling, I covered my face with my hands and shook my head. “You’re the worst,” I groaned.
Steven rubbed my back and continued laughing. “Ah, you know what you signed up for.”
“Yeah,” Chance said, “and it’s about bloody time, too. I’ve been waiting for years. Everyone has.”
“Apparently,” I muttered.
Steven and Chance ordered their meals, and the kitchen timed everything well so we could all eat together. We laughed and chatted about unimportant things. It felt so good to be sitting with the people I loved; it felt better to be sitting with them as Steven’s girlfriend. It was a feeling I never thought I would have.
When we were done eating, Steven dropped enough cash on the table to cover everyone’s bills. When we all insisted we would pay for our own, he told us to stuff it. Then he looked at me and put his hand on my knee.
“Want to come to my place tonight? I want to cook you dinner. Come straight after work, if you want.”
“Of course, I want to come over,” I said, smiling as he leaned in and kissed me.
“Alright, you two,” Chance teased. “Even though you’re together now doesn’t mean we want to see it in action. Keep that shit in the bedroom, will you?”
Steven held my face in both his hands and kissed me harder. I giggled and tried to pull away, but he held on fiercely, intentionally proving to everyone in there that he didn’t give a damn whether or not they wanted to see us kissing.
When he pulled away, he smirked proudly at Chance, who rolled his eyes at the ceiling. I was blushing again, and I could feel the heat on the back of my neck. It had never felt so good to be embarrassed.
Melissa was watching me with happy eyes. She didn’t seem to mind the impromptu display of public affection. If anything, she seemed pleased to have seen it.
“You two are meant for each other,” Melissa said as she got up and put her jacket on. “I have to get back to work. I’ll catch you guys around. And Steven,” she added, “you’re a lucky guy. There aren’t many people good enough for my baby sister. But you get the stamp of approval.”
“I am lucky,” he agreed, pulling me against him and kissing the top of my head.
Melissa left smiling. The three of us sat for a little while longer chatting. Chance left after fifteen minutes, and Steven and I stayed huddled up beside each other people watching through the window.
“I should probably go back to work,” I said, wanting nothing more than to stay with him.
“Probably,” Steven admitted, sounding as put off by the notion of separating as I was. “But you’ll be at my place before we know it. The wait will be worth it. Maybe I’ll make something new.”
“Whatever you make, I’m sure it will be delicious,” I said as we stood up and put our coats on.
“You have so much faith in me.”
“Your cooking has never disappointed me before,” I said truthfully. “Besides, I’m really only in it for the good company.”
Steven smiled at me and kissed my forehead. “Me too.”
He walked me back to the office. We held hands the whole way. It was weird at first, but once we were a couple blocks down the street, it started to feel right. He stopped in front of shop windows and pointed at things he thought I should buy. His eye was drawn to clothes I was too nervous to wear out in public. I didn’t like being the center of attention. Steven thrived off of it.
He pointed at a red dress in one window. “You would look so good in that,” he said, pulling me back to him by the hand when I made to keep walking.
“It looks expensive,” I said, my eyes scanning over the sweetheart neckline and cap sleeves. “I wouldn’t have anywhere to wear something like that. It looks like a Christmas dress.”
“Maybe I need to take you somewhere worthy of wearing it,” Steven said, and we left the shop window behind.
He brought me back to my office, and we said a long goodbye in the parking lot. We couldn’t keep our hands off each other. He showered me with kisses and kept pulling me back to him every time I tried to leave. Laughter bubbled up out of me as I put up a weak fight of trying to get away. Neither of us wanted to part.
I was so in love with him.
“Steven,” I pleaded, “I have to get back in there. I’ll see you tonight. I’ll come right after work.”
“Okay, okay,” he submitted, letting my hand fall from his. “I’ll see you soon. Every minute is going to feel like torture.”
“Stop being such a romantic,” I laughed, walking away but looking back at him over my shoulder. He stood staring after me with his hands in his pockets. He was smiling.
I still couldn’t wrap my head around how I had gotten so lucky. My heart was light in my chest as I went inside and took the elevator up. Even if James Lipton had been at work, he wouldn’t have been capable of ruining my mood. I hadn’t felt so genuinely happy in a long time. I was fairly certain that Steven felt the same way.
When I sat back down at my desk, I pressed a finger to my lips. I could still feel the softest tingle there; the remnants of Steven’s kiss. I sighed and turned on my computer monitor. I was useless for the rest of the day and didn’t care. I watched the clock, desperate to get out of the office and be back in Steven’s arms.
Chapter 33
Steven
I shook the lighter, irritated that now was the time it would run out of fluid. I tried lighting the candles on the dining room table once more, but when the lighter clicked, no flame sprang from the end.
