Page 31 of Between Brothers

I smiled and drove us in silence, waiting to see if she opened up, growing concerned when she didn’t. I took us out to another diner Cell and I frequented when we were just too far from Hayley’s to make it, which was honestly just a handful of times.

It was a little flashier but the food wasn’t quite as good. I wondered if it would improve with the company. I held the door for her and the waitress seated us in a booth by one of the front windows. When we’d ordered our drinks and then our food I decided that I was going to have to pry if I was going to get to the bottom of what was wrong.

“Hayley…” I said and she looked at me, her face falling when she got a look at my expression.

“Do you like me?” she asked and I tipped my head to the side. I loved her. I loved being around her and exploring this new thing. I loved going out and learning about her and what she liked and I tried to tell her as much with my eyes while keeping it careful with my mouth.

“I adore you. I love every minute of the time we spend together. What’s wrong?”

“If… if you like me as much as you say,” she shifted uncomfortably and a fiery blush overtook her, and the lightbulb went off.

“Then why haven’t I made more of a move?” I asked. She nodded mutely and burned with shame. I chuckled I couldn’t help it. “Because I’ve been waiting on you.”

She blinked at me and swallowed hard, “I… I don’t know what to say…”

“Then don’t say anything. Just nod if I have your permission, and I’ll do the rest.”

She nodded emphatically and I laughed, reaching across the table, my hand palm up. She put her hand in mine and I curved my fingers and she curved hers and we just sort of held on to each other. Her lips pursed and she ducked her head between her shoulders slightly, her cheeks still flaming and I couldn’t help myself.

I got up from my seat, still holding her hand, and rounded the end of the table, sliding into the booth beside her. She blinked up at me in surprise, and I caressed the side of her face. No walls, no lies, nothing standing between us…

I kissed her and the tension drained from her body and she leaned into me. I put my arms around her and gathered her close and did everything I could to steal her breath away. I was blocking anyone’s view from the aisle, and the windows were shoulder height and so I tore a page out of Cell’s play book. Placing my hand on the top of her leg and boldly sliding it up to the juncture of her thighs. I pressed lightly over her clit with my fingertips and rubbed her until she squirmed in her seat. Half pressing against me harder and half trying to get away. Conflicted, confused, and I knew why…

Dating was one thing for a girl-next-door type like her, but sex? Sex was a whole new bag of bricks and sex with me would mean sex with Duracell, and her inhibitions were stopping her. Keeping her from having sex with each of us, let alone both of us together. She wanted us but feared judgment. I totally got that.

One roadblock at a time. I thought to myself.

She pulled back, breathless and I backed away just enough to see her face. She looked up at me, eyes dilated with desire and taking back my hand, I whispered; “Don’t ever have any doubt about my feelings for you.”

She sucked in a breath and the waitress set our food in front of us. I kept one hand on her knee under the table as much as I could while we ate, the topic of conversation shifting to something normal and safe; what she would do for her window she had to craft.

“What’s the place called?” I asked.

“Twice Sold Tales.”

“What about a cat with two tails sleeping between books on a shelf?”

She froze and looked at me, searching my face, her mind working on the problem and finally she said, “I actually really like that.”

I lifted a shoulder in a shrug and said, “Does that mean we’re going back to your place so you can work, or am I taking you back to mine to finish what I started?”

She nearly choked on her milkshake, coughing violently until her airway cleared. I pounded on her back until she eked out that she was fine and blushing furiously, tears from her coughing fit in her eyes, rasped out, “Your place.”

“You’re sure?”

She nodded, “I’m sure.”

I nodded and gave her knee a squeeze under the table, while we finished up our meal. On the outside I was calm, cool, and collected but on the inside? I was a bundle of some seriously pissed off anxiety screaming ‘why!?’ at me, but also, I felt like I was seventeen all over again. Seventeen, with my first crush and about to hit a home-fucking-run.

I felt like I was on the top of Everest, standing on the roof of the world, while simultaneously about to be pitched off that very same roof. My palms were sweating, my heart pounding, and my mouth suddenly dry and just once in my life I wished I had Cell’s fucking calm – even if it did mean I didn’t feel a goddamn thing to go with it.

Hayley was still a little quiet while we finished our meal and I think I knew what about, but the middle of the diner, out in public, was neither the time, nor the place to talk about it. I took her back out to the car, nervous, but still excited… trying to crush down my rapidly inflating hopes.

“I need to make one stop,” I said as I pulled out onto the street. It felt weird to drive a cage after not for so long. Cumbersome and unwieldy, closed off and, well, caged in. I hated it, but it was worth it to hold her hand and know that she was warm enough… comfortable enough.

“Okay, what for?”

My turn to blush, “Ah, fresh supply of condoms…”

---