AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She turned around and looked at me, biting her lip.
“Can you sleep with me tonight? No sex,” I said, holding up my hands. “I promised you—and even if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t ask you like that. I just want you to stay with me.”
“Like a sleepover?” she asked, a little skeptically, but she looked pleased.
“Yes, like a sleepover. Just don’t try to put a mud mask on me or put warm water on my hand. That would piss me off,” I said.
“Let me change. Your room or mine?”
“Mine,” I said. “I have the best bed.”
“Of course you do,” she said.
She came in a few minutes later in those pink sweatpants again, her face scrubbed clean of makeup. She looked so beautiful and innocent it made my heart actually hurt, and I wasn’t technically sure that I even had a heart.
“Hey,” she said and sat on the edge of my bed. “You’re still in your clothes.”
“I wasn’t sure what you were going to wear,” I admitted. “I wanted to show you some solidarity and dress similarly.” I got up and pulled out an old Wharton T-shirt and a pair of flannel pajama bottoms. “Is this okay?” I asked.
“It’s fine, James. I approve of the flannel.” She scooted up on the bed and grabbed the remote off the side table. She turned the flatscreen on and switched the channel to NESN, the New England Sports Network.
I was pretty sure that I still had a heart because it felt right then like I loved her, at least a little.
Later, after an hour of sports news, we turned out the lights.
“No sex?” she asked.
“That’s right,” I said. I paused. “Why are you asking?”
“I just don’t want this to be awkward. If we’re not doing it, let’s go to sleep.” She rolled over onto her side, toward me.
I rolled over toward her, too.
Eight hours later, I woke up holding her hand.
Audrey
James was gone when I woke up the next morning. Sleeping next to him had been nice and horrible all at the same time. I loved being with him, but I’d wanted to be closer. In other words, I’d wanted him on top of me and inside me and behind me and all sorts of other places. I’d had to push those images, appealing as they were, and the heat I’d felt between us away last night. Just so I could get some sleep.
Still, we were making progress. I had no idea what that meant except that it thrilled me. It thrilled me, and I was f**ked. Our contract was up at the end of two weeks, and I would be left with only the memory of him. The memory of him putting his arm around my shoulder at Fenway Park, which was now in my top-five favorite guy memories of all time.
I didn’t have the other four. Not yet.
I could still feel his touch on me now, and I imagined that I would feel it forever, even after he was long gone. The ghost of him, the memory, would be a blessing and a curse, I knew.
I waited for my common sense to wake back up and start choking my dreams again, but it still hadn’t happened, even after I had my coffee. So I let myself be in a good mood, a state which was very foreign to me, and got dressed to go see my brother.
Kai drove me. I signed in at the front desk and gave a check to the clerk to pay for the next two months. After some begging, Elena had given me an advance against my latest as**signment. I wanted to make sure all of it went toward my brother’s expenses.
I found Tommy sitting in the common room, wearing an Angry Birds T-shirt and eating crackers, working intently on a 3-D puzzle. His brown hair was its usual spiky mess.
“Hi,” I said as I went up to him, and his face opened up into such a wide grin that it warmed my heart. It had only been a couple of days, but I’d missed him so much. I wrapped my arms around him and held him close. Even though he was my older brother, I’d always taken care of him. I had a protective feeling for him and loved him fiercely, like I imagined a mother loved her child.
A normal mother. Not my mother.
“You haven’t been to see me in three days,” he complained.
“I’ve been working,” I said, sitting down next to him. “But it’s been good. I’m going to make a lot of money over the next two weeks. Then we’re going to be in good shape, okay?” I squeezed his arm. “Has Mom been here?” I asked.
“No,” Tommy said. “It’s been longer than you.”
“Well, she’ll show up eventually. She always does. And when she’s here, just make sure you don’t mention anything about the money,” I said.
Tommy nodded at me solemnly. We’d both learned the hard way.
James was still gone when I got back to the apartment, and I rattled around for a minute, missing him. Then I went to my bedroom, nervously scouring through my clothes for something to wear to the ladies’ tea. There was something about the event that scared the bejeezus out of me. First of all, I’d never been to a tea. I didn’t think people in the United States even did that.
