Fireball (Cheap Thrills 1)

“…I mean, I think I would have, but no one can say what they definitely would have done until they’re actually there doing it. Right?”

“Right,” I murmured, not knowing what I was agreeing to as I unscrewed the cap on the bottle, but it had sounded positive so that counted.

“So I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done that. I just needed time to get my head around it all, and then I needed to sort this really, really stupid rollercoaster of emotions out. It was driving me insane. One second I was ready to say sorry, then I’d be an asshole – it was exhausting and I’ve never been in that position before.”

Getting down onto my stomach on the floor, I turned my head sideways and tried to look under the tiny gap between the floor and the bottom of the door to see where she was sitting. Ah ha, gotcha.

Reaching my arm out, I tipped the bottle of water so that it went under the door to where she was. Not wanting to give what I was doing away, I figured I should say something to her. When I couldn’t come up with something profound, I went with the first word that hit me. “Right.”

“You’d done so much for me, and shown me repeatedly that you were a good guy, and I guess I just didn’t expect it. Not that you’d expect something like that, but still.” I watched as she shifted slightly, the water still pouring out of the bottle and under the door. When it started coming back toward where my head was, I panicked slightly and began blowing silently at it to move it back in the direction I wanted it to go. Thankfully, it worked and with the help of my finger sweeping it too, I was saved from my prank backfiring on me. “I really like you, Dave.”

Maybe a better man would feel guilty over the fact that he was drenching the ass of the woman who was telling him she liked him at that moment, but the cold soggy feeling on my own wasn’t motivating me to do that. We’d also had a relationship like this from the first time we’d met, so why would I change it now? I loved her brand of fireball, and she ‘really liked’ my brand of crazy – it’s what we did.

Still. “I really like you too, Tabby.”

I could hear Jarrod singing Nothing Compares 2 U in his cell, but I didn’t pay it much attention as I waited for what she was going to say next.

“Do you think you could forgive me?” she asked so quietly that I had to strain to hear her.

Lifting the bottle up seeing as how it was now empty, I got up and moved to where there wasn’t a puddle of water. “Nothing to forgive, baby. Can you forgive me?”

There was a thud from the other side of the door, and then she gave me what I wanted to hear. Well…ish. “There’s nothing to forgive, Da…oh my God, did you put water under the door?”

Bursting out laughing, I listened to her moving around the cell in a panic as she tried to find a towel. It took her a good five minutes to get her pants off and settle down, something which she yelled at me, and once the noises stopped, I took a trip down memory lane. “You gonna go out on a date with me, baby?”

Either she was feel nostalgic too, or she was really pissed that she was stuck wearing soaked panties, because she snapped, “No.”

We both knew I could play this game better than she could, so with a loud sigh, I got up and opened the window on her door. “You sure?”

Glaring at me from where she was sitting on the cot in her cell, she shook her head. “No way.”

Not saying another word, I winked and closed the window and started walking away, whistling loudly. Over the sound of her yelling profanities at me, I heard Jarrod singing November Rain and was hit by the perfection of the song at this moment. Sure we weren’t in November, but Tabby and I hadn’t done anything the right way so far so it fit us. Plus, it was Mom’s favorite group, and he’d had no way of knowing that.

As I walked out of the door, I heard Tabby yell at Jarrod, “I freaking love this song. Keep singing!”

My crazy fireball.

TabbyForty-three minutes later…

I was ready when he opened the door fully and launched myself at him.

“What the f…” he muttered before I cut him off by slamming my mouth down on his. And it was an actual slam because I’d underestimated the speed that I’d be going at when I hit him and hadn’t thought about the impact it would have when I lowered my head at the same time to kiss him.