Nick
"Now my penis is extra ribbed for your pleasure."
"Nick."
Heather's forehead was pressed to her bedroom window. I was munching on a piece of her mom's homemade apple pie, a generous scoop of ice cream melted slightly on top.
"I've had a real bad day. C'mere."
I patted the bed beside me. Heath sniffled.
"What's wrong?"
Heather sighed. "Nothing."
"C'mon, I may not get you all the time, but somethings wrong," I said softly.
"I just don't want to talk about it," she said. She stood up and walked up to me. Her lips pressed against my forehead. "I'm sorry about today."
"It's okay. It'll be a great story to tell our grandchildren."
I was mortified as tears welled up in Heather's eyes. "Grandchildren. .." she whispered. Her arms wrapped around her body as she turned.
"Where--" I began to ask, but she headed out of the room before I had a chance to finish. I shoved the spoon into the ice cream and pie and shoveled another mouthful in.
I was licking the bottom of the bowl when my cell rang. I reached out, figuring it was Brian to chastise me more about buying such a big ass ring. I didn't even check the display.
"I know, I know. It's huge."
"It sure is. How's it hanging?"
Every nerve ending in my body suddenly ignited on fire. Blood rushed to my injured dick. I winced.
"Laur," I whispered.
"I know, I know. I shouldn't be calling. It's just--"
"I miss you," we said at the same time.
It took a couple seconds for the words to sink in on either end. Laur broke the silence.
"Did you propose?"
"Yeah."
"Did she say yes?"
"Yeah?"
"Oh."
"She ripped my penis open with the engagement ring," I blurted.
"What?"
I quickly recapped what happened. I didn't even skirt around the fact that I was getting a blowjob. Laur gasped.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. I'm stitched."
She giggled. I gnawed on my lip. It was a fucking hot giggle. "Now you're extra ribbed for--"
"Your pleasure," I finished.
"My pleasure?"
My stomach was in knots. The pain medicine was no match for the raging hard on I had. "Crap, Laur, I can't get you out of my head."
"I know what you mean. Damnit Carter, I don't do commitment but I can't even look at another guy."
I closed my eyes. Those were the words Heather was supposed to be saying. Instead she was hovering by the window, no doubt lamenting Brian's announcement that he was going back to Atlanta.
Sigh.
"This place is depressing," I announced.
"How can it be depressing? You just got engaged!"
"Trust me. It's the Midwest. It's depressing."
"Well, maybe you need a little surprise. Say...in Chicago?"
"You're coming?"
"If you make me."
I grinned. She was the queen of sexy banter. "If I get caught I'm dead."
"Then don't get caught."
The thought of sneaking around with Lauren while Heather was almost too much for my brain to process. I let out a moan.
"Will you still be blonde?"
"That's for me to know..." she sang.
"And you to find out."
Heather
Nick practically threw his phone when I came back. I stared at it as it hit the floor and skid under the dresser. He watched it go, then curled his face into an expression of pain. “Baby,” he groaned, “It hurts so much!” I crawled onto the bed beside him and pulled his head back towards my chest. He closed his eyes and used my breast like it was a cold compress on his cheek. I sighed.
Some part of me felt guilty for being so sad about Brian. I felt guilty because I’d told Brian I loved him. The look of shock and horror on his face had made me gush out the like a brother part in my mouth, but not a word of it was meant where it counted… in my heart. And now he was leaving, going back to Atlanta, going back to Leighanne.
“Hey Nick?” my voice was quiet.
“Yeah?” he moved his head so he was looking up at me.
“When did you know you wanted to marry me?”
He was quiet. He shifted in my arms and nuzzled against my breast even more before he finally replied, “You’re beautiful, you’re smart, you’re funny, you’re sexy, you’re gentle – well except by accident with that mammoth ring I got you – and—“ he looked at me and for a moment, just a brief, glimmering moment, he was the Nick I’d fallen in love with. Our eyes locked and he searched mine with his and he leaned closer and he whispered, “And I don’t deserve you.” His mouth was against my cheek. I felt a tear sneak out of my eye and crawl down my face towards his lips. “You make me a lucky man,” he whispered, “By overlooking all of my faults and loving me anyways.”
