Page 32 of Spyder
Bellamy laughs as she walks through the door and disappears into the kitchen. I hear the refrigerator door opening and then closing a moment later. She walks back in with two cans of soda in her hands, looking like a vision to me. She’s wearing a long, flowing white dress with blue flowers with straps that leave her shoulders and arms bare. It’s conservative, tasteful, and to me, entirely sexy. I’ve always liked a woman who doesn’t need to show every inch of skin. I’ve always thought leaving something to the imagination is sexier.
“One soda,” she says and hands the can to me.
“Thanks.”
“Have a seat,” she says.
We both settle down onto the couch and I pop my soda and take a swallow. Finding a coaster on the coffee table, I set my can down on it and sit back. Bellamy looks from the can to me, a smile flickering across her lips.
“A coaster? My, you have been housebroken well,” she says.
I laugh. “I didn’t know using a coaster was such a noteworthy event.”
“In my experience, a man using a coaster is definitely a noteworthy event,” she replies. “Next, you’re going to tell me you put the seat down.”
“Every time.”
“Do your laundry? Including your bedding?”
“Weekly,” I confirm. “I can even properly fold a fitted sheet.”
“Lies. Nobody can fold a fitted sheet.”
I shrug. “It’s all true.”
“That’s some black magic. I can’t even fold a fitted sheet.”
“I do all of my dishes, take out the garbage, and even dust my house bi-weekly.”
“Be still, my beating heart,” she says. “Where have you been all my life?”
I laugh, though it’s a bit strained. “I’ve always been here. You’re only just noticing me now.”
She grins, but it quickly falters and when she speaks, her voice is barely more than a whisper. “Yeah, I guess that’s true. I kind of wish it hadn’t taken so long for me to notice you.”
“That makes two of us.”
A moment of silence settles down over us, and I can feel the awkward weight of expectation pressing down on me. I didn’t think about it at the time, but the fact that she invited me to come home with her feels significant. Now, in hindsight, it feels like there was more behind her invitation than just conversation and a soda.
Or maybe I’m simply seeing something that’s not actually there. Something I want to see. Maybe I’m putting meaning into her words that isn’t really there. All of the feelings I carried for her back in the day are suddenly on the surface again and are likely distorting my view of things. They’re making me see illusions. An oasis in the desert.
But that’s what Bellamy does to me. What she’s always done to me. She spins me around and clouds things over in my head. I have never been able to think straight when she’s around. It’s a phenomenon I noticed back then and is clearly one that continues to this very day. It’s pretty remarkable that those kinds of feelings have not only survived this long but seem to have grown even more intense.
All of this is going through my head and I’m starting to think that I’m overthinking everything, not to mention reading all of the signals wrong, when Bellamy leans over and kisses me. It starts off slow and tentative, but when I pull her closer and I open my mouth, Bellamy slides her tongue into my mouth, swirling it around mine.
The sheer sensuality of the kiss, slow and lingering, ignites a fire inside of me. I lean forward, pressing my mouth to hers even more firmly, our kiss growing in passion and intensity. My head is swimming, and the taste of her mouth is intoxicating to me. This is something I dreamed of doing for so long when I was younger, and now that I’m here, with her mouth pressed to mine, I’m overwhelmed by the surreal feeling of it all.
I lean into her, kissing her harder with more than a decade’s worth of unrequited passion behind it. She grips my shirt, pulling at it as she pulls me to her, kissing me just as fiercely as I’m kissing her. I trail my fingers through her long sandy blonde hair, luxuriating in its silky softness and remembering a time when I was younger and only fantasized about doing this.
A quiet laugh passes my lips as I pull back. Bellamy cocks her head and looks at me, a mischievous smile on her lips.
“What are you laughing at?” she asks.
“Just… there was a time when I would have literally killed somebody to be where I’m at right now.”
Her cheeks flushed and she looked away, and it’s hard for me not to see the traces of regret in her eyes. I put my fingers under her chin and turn her face to me, holding her gaze.
“But hey, it’s better late than never,” I say softly.
