After my little interaction with Chloe, I needed some time to cool off in my office. I came on way too strong out there and while I’m sure Chloe felt something, I’m not sure if she wants any kind of progression. She quickly shut me down. After about an hour, I go back out to talk with Chloe. Lunchtime is approaching, and I think I’m going to invite her out to eat. Some one-on-one time with her would be a bad idea – probably – but I don’t really care. I know I should keep my distance, but I don’t really want to. When I go over to her desk, she stops moving and looks up at me.
“Hey, Chloe. Feeling any less nervous?”
She nods slowly, then smiles weakly, hopefully appreciating my concern.
“Yeah. I’m chipping away at this project,” she says quietly.
I take a quick look at the spreadsheet and she has gotten pretty far along. She’s quite the efficient worker. And her general demeanor has changed. She’s less flushed and her breathing is even. The color is back in her face and she looks more cheerful.
“Well, it’ll be lunch in a couple hours and I was hoping you’d want to grab a bite to eat with me?” I ask.
Chloe doesn’t say anything. She just gives me a deep look. Her eyes are really scanning my face – what she’s looking for – I don’t know. She’s about to give me answer when I hear Whit’s office door opening. I sigh because I know he’s going to wiggle his way into our lunch. He comes over and stands on the opposite side of the desk, right behind Chloe’s computer. He puts both hands on the desk, leaning against it.
“I heard someone mention lunch plans?”
I give him a look, but he just smirks. He knows exactly what to do to irk me, but I’m not genuinely mad at him. I’ll just have to play this game a little better than him.
Chloe swallows loudly and then answers Whit’s question, “Yeah. Zane – I mean, Mr. Anderson invited me out to lunch.”
It seems Chloe is feeling the competitive energy between Whit and I because she’s shifting in her seat. I feel bad that we’re making her so anxious, but I also want to draw her into my life. I need to see what will happen. It’s only been a day and I’m already breaking away from the pact Whit and I made yesterday… but he appears to be doing the same thing.
“That sounds like fun. I’d love to tag along.” He looks so damn chipper.
Chloe smiles at him, his enthusiasm is contagious. I can’t help but smile along with him, too – even if he’s pushing his way into my lunch with Chloe, squeezing his way into my alone time with her.
“If that’s okay with Mr. Anderson?” Chloe looks at me. I’m not going to say no and be a jerk. She seems to want him to join us, so I agree to Whit tagging along for lunch. I also want Chloe to drop all this formal nonsense. It’s just putting up more of a barrier between us.
“Of course, Whit can join us. And there’s no need to be so formal. Call me Zane.”
“And call me Whit. I agree with Zane. We’ve known each other for too long to start using our formal names.”
“Yeah, okay… Zane and Whit…”
The way she says our names… I want her to be screaming mine when my dick is in her, her voice having that breathless quality it has right now. She curls into her body a little, turning away from both of us. I can feel her closing herself off. Whenever Whit and I get together, we have a really intense energy. I don’t want to scare her, so I imitate Whit’s sunnier attitude, dampening the edge of the two of us.
“So, lunch. We’ll leave around 12:30.”
“Okay.”
Whit and I leave Chloe to her project and go back to our offices. Before I step inside, we make eye contact and have a wordless conversation, mouthing our frustrations at one another. It starts to break down into a childish mudslinging contest, so we end it and close our doors.
I sit at my desk and chuckle to myself, entertained by this spat I’m having with Whit. From our perspective, it’s mostly all in good fun, but I can see how an outsider may find it scary. It’s just the way we are. Our friendship has a competitive spirit and we try to keep a lid on it, but we will fight over almost everything. Once we even had a ‘who could wear the most colors and still look good’ thing. I’m still not sure where that one came from and I don’t think I ever will know. Sadly, I lost that day. Whit just knows fashion way better than me and we’d gotten a third-party to judge. We weren’t allowed to question the decision. That’s a light-hearted example, but we’ve gone way too far just to prove points to one another.
