Chapter Twenty-Seven
Simon
It’s the morning after The Race has come to an end and I’m just waking up. The first thing I notice is the slight stream of light coming through the room-darkening curtains. So much for those working, since that's what must have woken me. I reach over and fumble around on my nightstand for my phone, and once I find it, I realize that it’s dead. Wonderful. And I don’t have an actual alarm clock, so I hang halfway off the bed to find the charger cord. After I find it and plug my phone in, I lay it on my chest as I fall back onto my pillow. Scrubbing a hand down my face I realize that, while the past seven days were definitely an experience, I’m glad it's over.
When we won The Race last year, we were all exhausted but not anywhere near how I feel right now. I take a peek at my phone and see that I’ve got just enough juice to power it on. Once the home screen pops up I’m surprised to see that I’ve managed to sleep a good twelve hours.
So maybe it wasn’t the light that woke me.
I scroll through some texts and find a few from Gia. The last one came in around two today, telling me to stop being lazy and to come over when I wake up. I chuckle at this and reply.
Me: I was kind of hoping that I’d get an in-person wake-up call from my hot girlfriend.
A few minutes go by before she replies.
Gia: Are you telling me you just woke up? It's almost 6 p.m.
Me: Like I said, my wake-up call never came.
Gia: Whatever. You obviously needed the sleep. I feel bad about taking up so much of your sleep time the past week.
Me: Sleep is overrated when you’re around.
Gia: You’re horny, aren’t you? So you’re trying to butter me up by being corny.
I laugh, she’s got me there. Despite getting to see her a few hours here and there, we never had time for some full-blown sexy time over the past week. I’m hard as a rock just thinking about her, and sex, right now.
Me: You know me better than anyone else, G. I’m gonna eat, shower, then I’ll be over. You good with that? I won’t be in the mood for more sleeping though. ;- )
Minutes go by and I wonder what’s keeping her from replying. The little reply dots have shown up a few times and then have disappeared.
Finally, I get her reply.
Gia: OK, see you soon.
Really? That’s what took more than five minutes to type? Maybe Morgan was talking to her. I roll out of bed, pull on some sweatpants and a CoB t-shirt and head out to the kitchen. I’m surprised to see Morgan cuddled up with Dex on the couch. My thoughts, however, are mostly on Gia’s last response.
“Well, hey there, sleepy head!” Dex laughs.
“Haha,” I say, crossing the living room.
“You were the first one out and the last one up,” he replies.
“Hey, Morgan,” I say, ignoring him.
“Hi, Simon. Do you feel rested? We were getting worried about you, I was about to send Dex in.”
I laugh because it’s cute she was worried, and tell her, “I’m still in a fog, but I think a shower will help. I need food though.”
Just then, the front door opens and Ruby and Link walk in laughing with arms full of food.
“Taco Bell has arrived,” Link announces.
“Geez Louise, how many people are you feeding?” Morgan asks, looking at all that they’ve carried in. There has to be at least four big bags full of food in their arms.
“Look, we didn’t take orders, so we wanted to cover all our bases,” Ruby says, setting a bag down on the coffee table.
She looks up through the half wall into the kitchen at me and smiles. “We brought you food too, Sleeping Beauty.”
“Yeah, we figured the smell would be enough to wake you from your slumber and the last thing we wanted was a Simon conniption fit when there wasn’t any extra TB,” Link says, walking into the kitchen for napkins and soda.
I elbow him in the side as I walk by.
“Thanks. I’m starving,” I tell Ruby.
“Why isn’t Gia with you guys? Did she have a deadline or something?” I ask Ruby, who plops down next to Morgan on the couch.
Ruby busies herself with sifting through food bags and Morgan looks away briefly before saying, “I don’t know, but she wanted to let you sleep.”
I just nod and Link hands me a wad of napkins.
Something seems off. But, I guess I’ll find out soon enough.
~~~
After way too much Taco Bell and a long, hot shower, I finally make it over to Gia’s. When I told her I was on my way over, she said she was hopping in the shower and to text when I got there. I knock on the door and I hear a distant “Just a sec.” Then there’s the sound of some shuffling and I can tell she’s on the other side.
“It’s just you, right, Si?” she asks.
