“Wait, why do you get to sleep next to her?’’ asks Sebastian. “As of right now, our tallies are equal, and we’re both behind Elliot and Lukas.”
“Fine, cubes?” asks Felix, reaching for one of the cubes on the side table and mixing it up. He tosses it to Sebastian as Sebastian tosses a mixed-up cube to him, and their fingers begin to fly.
“I win,” says Felix smugly, setting the solved cube on the coffee table with a loudsnick.
“At least it was fair,” Sebastian grumbles, setting down his own cube.
“Nothing is fair if I’m the only one taking care of these dishes,” calls Elliot from the kitchen, where I can hear the sounds of plates being rinsed and put into the dishwasher.
“We’ll help,” says Sebastian, taking up the nacho pan and carrying it out of the room.
“I’ll show Rebecca upstairs and then come back down to help.” Felix helps me up and then stands himself.
I should say something, offer to help clean or say I can find my own way upstairs, but I’m not sure my limbs could manage anything at the moment. And I have no idea where Felix’s bedroom is. I can’t pick the wrong one. Not after he and Sebastian competed to see who gets to sleep next to me.
I dimly wonder if we really will only be sleeping, or if Felix is planning to cross something else off my list tonight.
I’m not sure I can manage anything else in that department.
“Come this way, Rebecca.” Felix wraps his arm around my waist and guides me into the front hall.
I should call out goodnight to the others, but I’m so sleepy, and my voice doesn’t want to work. At least Felix is tall and solid beside me so I can lean against him as he grabs my bag and helps me up the stairs.
“This is my room,” says Felix, turning on the light and setting my bag at the foot of the bed. Crossing the hall and turning on another light, he adds, “Here is the bathroom, if you want to get ready for sleep. I’ll leave a towel on the counter for you.”
I manage to find my voice and croak out a thank you.
“See you in the morning.” I can hear Felix’s steps bounce down the stairs again.
I’d turn to call good night as well, but my focus is centered completely on the double bed in front of me. The bed I’m about to share with him for the entire night.
I tear my gaze away and dig through my bag for my toothbrush before heading to the bathroom. As I brush my teeth I can’t help glancing at the mirror, at the reflection of the big bed across the hall.
I take off my glasses and begin to wash my face. When I glance up after drying my face with the towel Felix set out for me, Sebastian’s face fills the mirror next to my own. He silentlyputs toothpaste on his own brush and then stands beside me to brush his teeth as I finish drying my face and slide my glasses back onto my nose. All this without a word between us as if we’ve done this a hundred times before. As if we’ve always completed these little domestic tasks together.
As soon as I’m done, I scurry across the hall to Felix’s room to find him already in bed. Where did he come from? He wasn’t in the bathroom with me and Sebastian, so I wonder if he used another one or if he just crawled into bed without brushing his teeth or anything. I hope not.
“There are T-shirts in the drawer,” says Felix, pointing out a dresser in the corner. “If you need something different to sleep in.”
“I brought my pajamas.” I pull my sleep clothes out of my bag as evidence. I should have brought them into the bathroom with me to change, but I wasn’t thinking.
“Oh.” Felix folds his glasses and sets them on the nightstand. “I forgot about your bag.”
I hesitate, debating if I should go back across the hall to change. But Sebastian is in there now with the door closed, so I’d have to wait and I really would like to just go to sleep already. Besides, Felix has already taken off his glasses, so he probably won’t see much. And he’ll see everything at some point. May as well rip off the Band-Aid.
I take a deep breath and turn my back to Felix to change as quickly as possible. I’m not brave or confident enough to simply strip in front of him. It may happen by the time I get to the bottom of the list, but not yet. I’m glad the T-shirt I grabbed to sleep in is long enough to cover my butt when I shimmy my jeans down and pull on my sleep shorts. All he really got to see was the back of my bra when I changed shirts, and my legs.
I unclip my bra and tug it off through my sleeve, wadding it up and shoving it and my glasses into my bag before flipping offthe light and skirting around the bed to slip into the empty side. I try to make myself small, to stay on my side as much as possible, but I am very aware of Felix’s body next to mine on the mattress.
“Would you mind if we did one more thing tonight?” asks Felix in the darkness, rolling to face me. “It’s not on your list, but I’d really like to do it.”
Excitement and apprehension war within me. On the one hand, I wouldn’t mind another orgasm, now that the haze from the first two has worn off, but I also now have the clarity to be nervous again.
“What is it?” I ask, trying to keep my voice steady.
“Can we snuggle?” Felix’s own voice is so soft and low, I can barely hear it.
That’s it? Nothing sexy, just snuggling? It sounds nice, but it also sounds like something a couple would do, and I don’t want to muddy things up in that department.