“Are you fucking serious?” I muttered to myself, shaking the lighter more vigorously. I tried for a third time. Finally, it lit, but it was only a tiny blue flame. I managed to light one of the candles before it snuffed out. Then I used the lit candle to light the other two on the table.
I stood back to admire my work.
I wasn’t much for decorating, but I was proud of how everything had come together. I had set the table with three candles of different heights in the middle. My plates matched the napkins, and I had even gone through the trouble of setting out the salt and pepper. A bowl of salad rested beside the candles, and on the opposite side was a basket of baked bread. I hoped Allie would be impressed.
I had been slaving—well, sort of slaving—over a new spaghetti recipe. I knew how much Allie loved pasta. It was her go-to on any food menu. I was hoping to blow her away through her taste buds.
There was a knock on my front door. I caught myself literally jogging down the hall to go let her in. Jesus, man, I thought, get a hold of yourself. You’re acting like a sixteen-year-old boy on a first date.
The thought made me smile. I hadn’t felt this excited to see a girl in my life.
When I opened the door, Allie stood smiling up at me. She was holding a bottle of red wine in one hand and a box wrapped in pink ribbon in the other. She held them both out to me. “I brought wine and t
reats for later,” she said as she stepped in, and I took everything from her hands.
“I was wondering what was taking you so long,” I said.
“So long?” She laughed. “I’m only fifteen minutes later than I would have been if I came straight from work.”
“Yeah. It was a long fifteen minutes for me, alright?”
“Alright,” she grinned, hanging up her coat on the coat rack. We went into the kitchen, and she spotted the table setting. “Oh, Steven, this looks terrific. And the aroma! Holy smokes, it’s amazing! What did you make?”
“Spaghetti,” I said somewhat proudly as I rummaged in one of my drawers for a corkscrew. When I found it, I set to work on opening the wine. I poured us each a glass and then set to filling our plates with pasta and sauce.
Allie sipped her wine and watched me. I brought the plates to the table and pulled her chair out for her. She sat, smiling up at me like some sort of beautiful angel who had been banished to earth and then looked down at all the food. “Steven, you outdid yourself. This is so nice.”
“I wanted to do this for you,” I said. “You’re too special to me for me not to show you how much I love you.”
“I love you, too,” Allie said.
I lifted my wine glass. She tapped hers to mine. “Here’s to the future as a couple,” I said, “finally.”
“Finally.”
While we ate, we laughed and chatted. I basked in Allie’s constant laughter and admired the way the flames from the candles danced in her eyes. She was spectacular. I felt like I was seeing her for the first time. I saw the freckles on the bridge of her nose that she used to try to cover with makeup when we were teenagers. I saw the crinkle in her nose when she laughed. The cute way her earlobes stuck out a tiny bit, and the dramatic curve of her cupid’s bow lips made me smile. She was so much more than just a girl.
She was my girl.
“Remember the time we went to Kanaka Lake together?” I asked, watching Allie for a reaction.
Allie smiled and nodded. “Of course. I thought there was a group of us going, but when I got there it was only little old you. Not that I was unhappy about that. I was secretly thrilled that I had you all to myself for a day. And shirtless, to top it off.”
I chuckled. “I felt the same way. Besides the shirtless thing. But of course, you looked great in a bikini. That was the first time I ever saw your boobs.”
“Wait. What?” Allie asked, looking up from her plate and pausing with her fork halfway to her mouth.
“Yeah.” I laughed. “Remember? We were play fighting in the water. Your top came undone. It came off when you were under water. You were mortified. I had never seen your cheeks so red before.”
“But you said you didn’t see anything!”
“I lied.” I shrugged. “I didn’t want you to be embarrassed. But, so we’re clear right now, I saw everything.”
Allie roared with laughter when I winked at her. “Oh, my God. So typical of you Steven. That was actually a decent thing to do. I never would have gotten over it. I was so shy back then.”
“I know. That was one of my favorite things about you. You were always blushing. So damn cute.”
Allie blushed across from me, and we both laughed. When we had ourselves back under control, she put her fork down. “Steven,” she said, a little more seriously now. “I want you to know. Those three months when we weren’t talking, were literally the worst ninety days of my life.”
All the humor was gone from her eyes. “Same,” I said. “Ask Chance. He had to peel my drunken ass out of the nightclub because that was the only way I could cope half the time.”
“I promise I’ll never hold anything back from you again. Even if it’s as small as me getting a hangnail at work. I want you to know everything. We’re in this thing together.”
