Chapter 8

P A S T

D A Y 4

THEA

“Do you play?” he asked, as he noticed the guitar hidden behind some of the boxes in my living room.

“I wish! My sister is pretty decent, though she just started learning,” I replied, as he stood up from our small picnic of wine, popcorn, and sandwiches.

“Do you think she would mind?”

“Not at all,” I said.

I had bought the thing for her anyway, so I figured that I was at least entitled to hear it being played every once in a while.

Taking a seat on the opposite end of the couch, he picked at the strings. With his head cocked to the side, and his eyes closed, he listened intently to the tone and the pitch of each string, pausing every so often to adjust the tuning. He strummed through all six strings, measuring them against his internal tuning scale. Satisfied, he opened his eyes and smiled at me, then, as he drew in a deep breath, he began to play.

I closed my eyes for a moment and listened to the sound of his music. As I followed the melody, the tune took form and I opened my eyes to stare at him.

“I know this!” I said as I sat up excitedly, trying my best to not spill any wine.

He laughed, “What is it then?”

Shit.

“I know it, don’t tell me!” I repeated, trying to remember.

Urgh.

He kept smiling, as his fingers slid up and down the neck of the guitar with ease. He looked so relaxed, as if he could spend the rest of his life shirtless with a guitar in his hands.

“Damn it,” I cried out in frustration, I knew this song!

He glanced up at me, “Give up?”

“No. Don’t I get to call a friend or something?”

“It’s "More Than Words" by Extreme,” he said with a grin.

“I would have gotten it,” I muttered. “It was on the tip of my tongue.”

“Okay,” he said with a tone of teasing.

“Anyway, where did you learn to play?” I asked him, desperate for a diversion.

“My father taught me,” he replied. “I was horrible at hitting on girls when I was in high school, so he taught me to play so that I could woo the ladies,” he said with a chuckle.

“You had issues with girls?” I asked incredulously.

“It’s so hard to believe because I’m so devilishly handsome, right?”

Rolling my eyes, I threw some popcorn at him, and he managed to catch a few in his mouth.

“Do you want to hear the story or not?” he asked with mock annoyance.

“Alright, so Mr. Sexy-green-eyes had girl trouble in high school, go on.”

“First of all, try to imagine me twenty pounds lighter with no muscular definition, a crew cut, acne, and thick glasses.”

I laughed. I didn’t mean to, but I laughed.

“You’re lying.”

“God, I wish. There was even a rhyme.”

“No!” I covered my mouth with my hand, trying to stifle the bout of laughter that was threatening to explode out of my lungs.

“Did you realize that Levi was left seaside and his face got stuck in beehives?” he repeated the taunt that had no doubt haunted him throughout his high school career.

“Kids are awful,” I told him, feeling sympathetic.

Note to self: make sure Selene isn’t being bullied.

“Yeah,” he laughed it off, “my dad told me that girls were a sucker for a guy with a guitar. And me, being a horny fifteen-year-old boy, I saved up everything I had to buy myself one. And it worked to a degree; I was bullied less, and some girls thought it was sweet. When I grew out of my awkward years, everything changed though. My high school reunion was a blast for my sister and I,” he said with a laugh.

“Was she awkward too?”

“Bethan? Ha! No, she’s always been the rebel of our family. She was one of those rare few that never cared what anyone thought. She’d wanted to come along with me to see how the prom queen and the quarterback looked ten years later. She laughed for days. Everyone thinks of her as a wild child, but she’s a lot more sensible than most people give her credit for. You know the club we met at?”

“Twenty-Four?”

He nodded. “She had stashed away every penny that anyone had ever given her, be it birthday money, or Christmas money or even her weekly allowance. She kept it all hidden under the floorboards of her room. By the time she graduated college, she had almost twenty grand to her name. She took that money and put all towards opening that club,” he said beaming with pride.

“Your parents must have—”

“Lost their shit,” he finished. “They did. But it worked for her. She made it work for her,” he smiled.

He seemed to be really proud and fond of his little sister. In a way, she reminded me of Selene.

“I’m glad it worked out for you,” I said, as I leaned even more into the couch.

“What about you, what were you like in high school?”

“Urgh. No.” I groaned, not wanting to go there.

“Come on,” he urged, “it can’t possibly be worse than the rhyme.”

He had a point.

“Let’s see,” I mused, wondering just how much I should reveal. “Well, I was overweight and a teacher’s pet, that about covers it,” I nodded, wishing that I could have avoided this conversation.

“Overweight? You?”

Now it was his turn to be incredulous.

“Thank you, I’ll take that as a compliment,” I said. “But yeah, my grandmother was a chef, and even though she was retired, she still fed us every waking moment. Jesus, when I think back on it, it was pretty bad. That, plus my baby weight…” I shuddered at the memory, “If it wasn’t for the few sports I played, I would have needed to be rolled down the halls.”

He thought about for a moment— “Yeah, I can’t imagine that.”

“Oh, but you don’t have to,” I said, already regretting the decision I was about to make.

I stood up, moving towards a stack of boxes. After a moment, I found the one I was looking for. A box filled with my photo albums. Selecting the right year, I scanned through it briefly before handing it to him.

Putting the guitar away, he wordlessly flipped through the album. I sat forward, trying to gauge his reaction.

“It’s not that bad,” he finally said.

“I’m sorry, did you not see the photos??”

“I saw them. It wasn’t that bad,” he repeated. “By the way, your boobs were huge!”

Of course that’s what he was looking at.

“I don’t miss them,” I told him, “they killed my back.”

“You’re slightly taller than most girls, so everything evened out alright.” He paused, flipping to another page, then he laughed— “Okay this one is kind of bad.”

