Reluctant Love, Part One

Chapter Five

Alex

We lay there for a moment, a while, forever, as we caught our breaths. We’d caught them some time ago, but now, were just lying and enjoying each other. I was still deep inside her but neither of us could move after what just happened.

I was still processing whatever it was that was happening.

When I finally pulled out of her, I kissed her lips. “That was amazing,” I told her.

I felt her mouth pull into a smile as I lay my cheek atop hers. “You do know that we can’t stay here all night, right?” Her fingers were again in my hair. “We have houses to return to and they’re gonna miss us if we’re gone for too long.”

I laughed. “Would it be a crime if they missed us for a bit?”

She was about to say something else, but I put my lips against hers to shut her up.

A question burned at the back of my mind. So, as I was smoothing her hair back with my hands, I asked, “What do we do now?”

She hesitated for a bit. “I don’t know.” Her voice was soft.

For a moment, there was silence between the two of us. I didn’t know either. I know one thing for certain, though. I wanted her. And I didn’t want anybody else to have her in the way that I had her.

“I don—I don’t want it to be a one-time thing, if that’s what you’re asking,” she said after a while. “I’d like to do this again.”

I kissed her cheek then lower down on her neck. “That’s all that I needed to hear.”

We lay there for about a half an hour more talking about anything and everything. She told me about how much she adored the stars, so we lay watching them for a while longer. Then my phone started ringing. It was then that I remembered that I was an adult with responsibilities and not a teenager who could lay out here all night with the girl he liked. I didn’t bother to pick it up.

“We gotta go now,” I said into the night’s cold air.

“Yeah, I had a feeling that was the case,” she replied.

I was confused for a moment over what that could’ve possibly meant. I looked at her with squinted eyes and squeezed eyebrows as she began dressing. It hit me then. “Oh, Sophia, no. I don—I’m not—I don’t have a girlfriend or anything—it’s just—”

“Oh. No, well I just thought that—your phone rang and I—”

I laughed. “No, it’s not like that. I’m completely and one hundred percent single.”

She breathed a laugh. “Well, that’s a relief.”

It was tempting to lay there and do nothing but look at her smile, but there were more important matters at hand.

So, I leapt into action.

After we were both fully dressed once more, I went ahead and took her home.

“Can you promise me one thing, though?” I asked as we pulled up in front of her house.

She turned to me, bright blue eyes shining in the dim light.

“Promise that you’ll look into that job at Bill’s.”

She cast her gaze outside. “Okay,” she said after a while, “I promise.”

I smiled and brought her face back to face mine with my fingers. “Then I promise that you’ll never get a day of peace once you work there.”

She angled her head like she was confused and I let my hooded eyes roam her body, giving her the hint that she needed. I saw the blush creep to her face.

“Oh,” she said. “Well that’s encouraging.”

I smiled at her before planting a kiss on her lips again. I’d never get used to being able to do that. “Goodnight, Sophia.”

“Goodnight, Alex.” She smiled and hopped out of the truck.

Once I was certain that she was inside and the doors were locked, I drove away.

For the first time in eight years, I let my heart feel the flutter that I’d once sworn against. I didn’t fight it as it came.