Page 33 of Living Hell

“Whoa, do not try to carry me up the steps. If you drop me, I’ll kill you.”

My lip twitched as I grunted. She was heavier than she looked. The movies made this appear easy. Movies lied.

“If your unconscious then you can’t cry, so I feel like if I make it up the stairs with you or not, I’ve done my duty.”

Each step was harder than the last and by the time I reached the top, I fell to my knees. She scurried out of my arms, which was fine with me because they were useless now.

“Great. Now I’m going to have to carry you to bed,” she said sitting on the floor beside me.

My knees were still on the last step, so I bent over and lowered my chest onto the floor with my ass in the air. The wooden floorboards were cool and refreshing. I was so exhausted that I didn’t care I was breathing in dust and dirt as I gasped for breath.

“Are you having a heart attack?”

“Why do you keep thinking I’m dying?”

“Because you don’t react well to stuff. I didn’t need to be carried upstairs. It’s a fake engagement, remember? No carrying me across the threshold.”

“That’s not why I was doing it.” I wasn’t panting anymore so I tried to push myself up, but my arms were as helpful as silly string. Admitting defeat of my baby arms, I rolled over. “I was carrying you because that’s what I always imagined when I was a teenager.”

“That an old flame would discuss her miscarriage, so you whisked her off her feet and then into the bedroom? That’s not right, Tyler. And, if I’m being completely honest, a bit disturbing to be fantasizing about it.”

I rolled my head back and forth on the hard floor. It hurt but my neck muscles were too weak to lift my head.

“Stop making everything weird. When I was young, I always imagined my first time would be with the woman I loved. We’d be so wrapped in passion that I would carry her in my arms and gently lay her onto the bed. But,” I managed to raise my hand and flap it back and forth between us, “we had sex in the grass surrounded by mosquitoes. Not as romantic as I thought it would be.”

She didn’t say anything, just stared at my chest. Normally, when a woman was ogling my body, I would ask her if she liked what she saw, but it didn’t seem appropriate at the moment.

“I gave her a name. I didn’t tell anyone, not even my mom. But I felt she deserved a name,” she whispered.

“It was a girl?”

She shrugged and pulled her knees to her chest. “I don’t know as it was too early in the first trimester, but I felt that our baby would be a girl. Or maybe I just wanted a girl.”

With some effort, I pushed myself up to sit next to her. When we were younger, I would pull her into my lap when she was upset. I put my arms around her and tried to lift but my floppy muscles didn’t like the idea of lifting anything.

“You’re going to have to get into my lap. My arms don’t work anymore.”

There was a hint of a smile that I noticed as she tucked her hair behind her ear. I had been angry at Iona for all these years for nothing. Every molecule of resentment melted away and all I wanted to do was hold her.

“Look, Tyler, you’re sexy and I wouldn’t mind having your body wrapped around mine, but have you seen your chest?” She took one finger and wiped down the middle of my pecs. Lifting it to show me, the tip of her finger was covered in brown dirt.

I frowned. “Wow, I need to clean these floors.”

“And maybe yourself, too.”

I nodded and tried to stand but my body went on strike. Iona helped me up and then guided me into the master bathroom.

“You know I can walk myself.”

“I know, but I feel guilty for almost breaking your body.”

I turned just before I went into the bathroom. “Hey, would you mind if we continued this after I get out of the shower? I miss talking to you.”

Her eyes focused on my chest, lost in some thought. Finally, she nodded. “I’ll wait right here.”

Shutting the door, I stood there taking in everything from the past twenty minutes. I was angry that one number had caused so much damage. It ripped two people apart all because my fat fingers typed too fast way back when I got her number.

Turing on the hot water I had the quickest shower in the world. There was a moment while I was soaping up my dick where the slickness of the soap felt good and my thoughts had drifted to who sat on my bed. But that was too creepy, even for me. To jack off while the woman I was fantasizing about was ten feet away? Nope.

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