I reached out and took her hand across the table. “Allie, it’s alright. I trust you. I promise to never hold it over your head. You and Andrew, I mean. It wasn’t my place to judge or question. I love you, and we’re past it. We are so past it. I’m ready to focus on our future, not our past.”
Allie smiled. I saw the beginnings of tears in the corners of her eyes. “I love you,” she whispered.
I ran my thumb over the back of her hand. “I love you, too.”
Allie sniffled and looked at the ceiling to get herself back under control. When she looked back at me, she was smiling. “It’s crazy to think of what life is going to look like now, don’t you think?”
“How do you mean?” I asked. “As in, we’ll be keeping toothbrushes at each other’s places?”
“Sure,” Allie said. “And having sleepovers all the time. Like the good old days, but better, because we’ll share a bed.”
“And we’ll have lots of crazy sex.”
“That too.” She giggled.
“I was thinking,” I started, “that maybe you should have a drawer here. Or four. You know I don’t use half of mine. You can keep whatever you need to here.”
She blinked. “Really?”
“Yeah.”
“You don’t think that would be, you know, moving a little fast?”
“Do you?” I asked.
She pursed her lips and then shook her head. “No, but I’m afraid of scaring you off.”
“You won’t scare me off,” I told her. “I already told you. I’m in this one hundred percent. I want to be with you all the time. I want to build our foundation. I want to make up for missed time. We should have done this forever ago.”
“I’m happy with the things we did in the past,” Allie said. “We have a good beginning story. It took us a while, sure, but it’s all worth it now. At least it’s worth it for me. The best things are worth waiting for. And you were definitely worth the wait.”
“Except for that time I was an ass and read your diary and then behaved like an oversized man-child.”
Allie exploded with laughter. “Yes, well, I could have done without that. But as I said. It makes a good story.”
“A good story for you,” I mumbled. “I’m the one who looks like the idiot.”
“Get used to it, muffin,” Allie teased.
I rolled my eyes, and she laughed at me. I didn’t mind the teasing. In fact, I kind of liked it.
When we finished eating, I cleared the table. Allie tried to convince me to let her do the dishes, but I refused. “You go get comfy on the couch. I’ll join you in a few. Open that box of treats and dig in.”
Allie squeezed my shoulder and kissed my cheek before leaving me to scrub the pots from the pasta and our plates and cutlery. I smiled the whole time and didn’t realize it until I had turned the water off.
I joined Allie on the couch. She was sitting curled up in the corner. I lifted up her legs and rested them on my lap. She shimmied down so she could rest her neck on the armrest. I began giving her a foot massage. She tried to get away at first. She had ticklish feet.
“I’m not going to tickle you,” I said. “Relax.”
She did. Soon, she was sighing happily, and I massaged her calves as well. “That feels so good,” she mumbled thickly. The wine was settling in, and so was the business of the day. “Is this what life is going to be like now?”
“If I have any say in it, yes.”
Allie smiled and closed her eyes.
Chapter 34
Allie
I opened my eyes. Steven was watching me as his fingers worked my calves. What he was doing felt so good. No one had ever touched me like that. His hands moved up my calves and over the top of my thighs. I was wearing leggings, and he was working his way up to the waistband. Before he got there, he paused between my legs and rubbed me through the thin fabric.
I was hot already. I licked my lips. He was watching me like there was nothing else in the room. I reached down and took the hem of my shirt. I pulled it off over my head. I reached behind my back and unclipped my bra.
Steven leaned sideways and closed his lips over my right nipple. He tickled me with
his tongue while his fingers continued to rub me. He was going to ruin my panties.
I took his face in my hands and kissed him. I could taste the wine on his tongue. We kissed each other hungrily, our bodies intertwined. He inched upward, and I hooked one leg around his. He ran his hand over my hip and took hold of the top of my leggings. Then he started working them down.
I was naked beneath him in no time. He removed his shirt, and I worked at his jeans, desperate to pull him free and feel him in my hand. He laughed when I failed to get the zipper down, and then he helped me. He took everything off, and we were naked on his couch.
He lowered himself back down on top of me. His lips found mine, and his hand wandered back down to the heat between my legs. He touched me softly. I held onto his shoulders. Then he slid one of his fingers into me.
My whole body was thrumming with excitement. He pressed another finger into my pussy. I held on to him tighter. He kissed me hard, his lips grinding against mine as he worked his fingers inside me.
He wasn’t holding back. He wanted me to come. I was going to. I was sure he could feel it. I let go of his shoulders and lifted my hands over my head to clutch at the armrest behind my head. My nails scratched at the fabric. I let out a little whimper of pleasure as he curled his fingers inside me. Then he pressed up, hitting my G-spot, and thrust deep inside me once, twice, three times, until I came.
