AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She stretched her arms over her head and yawned. “Sounds perfect. Sorry, I didn’t get a lot of sleep. I was doing a lot of thinking.”
It was like a curtain had been pulled across a window with the sun shining outside. A reminder of what I’d done, and that Esme was only here because she was willing to give me another chance.
My stomach twisted with guilt.
“Hey, I know that you did a shitty thing, but I don’t want you to get too down about yourself. We all make mistakes. God knows I’ve made many,” she said. Her hand rested on my arm and all I wanted was to give her a hug.
I leaned in and she let me, wrapping her arms around me.
“I missed you. I know it was only a short time, but I didn’t like it. At all. I’m going to do whatever I can not to mess up like that again,” I said.
Esme pulled back and looked me deep in the eyes. “You’ll mess up. I’ll mess up. It’s how we deal with those mess ups that matters. It’s how we move forward.” She really was good at advice.
“Have you ever thought about being a therapist? You’d be really good at it,” I said.
Esme shrugged. “I don’t know about that. I like my job. I like what I do. I’m happy at the bar. Of course, I have other things I want to do, like with my blog and stuff, but I guess I just wasn’t born with too much career ambition.” She laughed, but I could tell that this was a sensitive subject for her. I’d heard similar things when I hadn’t gone to grad school or “lived up to my potential” whatever that meant.
“You can sit with me in the low-career ambition corner,” I said. That made her smile.
“It’s a good place to be. We have snacks and drinks.”
Speaking of that, I got the strawberries out of the freezer to thaw a little before we devoured them.
“If you want to stay, you can. I can always crash on the couch and give you the bed. Or you can go home. No pressure,” I said, as it got later, and Esme’s yawns got more frequent.
“It’s okay. I think I’ll go home because I didn’t bring Stormy. She misses you, by the way. Or she misses Potato. She put up a huge fuss and was looking all over the house for something or someone.”
“Potato has been upset too. I’ll have to bring him with me when you move into your new place.” This was assuming we didn’t crash and burn before then.
“Speaking of my new place, I’m going to see two of the available units this weekend. Do you want to come with me?” That was a good sign. She wanted my input on her apartment.
“I’d love to,” I said, and she held a strawberry out for me to take a bite. I did, licking chocolate off my lips.
Esme giggled. “You have chocolate all over your face.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Why don’t you help me clean it off?” I hoped I wasn’t pushing her too far.
Esme only hesitated for a moment before she leaned forward and kissed the side of my mouth, and I felt the warm lick of her tongue. My chin was next, and then the opposite corner. She hesitated just before truly meeting my lips in a kiss that was both sweet and slow. Like melted chocolate.
I kissed her back, leaning into her and wrapping my hands around her back, one hand in her hair.
“I missed you too,” she whispered. “I really should go home, though.”
“I know,” I said, in between kisses. “But I don’t want you to.”
“I don’t want to go.” Her hands drifted from my shoulders and downward, until they were pushing under my shirt.
“Then don’t go,” I said through a gasp as she pushed my shirt higher.
She groaned and removed her hands.
“No, I should go.” She got up from the couch and put her hands up as if to stop me from coming after her. My entire body throbbed with need.
“I’m not above begging you to stay. Or showing you my boobs to get you to stay,” I said, starting to lift my shirt.
“No, don’t.” Esme slapped her hand over her eyes.
“Don’t show you my boobs? Okay then.” I pushed my shirt back down and she peeked between her fingers.
