“Good morning to you, too,” Aiden returns.
“Not talkin’ to you,” I say. “I’m talking to him.” I grab Aiden’s cock and stroke it.
His smile makes my heart sing.
I enthusiastically give him head. He tries to stop me before it’s about to be over with no happy ending for me, but I don’t let him. I slap his hand away and increase the suction and the bobbing until he groans out my name, coming in my mouth, then going lax after I swallow it all down.
Satisfied that he’s satisfied, I sit up, cross my legs and wipe my mouth with the back of my hand.
“So, that’s payment for passing out after being a tease last night.”
He shakes his head. “Found you passed out with one shoe on. Your cell phone was on your face.”
I laugh at myself. He laughs with me. Or at me. It doesn’t matter which, because it’s funny.
“No hangover?” he asks.
“Nope. I don’t puke, don’t get hangovers. Sometimes I pass out in strange places and sometimes I oversleep but that’s about it. I’m a little fuzzy so don’t expect any deep conversations until I’ve had many cups of coffee, but I’ll be good.”
“Good. Wanna get breakfast now or on the road? Braeden is expecting us at eleven.”
“It’s only eight o’clock. How about we get Braeden and take him to breakfast?”
***
Experiencing San Diego Zoo for the first time with Braeden who is not even three yet, but tells me he’s been there a thousand times, is fantastic. He serves as tour guide, holding my hand throughout, and I take about two hundred pictures. Many of them are of Braeden and Aiden posing in front of animal habitats.
I briefly met Aiden’s sister, who was in a bathrobe and cursing Aiden for showing up early so she couldn’t make herself look decent before meeting me. I wave it off. Even make-up free and in her housecoat, she’s a very attractive woman with long dark hair and big chocolate brown eyes like Aiden’s. She seems very down to Earth. I like her immediately. I also see how much she loves Aiden. She looks absolutely supportive of our relationship.
Lilly is asleep, so I pout that I don’t get to see her, but Adele promises me that she’ll get me some Lilly time when we get back.
We’re back just before dinner time and they invite us to stay for Chinese take-out. Austin comes by, too.
I missed seeing him at work on Friday. While we’re in the kitchen, just us two, as I’m getting a drink refill and he’s filling up a second plate while Dirk, Aiden, and Adele are in the dining room, I whisper, “So… Meryl?”
Austin gives me a pissed-off look and I’m figuring he’s not going to answer my question, but I’m wrong.
“She led me on,” he says.
I blink and give my head a shake. “She led you on?”
Not Meryl. No way.
“She and I clicked. She kept trying to keep it in the friend zone, so I tried to respect it, but she was giving me mixed signals. Then she pushed it and we went farther than she was comfortable with, though it was absolutely consensual, and she got upset and told me she had to go. She has a fiancé at home.”
I do a hard blink.
“A fiancé?”
“Not officially, but same as. She’s expecting him to propose. Son of her father’s best friend. Close to her family. It’s not arranged marriage but sounds pretty close to it.” He shrugs.
“I’m sorry, Austin. If it helps, I don’t think she tried to hurt you on purpose.”
“It doesn’t help. I just wanna forget it. She’s on the other side of the world now, so it doesn’t matter.”
“Carly, bring out some more kung pao, will ya, baby?” Aiden calls out. I lift the carton and slip by Austin, giving his shoulder a squeeze. His head is down and he’s looking pissed.
I bring Aiden more chicken.