"Or whatever color you want that doesn't look like a vagina," I told her, maybe a bit too charmed when her cheeks went pink. I could say pussy all day to her, but you bring out the technical word and she's looking like a school girl. "Take a trip to Home Depot and look at some swatches. Pick out what you want, and the guys will have it on the walls within the next week."
"It really doesn't feel right that they are being forced into all this work for me."
Kennedy was the kind of girl to do shit herself. From what she said, she had been the one to skim the walls, and bolt the hair cutting chairs to the floor, and any number of other things that needed to be done. Though that was likely to save money, I found I liked her willingness to get her hands dirty.
There was a lot beneath the surface. You took one look at her and all you'd really see was the big blue eyes, the perfect blonde hair, the plump lips, and the goddamn ideal body. On top of that, she dressed nice- lots of dresses and heels.
It was easy to think that's all she was.
But what she was was smart, and funny, and determined, and sweet, and a good friend, a great employer, someone who could take being the butt of a joke as she often was at the compound thanks mostly to Roderick who apparently came from a family with five, yes five, sisters so he was used to doing that big brother thing.
She was that shit that they talked about, that phrase that was thrown around way too easily on chicks that didn't quite live up to it.
She was the whole package.
And I didn't know what she was fucking smoking to make her think she should wrap all that up and offer it to me like Christmas morning, to think I was in any way deserving of it.
I wasn't the kind of man who was familiar with insecurity. But that being said, I had never been in the position to let a woman's possible opinion of me change the way I felt about myself.
Kennedy, as it turned out, was a lot of firsts for me.
She was the first woman I spent more than one night with, the first woman I took back to my house, the first woman who ever cooked for me, the first I learned the whole life story of, the first woman I had ever fucking made love to, and the first whose opinion mattered.
It should have been something that freaked me out, that terrified me. A man like me, so used to living life exactly how I wanted, without having to answer to anyone, it shouldn't have been an easy transition.
But in trading in a tiny bit of that freedom, I got, in exchange, Kennedy.
Seemed like a fair fucking trade-off if you asked me.
What did that mean long-term? Honestly, fuck if I knew. All I knew was, I liked having her around. I liked waking up with her soft body curled against mine. And, let's face it, her tit in my hand. Because that was how we slept every damn night. I liked hearing her laugh, even when I was in the other room and it was Cy or Roderick or Cash getting that reaction out of her. I liked listening to her tell stories about being a tomboy before she found makeup and heels. I liked how she got along with my brothers. I liked listening to her on the phone some nights bullshitting with Benny or his boyfriend.
And I think it went without saying, that I liked it a fuckuva lot being inside her. In fact, I liked it enough that four days before, I dragged her with me to the clinic to get tests run. It had been too long for the both of us and while she was on the Pill, we wanted to make sure shit was in the clear before we took that step.
The night before was the first time we ditched the condoms, the first time I had ever ditched a condom, and got to be in her with nothing between us.
It was maybe the first time in my life that sex seemed like more than just sex.
So, in my mind, that shit was all pointing to something serious. While I was nowhere near ready to start saying the love or commitment words, I was committed.
I was invested in giving it a shot.
"Alright, alright, get your lovey-dovey shit out of the way. Kenny and I have a date at the Home Depot. Or as I like to call it, Men R Us. Don't give me that look," he said to Kennedy. "You know my man and I have a strict look all you want, get the engine revved up, and bring it on home for the ride agreement. So go on, kiss her, grab her tit. Get it over with."