Page 8 of Michelle
5
NATE
I can’t get the almost kiss with Michelle last night out of my head. It’s so distracting that I can barely get through the work I needed to this morning. I decide to try and take a nap over lunch, but a knock on the door interrupts me as I lay down on the couch.
I can see that it's a delivery man in blue shorts and a matching shirt through the front window. I push off the couch and go open the door.
“Good, you’re home.” The delivery guy says by way of greeting. He looks down at his clipboard. “Says here that I can’t leave this package without a signature.”
I’m about to tell him that I didn’t order anything, and Charlotte never told me she was expecting anything when he thrusts the tablet at me to sign. Confused, I scribble my name and hand it back to him. He gives me the package and turns to leave without another word.
I close the door. Still confused by what just happened, I look down at the box in my hand and freeze. In big bright red letters, it reads Vibrate-Her 5000 with a picture of a woman looking like she is in the midst of a powerful orgasm.
I nearly drop the box on the ground, not wanting to think about why my sister would have ordered something like this when I see the name on the package. It's for Michelle. Suddenly the nausea I felt thinking this was Charlotte's purchase morphs into an interest that Michelle would buy such a thing. I'm not crazy to think that women don’t use these toys, there is a whole industry built on it, but I rarely think about how anyone I know and like would use them.
The sound of Michelle's front door slamming shut can be heard through our shared wall. I can't tell if she's just got home or she is just heading out. I wait for a moment to try and listen to see if I hear her walking around on her side of the duplex. The shared wall is thick, but on occasion, I've heard Michelle on her side.
All is quiet, so I assume that she's gone back out. Now is my chance to put this on her front step, so she isn't the wiser that I signed for this package, and I know what she ordered.
I open the front door and step out onto the front porch. I look around and don’t see her car anywhere. I walk over to her door and bend down to put the box on her welcome mat.
Suddenly, the door swings open, and all I can see is pink manicured toenails in platform sandals. My gaze moves up the familiar form of Michelle's legs up to the confused look on her face.
“It’s not what you think,” I blurt out.
She starts to shake her head like she doesn't understand when all at once. Realization as to what I'm holding spreads across her face.
“Oh my gosh!”
“I wasn’t taking it.” I stand up and step back. “The delivery guy dropped it off at my door and had me sign for it.”
The pink color spreading on Michelle’s cheeks darken with each passing second as I try to explain myself.
“I didn’t mean to look at what it was, but it’s written on the package and—”
Michelle quickly picks up the package and slams the door shut in my face without another word.
“Yeah, that went just about how I’d expect it,” I mumble to myself.
The urge to knock on the door and try to explain the situation further is strong but judging by her reaction. I doubt she'd open the door for me right now, even if I was on fire and she had the last fire extinguisher in the world.
MICHELLE
Is it possible to literally die from embarrassment? Because I'm pretty sure that at this moment, my body is shutting down, and I'm going to keel over onto the floor. I can't believe that not only did my package not get delivered to my side of the duplex, but the company that sent it didn't have enough sense to ensure that it was sent in some sort of discreet packaging.
I look down at the box in my hand, and the urge to throw it against the wall is strong, but after the debacle of Nate seeing what I ordered, there is little chance that he is ever going to be interested in me again. This vibrator has officially become my very own buzzing boyfriend.
I can't help but think about Kiera from the book. She, too, was sexually frustrated, in desperate need of some release, that she resorted to finding other ways to fulfill her needs. My needs are still alive and kicking inside me, and I don't know how much longer I can take.
I want to hate this device, and I want to throw it away, but the need overpowers the want. So, I tear open the box and walk down the hall towards my bedroom.
I pull the curtains closed over my windows. An act that not long ago might have seemed paranoid, but judging by my luck today, I wouldn’t put it past the universe to have someone walking past my window and look in just as I’m using this thing.
I look over the directions inside and prepare it the way it tells me to. I'd initially come home for lunch, but I guess for lunch, I'm finally going to be coming.
I lay back on the bad and try to clear my mind. The intended star of my fantasy from next door is no longer someone I can think about at this moment. The cut from the humiliation of everything that just happened is still too raw.
I turn on the vibrator to the lowest setting, testing out the strength on my sensitive area. At first, it feels glorious, a level of ecstasy that I wouldn't have found with just my fingers, but my brain gets in the way of any release. I manage to get so far, pushing myself to the edge of release, but I can't fall over. I try for nearly the span of my lunch hour and nothing.
Device or not, I’m still just as frustrated as before.
