“What are we supposed to do?” I ask Banks, who tilts his head like he’s weighing our options, his small gapped teeth showing as he does so.
“There’s not much we can do, boss. The weatherman says this should clear up by tomorrow, but we’re on lockdown today. No one can go out.” The rain is pinging off the roof, and I think it’s hail. California hasn’t seen this much rain in nearly a year, maybe never.
“Alright. Are the boys inside?” I ask, and he nods hesitantly.
“Good call.” I nod, and he bows out of the room, closing the door behind him.
“Well, you know what that means, right?” Stella turns to me, hands grab my waist, and I don’t stop her. She gets so close to me that I can feel the tension building, pulling the air between us so thin I’ve lost my breath, and all I want to do is fuck her right now.
“We play Scrabble!” She grins widely, backing away from me, probably knowing what she just did. I scoff with a grin that, despite my best efforts, continues to come back when I’m around her.
“Do you even have Scrabble?” I cross to the bathroom before she’s finished answering, but as I close the door, I think she says, “No, but you do!”
I jump in the shower, realize I probably shouldn’t do this in a thunderstorm because Ma always said it was a bad idea— still don’t know why— so I wash up quickly and jump back out.
If I get to stay home today, I’m going to choose comfort over fashion. I dig through my dresser and find gray joggers, a white knit sweater, and thick white socks. After slipping them on, I dab on some cologne– realize midway that I’m doing this for Stella, freak out for a second, then put the blue glass bottle back on the counter.
“Hm,” I say to myself before shaking any thoughts around the matter out of my head and leaving my room to go downstairs. It smells like lemons, and I’m rather confused until I see Stella in the kitchen, mixing something up with a hand mixer I didn’t know I had.
“What are you doing?” I scratch my head as she looks up. She’s changed into a black cropped hoodie and tight black leggings that I know make her ass look good, even without looking.
“I’m making lemon bars.” She proudly declares.
“You bake?”
“Occasionally…” she throws something else into the mixture before turning the mixer on again. I plop down at the table and flick through my phone while waiting for her to join me.
“So…,” I finally say after she pops the tray into the oven.
“So…” she mimics me.
“Where’s this Scrabble you speak of?”
“It’s in the lounge.” And I raise a brow. “On the bookshelf….” I shake my head, still not becoming any more clear.. “… the bookshelf that takes up the entire wall except for the fireplace….”
“Oh wow, that sounds very nice.” I nod along, and her eyelids lower. Not impressed, apparently.
“Look, I don’t know where anything is here. My older brother had it decorated and shit.”
“Oh, here I was, thinking you had taste.” She stands to her feet, and when I don’t join her immediately, she grabs my hand, guiding me to the lounge, where a fire is already going. “Here.” She drops my hand and pulls a box from the middle shelf of the fully packed wall of books. I grab a thick furry blanket from the chair and lay it across the rug with a few pillows as she drops to her knees to set the game up. By the time I join her, she has given me my chips and is organizing hers.
We get a couple of words down in silence; the only sound on a continuous loop is the crackling of the fire and the pouring rain outside, with no signs of slowing down. After I place my next word down, she furrows her brows as if she’s recounting something.
“Hey…”
“What?” I study my word, to see if I misspelled it.
“Weren’t you taking me somewhere special today?”
“What?”
“Yeah. Last night, you told my friends that we had plans today.”
To be fair, I had nothing special planned, just a walk where the paps could spot us making out. It was more of a plan for my needs than anyone else’s. Kissing Stella was all I wanted to do last night. After our close call, the only thing I want to do now is fuck her better than she’s ever been fucked. I look back up into her eyes that are demanding an answer that I can’t really give her.
“It was just—“
“Did you plan a whole day inside for us?” Her brows go tall.