15
Luke
“Can we please eat now?” Maddie pleaded, handing me a towel.
I was climbing out of her shower where we had meant to get clean but wound up getting dirty all over again. Maddie’s bathroom was little and perfunctory, creamy tiles and brown wood, but like the rest of her house, she made it her own. She painted the walls turquoise and hung little circular black and white cameo paintings that looked like Victorian silhouettes.
“I’ve got just the thing,” I offered, thrusting my hips at her. I was always inclined to be goofy when she was close.
“Oh my God,” she rolled her eyes at me. “How can you even suggest that? Aren’t you worried it might fall off?”
“Nope,” I teased. She looked delectable wrapped in her bright yellow towel, her tits squished where she tucked the fabric tight around her chest, her shapely legs peeking out the bottom, and her long blue hair darker, almost navy when it was wet. She opened the medicine cabinet and grabbed the toothpaste. Before she could use it, I snapped up her toothbrush.
“Wait, are we going out for breakfast or are we eating something out of your fridge?” I asked.
“I have to eat something, like now,” she replied. “All you’ve given me in the last twelve hours is dick and cookies. And not that I’m complaining, but I’m starving.”
“So, I’m gonna vote no on the toothbrushing for at least twenty minutes.”
“Is this like a thing?” she asked.
“What if we decide to have orange juice?’ I suggested.
“I don’t have any orange juice,” she said so evenly that I couldn't tell if she was joking or just disagreeing with me for fun.
“You’re missing the point.”
“No, I see that you are greatly affected by the combo of mint and oranges,” she smiled and put down the toothpaste like a cop in a movie lowering his weapon as an act of good faith. “Eat first, brush after. Got it?” She winked at me and headed into her bedroom. I followed her. I wanted to follow her everywhere. She threw her towel on the bed, crossing the room naked. For a second, I considered the reality of fucking again. Would my dick fall off? She took in my lecherous gaze and grabbing her kimono, which was hanging on the side of the cheval mirror in the corner, said, “Food, caveman. Remember?”
Once she covered up, my brain rebooted and I was capable of functioning again. I picked up my jeans and put them on. If she wasn’t going to eat naked, neither was I.
In the kitchen, she stood in front of the open refrigerator door, just looking in, it was like she was studying its contents.
She turned to me, “Cold pizza?”
“Fine,” I said. What was that pizza joke? Pizza was like sex, even when it was bad it was pretty good. Considering the current status of our sex life, I’d bet the pizza was gonna be perfect.
She pulled a half-moon wrapped in tinfoil out of the fridge and hugged it to her chest, “I know I told you I love you, but right now, I feel like this pizza is the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen. Are you jealous?” she taunted.
I nodded. “Babe, I’m jealous of anything that gets anywhere near you.” I crossed to the cabinet where I knew her plates were and met her there. She was leaning her ass against the counter. I boxed her in with my body by resting my palms on either side of her. “It's actually a real problem for me. I’ve secretly been having fist fights with pastries all over town.”
“No wonder the muffins at the Conway Cafe seem to cower when I pick up my lunch order.” My proximity lowered the tone of her voice. I pinned her hips to the counter with mine and kissed her, not wild but wet. She didn’t seem to mind, but continued to hold tightly to the pizza at her chest. My girl was hungry. I broke from her mouth and opened the cabinet behind her head.
“Water? Coffee?” I asked, pulling a mug down for myself.
“I’ll have coffee too,” she said, turning to grab the plates and at the same time, rubbing her bottom across my cock. I groaned at the sensation, almost pinning her to the counter again, She ducked under my arm, backing away.
“Sorry,” she said, smiling, “I guess, I find you a little irresistible.”
She took the pizza and the plates to the table and started eating immediately. I wasn’t offended. I stayed back and popped a K-cup into her Keurig coffee machine. “I was thinking,” I said, not making eye contact. “I want you to meet my family.”
She didn’t say anything right away because she was chewing. I turned and tried to read her face. Maddie was amazing. She was bold and funny. She was gorgeous and I loved her. But, I also thought she felt nervous about my family. It wasn’t any one thing she’d done. Maybe it wasn’t even her. Maybe it was my interpretation of the ugliness her family had caused in her life. All I knew was that she was private. In some ways, she kept her world small by only ever really being herself with a chosen few. I felt lucky to be on that list.
I leaned back against the counter and waited for her to speak. After she swallowed, she shrugged her shoulders and said, “Okay.”
I couldn’t contain my joy. “Yeah?” I grinned.
“Sure.”
“I think you’re going to love them.” I carried her coffee to her and went back to start mine.
She shrugged. “I’ve met your brothers.”
I popped the second K-cup in and spoke with my back to her, “Yeah, but, it’ll be different I think, being my girl.”
“Are you going to tell them about how we met, about your art class?”
I had to. I wasn’t going to make Maddie lie about how we knew each other. I turned to face her so she could see that I was serious. “Yes. I can tell them with you or maybe before you meet them. Whatever makes you more comfortable. I want to move past that stuff.” I crossed to the table and sat down.
“You should,” she said this with conviction.
“I know. It’s ridiculous that I’m hiding this piece of myself. I want them to know that I take my art seriously. I want them to take me seriously.” I loved my family and they loved me. I needed to clear the air on this issue. Why was it so hard for me?
“They should.”
I nodded and took a bite. Just talking about telling them made me nervous. But this was about Maddie, and they had to know that she mattered most of all. For them to know that, I had to come clean. “I want you to know that I want them to take us seriously, Maddie.”
She looked down at her plate. She’d suddenly gone from devouring her pizza to picking at it with her fingers. Maybe I needed to change the subject. We were having so much fun together and now she seemed almost grim.
I reached across the table and took her hand. “You okay?” I asked.
She took a deep breath and looked up at me with a sad smile. “Yeah,” she said. But she wasn’t. Okay, no more family talk. I had another subject I wanted to broach.
“So…” I said, taking my hand back. “About last night,” I said.
She smiled wider, “Are you trying to make me think of sex again?”
“Yes,” I said definitively, but I wasn’t really. “Well, no.”
She pushed out her bottom lip, acting pouty.
I continued, “Actually, I thought we should talk about what happened.”
She seemed a little confused. “You’re not trying to get me to think about sex but you want to discuss ‘what happened’ between us during sex?”
I laughed. “No, I want to discuss birth control.” Her face fell completely. Maddie went from light and sunny to dark and stormy in one second. I couldn’t quite get my mind around the shift, but I tried to manage it anyway. “I mean, don’t get me wrong. That was awesome. And if there is a little cooing and pooing result, then I’m all in, but I thought we should discuss…”
She interrupted me, “There isn’t.”
Now, I was confused. “What do you mean?”
She turned inward and started talking under her breath. “I just wanted today. Couldn’t I just have this one day?”
She was scaring me. “Maddie, What’s up?”
She stood and started to pace with her arms crossed over her breasts, hugging herself. “I can’t,” she said, her voice wobbling. She stopped talking and took a breath to re-center herself. “There is no baby now or ever.”
I was still confused, “I’m sorry. I don’t understand what you’re telling me.”