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Me: Liiiike?
Rory: I don’t know! You’re his best friend?
Me: You live there with him!
Rory: He doesn’t open up to me the same way he does with you
Me: Okay, I’ll talk to him.
Rory: Don’t say I put you up to it!
Theo slides back into his seat and I put my phone down. “How did it go?”
“Everything’s fine. He’s a good kid.”
I give him a look and he chuckles before rubbing his forehead. “I think of him as a kid because he’s dating Raegan. You know what I mean.” He takes a sip of his whiskey, draining the full glass before sitting it down. “He’s not going to say anything.” He moves his chair around the square table so that he’s closer to me and holds my hand in his. “He did say I need to tell Lucas soon.” He presses his lips to my fingers and I melt at how romantic he is all the time. “I know that’s not the plan, so we just need to do better about lying low for now.” He looks around the restaurant. “We’re still too close to home.”
“Okay.” I agree. He leans forward and captures my lips with his, sliding his tongue through them and rubbing it against mine. I moan and he pulls back slowly, his eyes tracing my face as a smile pulls at his lips.
“Your little noises are going to be the death of me, Avery.”
Later that night, we are back at Theo’s place where we are finally spending the night for the first time. My car is parked at my college apartment, and in the morning he’s going to take me there so I can drive it home under the illusion that I stayed there tonight. Yes, the whole plan is risky and convoluted, but I’m dying to stay the night with him in his bed and I don’t want to wait any longer. We’re still naked from multiple rounds of sex, lying on our sides facing each other. The room is mostly dark, other than the few candles he’d lit around the room when we got here.
“You’re so incredible.” He strokes my cheek so softly that I could cry, and part of me wants to after the orgasm I just had. It was the first time we had sex that felt like more than just frantic fucking where we didn’t feel like we were rushing against time or in fear that someone was going to call looking for one of us. It felt slower and more intimate and not at all like the times we were racing to our climaxes. “I just can’t believe you’reyou.” He turns onto his back and stares up at the ceiling. “I still remember the day we moved in.” He sighs. “Rae and Lucas had been arguing for two days. I don’t know if they were taking their anger towards their mother out on each other or what, but they would not stop yelling.” I prop my head up on my fist as I listen to him because I don’t think I ever knew this. “And then you just showed up at the front door bouncing up and down like you’d just consumed a mountain of sugar.”
I do remember that. I remember my mom sending me next door with some food because my mother’s love language has always been feeding people and that was how she welcomed all of our new neighbors.
Eight Years Ago
I can’t even stop the blush from creeping onto my face as the hottest guy I’ve ever seen in my entire life answers the door. I don’t know much about the people that just moved in, only that I saw two kids that look about my age and I’m excited to finally have some people to hang out with or ride the bus with. There was no one close to my age in this neighborhood, a bunch of elementary school and high schoolers but no one I could suffer through the middle school years with.
“Hello! I live next door,” I tell him, trying to keep the squeak out of my voice as I point to my house. “My mom wanted me to bring these. She owns the best bakery in town, so the brownies are great. The lasagna?” I hold out the hand not holding the food and give it a little shake as if to saymeh. I hold the food out for him with a bright smile and he takes it while giving me a look of confusion. “I’m Avery Summers.” I smile as I hold out my hand.
“Theo.” He shakes my hand with a smile before setting the food down on top of a table set amidst a sea of brown boxes. “Thank you very much for this.”
“You’re welcome. But what’s your last name? I can’t call you by your first name; my mom will have a fit.”
He chuckles. “Graham.”
“Great, now that we have that settled, Mr. Graham. Do you have kids? Preferably a girl around thirteen?” I point at myself, excitedly.
“Well, she’s fifteen actually, but I have a son that’s thirteen.”
“Hmmm, that’ll do. Can they come out?”
“Please, take them.” He laughs before he calls into the house. “Rae! Lucas!”
“I don’t think they came home for two days.” He laughs. “Well Lucas did, but I think Raegan stayed at your house for the next two nights.”
I smile at the memory of finally having what felt like a big sister. “It was so nice having a girl around and she was older and cooler than me. She probably thought I was so lame.” I chuckle, although if I can remember, Raegan loved hanging out with me and my mom and it didn’t take a therapist to understand why.
“No, Rae has always loved you like the little sister she wanted instead of Lucas.” He laughs and I frown thinking about what it could mean now. “You were the best thing to ever happen to Raegan and Lucas and at the best time.” He turns back towards me and pulls me closer. “And now you’re….” He moves us so that I’m beneath him and though he doesn’t say the words explicitly, I hear the implication. “What are you doing to me, Avery?”
“The same thing you’re doing to me,” I tell him. “I used to fantasize about being here with you and now I’m actually here.” I pull my eyes from him to look around his bedroom.
“I never thought you’d ever be here. Honestly, there’s been so few times I’ve had a woman here at all.”
I raise an eyebrow, curious about this particular conversation and the women who came before me. “Yeah, about that. You never dated anyone seriously. At least no one you brought around Rae and Lucas. How come?”
