When I feel Clover heave a big sigh, I let her go. But I don't let her walk away just yet. I hold her shoulders with my hands, asking her to look at me. "It's coming up on two years next month. Do you want to do something special, or do you want to just be lumps on the couch and binge-watch movies all day?"
Though her face is still blotchy from her tears, she lets a small smile slip. "Definitely lumps on the couch."
"Perfect. And we can eat all the ice cream we want until we get sick."
That earns an expansion of the smirk into a full-blown smile. With tears still in her eyes, she sniffles and responds, "Hell yeah."
Chapter Five
KASS
The bell above the front door rings, indicating someone new has entered the shop. I look up, and it's exactly who I expect it to be, but she's late.
She brushes her wild purple hair out of her face. It looks like it was blowing in the wind, or like she just got railed in the back seat of her car, and her heavy breathing doesn’t help the dirty thoughts in my head. Was she likely just running down the street to get here? Yes. But still, I can’t fight my body temperature rising at the thought. I should not have spent hours obsessing over her prior to this appointment.
"I'm so sorry. I didn't wake up to my alarm."
I glance over at the clock on the wall to check my sanity. "It's 10:20. What time does your alarm go off?"
She approaches my station and sets her bag and coat down on the empty bench nearby. "Well, today the first one was set for 9:30."
"The firstone?"
"Yeah, I usually set two because I can't be trusted. Sometimes I accidentally turn the first one off instead of hitting snooze."
"At 9:30? Why don't you just wake up to the first alarm?"
She was facing away from me, grabbing her phone out of her coat, but now she's slowly turning around as if I just insulted her mother. "Because," her tone is sharp, sassy, "I was up until 3am, and I need my sleep."
"My bad. I didn't assume you were up till an ungodly hour, doing god knows what," I tease.
She takes a step closer to me and leans onto the client chair. Her chest is now hanging right in my face, and I fight the urge to look down. "Oh, honey, god was nowhere to be found at that time this morning."
The tension between us rises as we stare each other down, neither of us giving an inch until Arlo gets our attention from across the room. "Will you two just kiss already?"
Both our heads shoot over to where Arlo is sitting at their workbench, sketching.
"What the fuck, Arlo?" I say through gritted teeth.
"What? I'm just observing over here."
"Keep those thoughts to yourself, why don't you?" I narrow my eyes at them, and they only smile back at me.
With my gaze fixed on Arlo, I don't see B walk over to the bench, but her intoxicating smell dissipates, getting my attention.
"So, are we doing this or what?"
She hoists herself up onto the edge of the client chair, her legs dangling off, unable to reach the floor. From where I'm sitting on my rolling stool, I'm basically eye level with her chest. As if she can hear my thoughts, she spreads herlegs ever so slightly. Her eyes are like fire, burning into me. I don't know for sure what mine look like staring back at her, but I can imagine they look similar. With a roaring fire starting in the pit of my stomach, I fear this is going to be a very long session.
I clear my throat as well as my thoughts. "I'm ready when you are."
"Just tell me when I need to take my shirt off."
I hear a faint snicker coming from Arlo on the other side of the room. "I'll be in my office."
I wait until I hear the door to Arlo's office click shut before speaking. "Let's go through the design first."
I stand so I no longer have to be tempted by the position of our bodies. I'm now towering over B as she leans back on her hands and looks up at me. When she leans back like this, her shirt rides up, exposing more of her midriff. Before I can stop myself, my eyes dart down to look at her exposed skin, a tattoo peaking out from under the waistband.