“If this is all true,” I whispered back, “Why did you sleep with Lauren Kitt?”
Nick sniffled and I pulled back and looked at him. He was genuinely crying. It wasn’t one of those fakey, unreal things he did when he wanted sex (which I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t have been doing on account of his injury anyways) – it was actual crying. His face was crumpled in the most childish, ridiculous looking grimace and his skin had turned all red, his lips curled down into a frown and he gasped out, “I hate myself for taking that first step, for turning on you that first time, and if I could undo it all and erase Lauren from my past I would…” he shook his head, his eyes fluttered open and he looked at me through the salty barrier of tears. “I’m no better than my father.”
It had been a long time since I’d seen Nick so vulnerable and open with me.
“Nick,” I whispered, cupping my hands to his cheeks and staring into his eyes, “You are so much better than your father ever was.” I kissed his mouth softly, moving my leg so I was straddling him. I leaned into his chest and he let me pull his shirt off him as he pulled mine off me and his mouth found my breasts. I pressed my palms against the wall and let him work his magic. I closed my eyes. He was being so gentle, so careful, so… so the Nick I remembered. I closed my eyes.
This was the Nick that I wanted to marry. Not the naughty dolphins Nick.
This was the Nick that – that was --
Nick flipped me over gently and started working his way southward.
Oh wow.
Maybe Brian going home to Leighanne wasn’t so bad after all. It was the right thing to do… really… and… maybe there’d be a real change in Nick after this. Maybe Nick would… would stay… being… Nick-like……
Brian
Have you ever seen that one movie… Serendipity? And John Cusack’s trying to find the girl and everywhere he goes, people are named Sarah or talking about Sarah or are singing Sarah’s name out in the middle of traffic for no apparent reason?
Heather was the kind Delta associate who helped me via the telephone to book my flight from Lexington to Atlanta. Heather was the guy who drove my cab’s girlfriend. Heather was the name of the woman who greeted me at the ticketing booth at the airport and -- “My name is Heather and I’ll be your flight attendant tonight…” she was wielding a microphone on two inch heels with a huge pouf of a pony tail.
“Hey,” said the girl next to me, shoving her hand in my face, “I’m Heather.” So she was also my seatmate.
And the real winner?
I walked into my house and dropped my keys into the bowl by the door. “Leighanne?” I called as I looked around. The house seemed empty, dark, kind of eerie. I started up the stairs to the second floor. “Leighanne?” I called. I opened the bedroom door.
Heather, it turned out after fifteen minutes of arguing, was also the name of Leighanne’s extracurricular activities.
“That’s really hot bro. Did you join them?”
Why the hell did I call AJ? Oh yeah, because I was too scared to call Chris and hear about Nick and Heather and I was too scared to call Nick and hear about Nick and Heather and I was to scared to call Heather because – well, I was apparently her brother.
“No. I didn’t join them.”
“Did you watch them?”
I sat in silence a full minute, trying to remind myself why I’d called AJ.
“Sorry.” AJ apparently realized why I was quiet.
“I just can’t believe it. Almost eleven years, J…” I stammered. I kicked the hotel room wall violently and the rolling desk chair sailed across the carpet, caught a snag and tipped over backwards. I let out a yelp.
“Shit, you aren’t like still there watching them, right?” AJ gasped, “What’re they doing?”
“Why the hell didn’t I call Howie?” I burst out.
AJ was quiet a moment, “Okay okay, I’m sorry. So. Eleven years. Yeah?”
“Well just, when you’re married to someone for eleven years you kinda assume that they’re probably heterosexual.”
“At least you know why she was out of commission so much…” AJ offered up, “It’s not because your ride sucks or anything. That’s gotta be comforting.”
I rubbed my forehead. It was impossible, I concluded, to hold a conversation with AJ.
