LWLU – Friendly Distrust
Sara swallowed and broke the silence in the room. “I can’t believe you made me orange French toast.
“I think it was the very least I could do for you,” Michael said, wiping powdered sugar off his lips. “Especially since you gave me everything I ever wanted last night.”
Color bloomed high in her cheeks and her ears burned red. It was silly to be shy around him, especially after everything they’d shared last night and earlier that morning; she knew that. Yet she couldn’t help the rustle of embarrassment she felt stirring within at Michael’s casual mention of last night. What would happen now that he’d gotten what he wanted?
She took a drink of her juice and tried to make her tone light and her voice steady. “I didn’t realize I gave you everything you wanted.”
“You did and you didn’t.”
“Okay?”
“Sara…Last night was so much more than I ever could have hoped for.” He stabbed a piece of French toast, sighing. “But I think we both know I won’t have everything I want for another five years when you finally marry me.”
“You say that as though you’ve wanted to marry me longer than since last night.” Inside, Sara breathed a silent sigh of relief. Five years was long-term talk; marriage was forever talk. Neither implied he was about to cut and run the way she’d heard guys did after sex.
He shrugged and stuffed another syrupy piece into his mouth. Sara followed suit, trying to figure out a way to bring up what was on her mind. As she was about to speak, she looked up from her plate and realized Michael was staring at her. “What?”
“I was just wondering something.”
She flicked the tip of her tongue over her lips. “Sure.”
“Are you, uh, sore?”
“Oh.” The color burned brighter across her face. Why was it she was so incapable of discussing sex with the very person she’d had it with? “Sort of, I guess. It’s, um…it’s not too bad. I think I expected worse, actually.”
“You expected worse?”
It was her turn to shrug. “Well, yeah. I mean, with as much as it hurt at first last night, I guess I thought it would be hard to walk today or something. I think I’m mainly feeling some sore muscles in my legs and back I didn’t know I had right now.”
“I could give you a massage. If you think it might help.”
“Uh-huh. Is this just an excuse to get your hands on me again?”
“I didn’t realize I needed an excuse.”
The response was on her lips, but the look in his eyes flicked the words away. She knew that look. She knew it well. It was the look that would end up with clothes on the tile floor, plates broken and her spread out under him on the kitchen table. As tempting as that was, she couldn’t risk getting caught up and him leaving before she had a chance to talk to him.
“Do you need to call Lincoln to let him know where you are?”
“I called him while I was waiting for the skillet to heat up, but it wouldn’t have mattered if I hadn’t. He didn’t realize I was gone. It sounded like he came home after his date with Veronica and then spent most of the night on the phone with her.”
“Oh. Where did you tell him you were?”
Michael shrugged. “Here. Where else?”
“So…does he…know?”
“No.” He shook his head and regarded her with a serious expression. “I told you that you weren’t just locker room talk. I told him I spent the night so you wouldn’t have to be alone on your birthday while your parents are away.” A slight smile touched his face. “He told me I was a real party animal, asked how I liked my night of watching chick flicks then said he had to go because Roni was there.”
Another moment of relief. “I was thinking…”
He set his fork on the plate. “I’m not sure I like the sound of that.”
He probably wouldn’t. “Well, I know you want to tell everyone we’re dating, but I was thinking it might be better to keep it quiet for a while and see how things go first.”
“Where’s this coming from, Sara?”
“Okay, this is going to sound stupid, but do you remember what a big deal they made out of Ross and Rachel on Friends? I don’t want to turn into all everyone is talking about.”
“Are you fucking kidding me with this?”
“Um…no. I’m just not ready to have everyone know about us and discussing us.”
“What do you think they’re going to say that’s so bad?”
“I don’t know. It’s just…What’s the name of your brother’s friend that just moved here a few months ago?”
“Paul?”
“Yeah…Paul. I don’t trust that guy. I don’t want to have him making snide comments about the two of us.”
“He’s really not like that, Sare. He seems like a good guy from what I know of him.” He picked up his fork and pushed a piece of the toast through the syrup. “What did he do to you to make you dislike him so much?”
“Well, you know how I’m taking that criminal justice class with Roni?”
“Yes…and I still don’t understand why you signed up for that when you want to be a horse vet.”
“She didn’t want to take the class alone with all the upperclassmen. Anyway, we were having a class discussion about the current state of the justice system or something and he started talking about how he thought death row should be eliminated and all the prisoners should just be dropped into the middle of the ocean. If they survive, they go free. If not, no big loss.”
“I can only imagine how Roni took that.”
Sara groaned. “The rest of the class turned into the two of them debating the finer points of legal procedures or something. Then he sat with us during lunch so they could keep talking about it.”
“Seriously…that’s why you don’t like him?”
“I don’t know. He just seems like a jerk. I don’t think he’s someone I’d really like knowing about us right now. I want to enjoy this without any jerky comments.”
“Okay, but I think you should really give Paul a chance.” He took a drink of his juice. “So we can’t be Ross and Rachel. Does that mean we get to be Monica and Chandler?”
“You say that as though you want to be them.”
“Hey, they got to sneak around and have sex. Even though I’d rather just have it all out in the open, I think that’s a plan I could get behind.”
She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, we can be Monica and Chandler, but I’m not doin’ it with you in the janitor’s closet at the coffee shop.”
“Janitor’s closet at school?”
She threw her napkin at him and he laughed. “I was just kidding. Mostly.”
“You are such a guy.”
“Didn’t hear you complaining about that last night or this morning.” He grew serious. “Can I ask you something?”
“As long as it doesn’t involve sex at school.”
“That friend of yours, Nika…Did she really sleep with the drama teacher to get the lead in the play?”
Sara giggled. “God, no. He’s gay. Besides, all the times she was supposedly screwing him, she was actually tutoring me so I didn’t fail advanced Chemistry last semester.”
“Wait. She was tutoring you?”
“Yeah. She’s a math genius and I’ve been having trouble with all the equations and stuff. She only pretends to be an airhead.”
“Why?”
“She always says that when people see wide eyes, a little waist and big boobs they assume dumb slut. In her mind, there’s not a point to trying to tell people different.”
“And she’s okay with half the school thinking she screwed a teacher?”
“She thinks it’s hilarious…especially since…Never mind.”
“What?”
“I’m not supposed to say anything.”
“I’m not going to tell anyone, Sara.”
“Well, she’s still a virgin. The string of guys she goes out with is just to keep up appearances. She’s never said it, but I think she probably flat out tells them they can say whatever they want about what happened on the date.”
“Huh. I wouldn’t have figured that. Not the way she’s always so quick to say whatever’s on her mind about it.”
Sara shrugged. “She told me once that just because she didn’t see the point in having sex it didn’t mean she couldn’t talk about it.”
He pushed the plate away and stretched his arms out in front of him, giving his knuckles a soft crack. “As much fun as I’m having talking about your friend and my brother’s friend, how about that massage?”
“Okay. Do you want to go back up to my room?”
“Nope.” He rose and walked around behind her chair. His fingers pulled back her hair, grazing her jaw in the process. “Shirt off, Tancredi.”
“So this was just an excuse?”
His lips met the back of her neck while his hands moved down her body to the bottom hem of the shirt. “Well, I’m sure I’ll get around to the massage, at some point. I just might get a little sidetracked in other areas. Is that a problem?”
Her skin hummed under his touch. “Not in the slightest.”