Time passes by rapidly and it’s twelve o’clock. Lunchtime has arrived. I go back to the reception area and Chloe’s already getting ready to head out. Whit joins us not too much time later and we all get into the car waiting for us downstairs. I had made reservations while sitting in my office, so that we’d have our seats ready for us when we arrived. We take the car over and when we get to the table, it’s at least a minute of us looking at one another, no one making to sit down first. Whit slides in, getting tired of waiting around and Chloe goes right after him. When her butt touches the seat, she starts up for a second and gives Whit a suspicious look before sitting right back in the same spot. I’m not sure what to make of it, so I just sit on the other side of her, sandwiching her between the two of us. There’s plenty of room in the booth for all three of us, but Whit and I make sure to get as close as possible to Chloe.
Chloe has on a shorter skirt today and it rode up a little when she sat down. I lightly rest my hand on her thigh, exhilarated by our skin to skin contact. She glances down when I first touch her, but that’s it. She makes no comment, doesn’t try to move her leg, or even look at me. She preoccupies herself with the menu, rolling her shoulders back or clearing her throat occasionally. The sommelier comes over and offers us some wine which I accept for everyone at the table. Soon we’ve all got our glasses. It’s a nice red, something sweet that’s light and fruity. Since it’s only lunch, I don’t want to overwhelm us with alcohol. The three of us sip lightly while we are deciding on what to eat. I end up picking the chicken and while waiting for the waiter, I bring my palm up and down her soft skin, feeling goosebumps prick up.
The waiter comes over to take our orders and then, once again, we’re all left alone. Chloe continues to sip her wine, drinking it slowly and cautiously.
“So, Chloe. tell us what you’ve been doing the past couple years.” I think Whit has picked up on Chloe’s hesitancy and he’s trying to get her to open up.
She takes a deep breath. “I’ve been in college. I just graduated in May which was exciting. But it’s been all about next steps lately, so that’s why I’m here – trying to figure out my future.” She’s taking sips of wine more regularly.
“Do you want to stay at the firm after your internship is over?” I stroke her thigh as I ask, staying close to the knee.
“I don’t know…Maybe? I know my Dad really wants me to and I’d like to make him happy.” She rests her head on her hand and then turns towards me. I can tell she’s getting a little tipsy, her movements loose, but she’s coherent.
I look at Whit over Chloe’s head and he’s concerned, too. Maybe we should have waited until we had gotten our food before we started drinking. And as if they’ve read my mind, our plates are placed on the table in front of us. Chloe digs in immediately, almost inhaling her food. Whit laughs. Chloe pauses eating and puts her fork down.
“Sorry. I am just really hungry,” she says sheepishly.
“No, don’t worry about it.” Whit swipes some hair that has gotten into her eyes and tucks it behind her ear.
Chloe softly smiles, clearly touched by the gesture. She continues to eat, but at a slower pace. I glare at Whit and he just gives me a ‘sorry, not sorry’ face. I roll my eyes and eat my chicken. I don’t take my hand from her leg, inching higher each time I stroke her thigh. Whenever I bring it up, she takes a sip of wine. I should take precaution and calm myself down, put I love the way her skin feels under my hand and I’m drunk on how I’m making her feel. Sometimes, she’ll take a sip when I haven’t made any movements and I notice that Whit has kept his hand under the table as well. Looks like he had the same idea as me. We truly think alike.
My hand on her leg feels good, but it’s also a reminder of what we’re not doing. It is a subtle tease of the both of us. I want to go all the way and slip my fingers past her panties and into her, playing with her clit as she tries to keep from making too much noise. Shit! That would be sexy as hell. I’m so fucking hard… If Chloe looked down, she would see the massive bulge in my pants. I’m going to need to calm this down before we leave. It’ll be embarrassing as hell walking out of this restaurant with an erection this intense. I don’t think I’d be able to come back…
But what would solidify my banishment from this restaurant is if I pushed all of our food off the table and took her right here and now. It would feel good, the consequences would be enormous, but It’d be that much sweeter because I would have beaten Whit to the punch.