“Thank you, I know.” I tried to take the photos back from him, but he wouldn’t have it.

“You were a teacher’s pet,” he echoed the sentiment I had expressed moments ago.

He smiled to himself as he looked over all my awards and photos with my teachers.

“I actually liked school.”

“No judgment,” he snickered.

And he was right. One of the things I liked about him, was the fact that no matter what either of us did, there was no judgment. But then again, after agreeing to this week, how could we really judge each other?

“You were the captain of the varsity volleyball team your sophomore year?” he asked, tapping one of the photos.

“Okay that’s enough,” I said, reaching over to sit on his lap and obscure his view of the book.

“You’re playing dirty,” he told me.

“Hey, a woman’s gotta do what a woman’s gotta do,” I replied, before kissing him.

He moaned, and allowed himself to relax as he leaned back into the couch. As I had hoped, the book slipped out of his hands, and softly thudded to the ground.

I shifted my position and slipped my body between his legs as I caressed the side of his face and deepened the kiss. I slid the album under the couch, where it would remain unnoticed for another month.

The second my lips touched his, thoughts of the album immediately left my mind, and with a soft grunt, he stood up and lifted me off my feet, just as he had done in the shower earlier that morning. As I wrapped my arms around his neck, I could feel the almost erratic beat of his heart as he carried me into the hallowed darkness of my bedroom. He set me on my feet right in front of my bed.

“I want you,” he whispered, his eyes roaming over me.

“So?” I crossed my arms…I had no idea why I was playing hard to get now…that was a lie. I knew why; it was the look in his eyes…the way he looked at me made my toes curl.

He took a step forward and grasped my hips, pulling me against him, so I could feel how hard he was.

His lips hovered over mine as he spoke; “When I say I want you, I mean I need you. I need to run my fingers over your skin, kiss down your back, and make you moan my name. I. Need. You. And from the look on your face, you need me too. So strip.”

How could I not?

LEVI “Ma, I’m fine. Can’t we reschedule for some other day next week? I’m just busy right now.”

“Levi you’re supposed to be on vacation; you shouldn’t be busy doing anything.”

My mother was driving me crazy.

I balanced the phone between my shoulder and my cheek and allowed my mother to rant at me while I partially listened. Reaching into the fridge for the milk, I noticed that Thea was running out of almost everything. I felt guilty in that moment because I knew I was the one with the voracious appetite.

“I’m not working Ma,” I replied as she asked me once more what I could possibly be busy with.

“Levi? Have you seen my— Oh I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were on the phone,” Thea said as she came into the kitchen dressed in a pair of shorts and an oversized sweater.

I missed seeing her in my clothes.

“Who are you with?” my mother barked from the other end of the phone.

I covered the speaker with my hand as I looked at her and sighed, “Give me a second?”

She nodded and turned around.

“Mom, I really gotta go,” I said. “Tell dad I’m sorry about the game, and that I’ll make it up to him. Bye.”

I hung up before she could say anything else, but deep down, I knew that that wasn’t the end of this conversation.

“Is everything okay? I’m not keeping you away from anything important am I?” Thea asked, as she grabbed an apple out of the ceramic bowl on her counter and polished it with the sleeve of her sweater.

More important than her? My father and his golfing buddies could wait.

“No, it’s fine, my father’s just been bored out of his mind since he retired.”

“What did he do?” she asked, taking a bite out of her apple.

“He was lawyer.”

“A lawyer? And he retired? That usually only happens for two reasons; he was either kicked out of the firm, or his health got the best of him.”

The moment she said it her eyes went wide and she looked at me— “Shit. I’m so sorry. I have no filter.”

“It’s okay, honestly. Besides, you’re right. He had a heart attack last year, and my mother put her foot down.”

She stood there, staring at the ground, unable to meet my gaze. She was clearly embarrassed by her outburst, and self-conscious about what she should do next. Pulling her into my arms, I kissed her forehead. “It’s fine.” I told her once more. “Besides, I’m more interested in knowing how you could have guessed that.”

“My mother used to be a lawyer. She left her firm because of health reasons too, but believe me, she put up a hell of a fight,” she said as she shook her head.

“What was her name?” I asked, curious now. “Maybe I’ve heard of her.”

“Maybe,” she shrugged, wiggling out of my hands and going over to the fridge.

I noticed there was an invisible line with her. She was willing to talk about herself and her sister, but that was where it ended. She didn’t give me too many details about anything. She was trying to keep me outside of her bubble… after all, we only had three days left. Yet still, I couldn’t help but want to know more about her.

Where had the time gone?

“I was thinking that I’d head down to the farmers’ market really quick, before I headed over to your place. You can hang out—”

“I’ll come with you.” I said She balked, “That’s okay—”

“Thea,” I stated cupping the side of her face, “give me a minute to throw on a shirt, and then we can both go out together. We have three days left, so no running away from me. I want to make the most of our time.”

“I wasn’t running; I just thought you might want some space or something.”

“If I wanted space, I wouldn’t be coming to your place every other day,” I said softly, pressing against her. “And I sure as hell wouldn’t be this close to you. When we get back change into my shirt.”

“Someone is getting demanding,” she noted, looking at my lips.

“Someone is liking it,” I replied, biting her bottom lip before moving away from her.

Three Two One...

“You aren’t paying for anything!” she yelled back at me.

She always had to get the last word in; her pride wouldn’t let it go otherwise.

“Okay,” I called back.

There was just no point in having this fight just yet, but there was no way in hell I was going to let her pay. On the other hand, our fights always left me turned on...