When Helen came back in about twenty minutes later, she was holding a couple mugs of coffee and a giant plate of bacon and eggs. She set the plate between us, and we ate breakfast as we watched television and enjoyed being close to each other. It turned out we both had similar tastes in TV, and we flipped back and forth between a few different programs as the morning stretched into afternoon.
Eventually at some point, we both got up and put on underwear but resisted anything else. She put on a pair of pink panties that were somehow just as sexy as her naked ass. One of my T-shirts completed her ensemble, and I knew that at some point in the day, I was going to take it off of her again. For me, a pair of boxer briefs and an undershirt were all I wanted.
“So,” she said as she brought in a refill of our coffee. “I think now is a good time to talk about where and what we are.”
I sensed she was gauging my reaction, so I smiled and took a sip of the coffee. “Alright,” I said. “I agree.”
“Good,” she said. “What is this?”
She made a motion between the two of us with her hand. I chuckled, grabbed it, and pulled her toward me. I pressed a kiss to her lips and held her there. When I finally let go, her eyes fluttered back open.
“I don’t know about you,” I whispered huskily, “but I am not interested in seeing anyone else.”
“Me either,” she whispered back, making it sound like one word. “I mean, me either,” she said after clearing her throat.
“Good, then that settles that,” I said. “Do you mind if I refer to you as my girlfriend then?”
“I am one hundred percent okay with that,” she said, grinning. “As long as you are comfortable with me referring to you as my boyfriend.”
“I am similarly one hundred percent okay with that,” I said.
“Good,” she said and leaned in for another kiss.
We fell back gently onto the pillows and stayed there, kissing for a few moments and enjoying the closeness of each other and the giddiness of what we had just decided.
I was so happy to be wrong about her not being the type to stick around or want anything serious. I was wrong and I would shout my wrongness from the rooftops. She was mine officially. Nothing in the world sounded sweeter than that.
As the day wore on to the evening, we finally got up and got semi-dressed. She slipped on a pair of pajama pants of mine and pulled the drawstring until it nearly snapped off. I put on a different pair, and we shuffled out into the kitchen. We were both starving by that point, but before I could call for delivery or suggest a place to go eat, she had pulled out pots and pans and a cutting board.
“Alright, Everett,” she said. “It’s time for your first cooking lesson.”
“Oh no,” I said. “I’m going to ruin this relationship right out of the gate.”
I was joking, but a part of me was seriously worried about that. I needn’t be. Cooking with Helen was a blast. Spending time in the kitchen with her was an amazing experience that I felt really solidified that we were much further past two people hooking up. This was real.
And I hoped that it was just the first time of many.
26
HELEN
Taking a day to do nothing but lounge around in underwear, teach Everett how to cook, and make out like teenagers was exactly what I needed in my life. I had never had a relationship or anything close to it that would allow for such behavior, and experiencing it, much less with someone like Everett, was incredible. By the end of the day as we soaked in a tub together, I wondered to myself just how this was my life.
There was no pressure and no expectations to hold up, either. Over the next few days, we would text during the day and meet up organically. If one of us couldn’t or felt too wiped out from work, we could tell each other. But we rarely did. As tired as I got, the idea of crashing into a bed naked and still smelling vaguely of vegetable oil with Everett was still better than doing all that without him. He seemed to agree.
Just about every day, I was at his place, or he was at mine. Though for the most part, I was at his. Considering that there was more room and his kitchen was ideal for me to experiment in, I wasn’t going to argue about it. He even brought it up once, asking if I wanted to go to my place. I declined, and we spent the entire evening that night curled up under a blanket in his backyard, watching the sun set and the stars appear over the mountains.