13.
Lucy
It was still dark when I woke up in Eddie’s bed. I felt warm and cosy, despite the fact we were no longer wrapped around each other. I’d only been half expecting him to still be there, so when he wasn’t it was no great surprise.
It was a one-night stand. That’s it. I should probably have left before I fell asleep, but at the time it didn’t occur to me. Isn’t hindsight a bitch?
There had been points though, fleeting moments, in the haze of lust and heat of the previous evening, where I’d felt as if we’d shared something special.
While he was washing me, holding me against him as he wiped my sensitive skin with a damp cloth and kissed my neck. We’d been laughing and joking around. He’d been trying to up my scoring of him from a 7.5 and we’d been teasing each other.
“I think I deserve at least a 9,” he’d laughed against my cheek.
“Hmmm,” I’d grinned, pretending to give it some serious thought. The truth was he’d rocked my world. He’d been sublime and I couldn’t imagine anyone doing any better, but he didn’t need to know that. From the grin on his face he already did, but I wasn’t going to help to overinflate his already sizable ego any further. “Now, you see that’s a problem because I was a perfect ten and you are clearly at least 1 point worse than me.”
He laughed and pulled me into him, nipping at my lips as he threw the flannel into the laundry basket. “Is that a fact?”
I pushed him away, my hands on his chest. “Are you saying I deserve less than full marks?” I tried to keep a straight face, my eyebrow raised as I watched him. I know I can’t have been all that good, but that’s where the joke is.
He shook his head as he dropped his chin to his chest and kissed the backs of my hands before he tugged me closer again. “Absolutely not. You were perfect.” His eyes met mine as he said, almost solemnly, “You are perfect.” Something about the way he looked at me and the way he said those three little words made him seem so sincere. For a moment I believed he meant it.
Then he threw me over his shoulder and carried me back to bed. “Far too perfect to be standing around in the bathroom getting cold. You need to be treated like a queen.”
“Is this how you would treat the Queen?” I watched the dimples just above his arse cheeks, admiring the movement of his fantastic bottom. “It doesn’t seem like a very dignified way to treat an nonagenarian.” I laughed as he threw me back down onto the bed.
Eddie clambered over me, grinning. “Only if she was as wonderful as you.”
But he couldn’t have meant it, because if he’d meant it I wouldn’t have woken up alone.
I shouldn’t have fallen asleep. I should have left sooner. He was just fulfilling a duty, helping me out. That’s what he said, one friend doing another friend a favour. Or just doing another friend. It’s all much of a muchness.
Still berating myself for my naivety, I climbed out of his bed, retracing my footsteps until I found my clothes and was fully dressed again, tidying up as I went. A bit of mess has never really bothered me, but Eddie’s not like me. Everything has its place. So I made the effort to leave his room the way that I’d found it. It felt like the least I could do.
Glasses on and bag clutched to my side, I eased open the door and snuck down the hallway. The faint sound of snoring from the sitting room told me where he’d decided to spend the night. I can’t believe I was selfish enough to kick him out of his own bed. Next time I would have to be careful to…
Except, I reminded myself, there wasn’t going to be a next time. That was the very definition of a one-night stand. It only happened once. Although that seemed like a shame. It was pretty spectacular.
I shook the thought from my head, tiptoed through his front door and left. It was barely light outside but it didn’t take me long to get home. As soon as my head hit my pillow, sleep claimed me, and if I hadn’t had the alarm set on my phone I would definitely have missed lunch with Mills.
“How’s your mum?” was her first question.
I immediately felt guilty. It had been a pretty shitty way of escaping what was little more than a dull conversation. But the way that Eddie had been watching me had me worked up and I would have done anything to talk to him over Dylan.
I sighed. “I’m sorry Mills, but I couldn’t talk to him for a moment longer. He was driving me nuts with all his talk of salmon fishing.”
“So you invented an ailing mother?”
I winced. “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”
“You know Dylan came looking for David as soon as you bailed? Completely fucked up my plans for the night.” She was grinning at me.
I snorted out a laugh. “Tell you what, next time you’re stuck talking to someone about salmon fishing for half an hour and I’m off fucking his older brother, I give you full permission to ditch him and ruin my night. How does that sound?”
“I’m going to hold you to that.” Her smile faded a little as she added, “I’m sorry it didn’t work out for you with Dylan. I know you thought last night was going to be the night.”
“It doesn’t matter,” I shrugged as I broke the crust off my cheese and ham toastie and popped it into my mouth. I didn’t realise my mistake until the silence that followed my statement. It was almost deafening. I looked up to find Mills staring at me.
“It doesn’t… but you were so worked up about…” She gasped, one of her hands flying to her open mouth. “You got laid!”
Of course I told her. Not everything, not all the details, but enough. Mills had always been my best friend, ever since we’d first met at uni. I trusted her with my life, so of course I trusted her with this. She was so shocked when I told her who I’d had sex with that I thought her head might have exploded.
“EDWARD NIGHTINGALE?!”
“Say it louder, I don’t think everyone heard you.”
“Holy shit, Lucy. He’s fucking gorgeous.”
That had hurt more than I’m sure she meant it to. I knew that I should have listened for the awe and pride in her voice, but instead all I could hear was “too gorgeous for you.” And didn’t I just know it?
“So are you two seeing each other again?”
“What do you mean?” I was confused. Eddie was one of my best friends. I wasn’t just going to cut him out of my life now that we’d fucked.
“You know, are you two an item now? Or is it just friends with benefits?”
“Neither. It was a one-night stand.” I rolled my eyes at her. “Eddie is a good friend, Mills. He was helping me out; that’s it. There is nothing going on between us. He gets that. I get that. Do you?”
She shook her head. “That’s a damn shame. He is one fine looking male.”
I nodded my agreement.
“So was he good?”
“How am I supposed to answer that? I have no frame of reference.”
“I know, I know.” She had a wicked glint in her eyes as she added, “But if you had to score him out of ten…?”
I took a sip of my coffee, remembering everything that had happened the evening before. Reliving every touch, every kiss, the pounding of my heart and the thrusting of his cock. I grinned and blushed. “He’d be an eleven.”