AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Awe.
The possibility of this situation we’ve found ourselves in continuing past our end date hangs in the air like a question mark instead of a period. A comma, perhaps.
Something open-ended rather than closed off and punctuated.
I know we’ll still be friends on January 1stand beyond; we vowed that would never, ever change.
But wanting to meet my parents goes past what afriendwould do, right?
Shawn shrugs. “You’re meeting mine. Of course I want to meet yours.”
“Right. Yeah. We could—we’ll see if we can work anything out.” I push off the wall and point to the bouquet. I need a distraction from thinking about the future with this man. “I’ve never seen a violet hibiscus before. It’s gorgeous. Could you put them in water for me? The vases are in the hall closet.”
“You got it. Go get ready. I’ll be on flower duty,” he says.
“Thanks.” I squeeze his shoulder and head for my bedroom. “I was indecisive on a dress, but I finally found one I liked.”
“What color did you go with?” he asks, and his voice echoes down the hall. “The pictures you sent me earlier almost had the whole rainbow. You were just missing orange.”
“I decided on red,” I say. I crack the door to my bedroom and drop my towel. “I thought it was festive.”
I rummage through my dresser and find the green strapless lace bra I’m going to wear tonight. I clasp the hooks together and slide it up my chest. The underwear matches, and I look like one of the Christmas ornaments hanging on my tree.
“Flowers are done,” Shawn calls out, and I grab my dress off the bed.
“Okay. Two more minutes and I’ll be ready.” I pull on the zipper at the back of the gown, but it doesn’t budge. “Shit.”
“Everything okay?”
“Yeah.” I yank on the zipper again, and it doesn’t wiggle an inch. “Okay, I lied. The zipper on my dress is stuck. I’m afraid I’m going to rip it if I pull any harder.”
“Want me to try?” he asks, and his voice is closer than before.
“Please. If I can’t get this up, I’m not sure what else I can wear.”
“I think one of the other eight dresses you have would be just fine.” He knocks on my bedroom door. “Can I come in?”
“I’m, uh, not wearing any clothes. Well, that’s not true. I’m wearing underwear.”
There’s a pause before Shawn speaks again. “I can close my eyes. Or you can hand it to me and I’ll fix it out here.”
“It’s nothing you haven’t seen before.”
“Doesn’t mean I automatically get to see it again.”
“Right.” I swallow and take a deep breath. “It’s okay. You can come in.”
Shawn pushes the door open, and my room feels smaller than it did three minutes ago. The walls seem like they’re caving in, and heat rushes up my body.
“Where’s the fashion emergency?” he asks, and his eyes stay locked on mine.
I gesture vaguely to the bed—the same bed he saw me get off on—and he nods. He lifts the dress off the mattress and studies the zipper.
“Do you think you can fix it?”
“Yeah.” He uses his teeth to work the zipper down, and I wonder how it would feel if he used his teeth to take off my underwear. “There you go.”
“Wow. That sure was easy.”
