Backdraft…
I was antsy, eagerly awaiting Lil’s arrival. I didn’t want her home alone when the interview aired tonight, and the crew seemed cool with pulling a do-over on dinner, so that’s what we did: invited my lady to dinner at the firehouse. She arrived much as she had the first time, though when she stepped out of the back of the car I was pleasantly surprised.
Instead of her typical jeans, boots, and a nice sweater, she’d done her hair and makeup, and a clinging sweater-dress that accentuated every curve in a bright cream hugged her body. I could even swear it shimmered when she walked towards me. Her high-heeled brown boots that came over the knee clacked sharply against the pavement.
Down, boy, I thought at my sudden and raging erection but I knew the futility of it.
“You look incredible,” I said low, my voice full of heat, and bowed to kiss her perfectly-glossed and sparkling lips. She wore this lip gloss stuff that the color took an act of God to remove and all she had to do was keep reapplying the clear glossy topcoat to bring it back to life. Whoever invented the shit needed a Nobel Prize, I’m telling you.
“Hey, you,” she said gently, softly smiling.
“Ready to do dinner with the crew, take two?” I asked.
Her smile grew and she nodded happily and I gave her my arm. We went inside and I fucking loved following her up the stairs, her hips swaying that ass in front of me like a pendulum and holy shit, I was firmly under her spell, hypnotized into happy by just her being here.
She was warmly greeted by the crew and that made me both love and appreciate the people around me even more. It was the Captain’s night to cook and he was hard at it in the kitchen. Lil stepped over and asked if there was anything she could do to lend a hand and I took her coat and purse, which I had failed to do downstairs. He put her to work, and I leaned on a counter nearby to talk and just generally sucked up all the warmth and good vibes we had going on.
Midway through the meal, Lil and I facing the living area this time, Barnaby sounded the alarm.
“Hey, yo, yo, it’s on!”
The Captain picked up the remote by his plate and unmuted the TV.
“There has been quite the scandal surrounding your relationship after Celebrity Beat’s scorching interview with your girlfriend, Victoria Russo.”
Lil’s head came up sharply and she chewed slowly, carefully, riveted to the television set.
I set the record straight, that’s for sure. Her back straightened when the text logs from my phone company came out. The studio had done a good job recreating screen captures of them, even though my phone had been obliterated and the messages had been lost. My new phone started buzzing across the table, my brother’s name on the screen. I’d already had a conversation with him and my parents after the first show had aired with all the dirty pictures.
Of course, it’d been more like an ass-chewing from my brother about not calling them and giving them the heads-up. I rejected the call and shot a text back.
Not now, with Lil.
My asshole brother surprised me and shot back, Good deal. Proud of you. Mom and dad, too.
Okay, so maybe he wasn’t as much of an asshole as I’d first declared. I know my folks had been worried and so it made me feel pretty good that things were calmed down on the home front. With everything happening in the here-and-now in Indigo City where I was located, unfortunately my immediate biological family, and even my club, had taken more of a back seat. I figured part of that was still a symptom of Torrid. They’d all hated her and I’d been a stubborn shit and wouldn’t give up when I really should have put that relationship out to pasture.
As a result, most of them had done the right thing, which was to step off and let me make my mistakes and crash. As soon as the crash had happened, they’d stepped back in, which I’d needed, but when it came to this new thing, with Lil, I’d gone back to some old habits; I had cut everyone out. I recognized it now, I didn’t want to hide Lil or keep her my secret. There was no shame in my relationship with Lil like there’d been with Tori, so I was determined to redirect my course and make things right with everyone. Just, one thing at a time. I let them all know I wanted to settle into a new normal with her, establish a routine over the next few weeks before we ventured out and started meeting family and shit.
I’d already remedied the club situation, which was geographically easier, the night before last.
Lil trained glassy storm-swept eyes on me and I smiled, all thoughts of the tangled mess of club, family, workmates and the aftermath of Torri swept clear out of my head when she blew me away with the gratitude in that gaze of hers. Still, I needed to check…
“Hope you’re not mad at me,” I said softly.
“Mad at you? Why would I be mad at you?” she demanded. She sniffed and dabbed beneath one eye with the back of her knuckle, trying to keep her careful makeup intact.
“I put a lot more about us out there than I really wanted to,” I said.
She smiled and it was bursting with pride. “I don’t know,” she said. “Sounded to me like you spun one epic love story. Couldn’t have written it better myself.”
The table broke out into laughter and a chorus of ‘Awe’s, and I couldn’t be mad or even start to feel embarrassed because I held onto Lil, who was holding onto me like she never, ever, wanted to let me go.
“Think it’s time to let ol’ Ackley off the hook,” Captain Walden said, and there was a chorus of agreement around the table.
I nodded and said, “Yeah. Yeah, it is.”
“I don’t want to go back to my old house, I like it here,” the new guy, Rice, called out and we all laughed.
“I wouldn’t go that far,” Barnaby said.
“Me, either,” Lind agreed.
Her radio crackled to life on her shoulder and she and Angel exchanged a look.
“They’re singing our song,” Angel said with a sigh.
“Let’s roll,” Lind said, and they got up.
“Keep your plates for you,” the Captain said, and got up himself to get the cling wrap for them.
Lil let me go and leaned back into a proper sitting position in her own seat. People resumed eating, laughing, mostly at Torrid’s expense, and Lil worked on fixing her runny makeup some by wiping it away from beneath her eyes with her napkin, laughing at the gentle ribbing she got from some of the guys.
My phone started blowing up a second later. Torrid. I just ignored her. She was old news, anyway. I looked at the TV, which was in the middle of a commercial break, and thought to myself, So five minutes ago, and laughed at my own joke.
It felt like life was about to get a whole lot better from here on out; Victory, for once, was mine when it came to her. It was like she hadn’t thought I might actually fight back in some way. I may have patience, I may put up with a lot of bullshit from her, but once I really realized that I didn’t have to, it was game over. Once I met Lil and realized that wasn’t how any of the whole love and relationship needed to be, that you shouldn’t have to fight, that it really could be as natural as breathing, she’d completely lost any hold she may have ever had on me.
I looked at Lil now, and I couldn’t imagine ever going back to anything less. Life was just so much better with her in it.