“Uh, yeah.” I’m confused by the question.
Then the door unlocks and opens, and I understand why. There, standing in only a bath towel is the star of all my fucking wet dreams. Her hair hangs wet around her shoulders and I can see the little droplets of water drip down her chest, running to where I can’t wait to be.
“Shit. G, this scene is going to star in all my dreams for months to come,” I tell her, just standing there admiring her.
“Oh my God,” she reaches a hand out and tugs me to her. “Get in here before someone walks by.”
I stumble in as she closes the door.
It takes everything in me not to just push her up against the door, but then she turns to face me and she’s biting her lip. I let out a growl and push her up against the door anyway. She lets out a surprised yelp as I bury my head in her neck, kissing away all the water droplets taunting me.
Her arms go around my neck and in a breathy moan, she says, “Simon, please let me finish drying off.”
“No need, I’ll take care of it,” I say, pushing her hair over her shoulder and following a rogue droplet down to the space between her breasts. She sighs but tries to push me away.
“Not now, Simon. I promise, we can pick back up in a little bit, but back in my room.”
I start to make my way back to her mouth. I kiss her long and deep before detaching myself.
“Fine. But only because what I plan on doing to you would be better with a bed involved,” I tell her, pushing my hand through my hair.
She blushes but that’s when I really look at her and notice something is off. She seems nervous.
She pushes off the door and walks past me, grabbing my hand as she goes.
I follow her to her room and she closes the door even though no one will be back tonight.
I go to her bed as she heads for her dresser.
“Meh, I wouldn’t bother with clothes,” I tell her.
She just smiles but continues to grab some sleep shorts and a tank. She walks past me to go back out to the bathroom, but I lean forward and snag her hand. “Hey, come back. You can’t taunt me like that.” I pull her to the bed to stand between my legs. I catch her rolling her eyes but the sweet smile on her face tells me she isn’t really annoyed.
“How am I taunting you, Si?”
“Just look at you. All wet and naked.”
“Yeah, because I just got out of the shower. I’m trying to remove the distraction. I actually want to just talk for a minute.”
“OK, but at least let me see them real fast. Let me say hi,” I tell her, staring hungrily at her barely covered chest.
“Really?” she squeaks in disbelief.
“Really, really,” I say, as I start to finger the towel where it’s folded under to keep it wrapped around her. She heaves a sigh and lets me pull down the towel.
“Well. Hello, ladies.” I smile and lean in to show them my appreciation.
“Oh my God,” she mutters. But before I know it, she is pulling the towel back up, covering herself. I pout, and she pushes my face away and I just chuckle as I fall back onto her bed.
A few minutes later she comes back into the room and closes the door. She’s so sexy just as she is, wet and naked. Seeing her, standing there in her shorts and tank gets me just as excited. I kick off my shoes and scootch up her bed to lean back into the pillows.
“So, what did you want to talk about?” I ask, realizing that she is just standing there in the middle of the room wringing her hands together.
“G, what’s wrong?” I’m immediately on alert.
“I have some news,” she says quietly.
I don’t say anything but look at her expectantly when she finally looks at me.
“I applied for a writing job several months ago, like right before Morgan’s accident, and I just found out that I got the job,” she says with more confidence.
“That’s great, G! I’m so happy for you.” I stand and reach to give her a hug, but she shakes her head slightly.
“There’s more.” I move to sit back down on the bed.
“It’s for TVEdge.com and I start at the end of the month. And …” she pauses, worries her lip then continues, “and it’s in LA.”
My heart slams against my ribcage. I try to compute the words she just said, but my head feels like it’s filling with water. I focus on what she said about the company and her start date, but the blood in my veins starts to boil and the food I ate a couple of hours ago starts to sit heavy in my gut.
“So, what does that mean …” I barely get the words out without a stutter.
“I’m moving,” she says barely above a whisper.
And my heart plummets.
It breaks open into a million fucking pieces right there on her bedroom floor.
“No,” I manage to growl.
A small cry comes from my left and I clear my head to see her sitting next to me.
“You can’t do this again,” I say.
“I’m so sorry. But I have to,” she says with confidence, but the tremble in her chin and the tears filling her eyes tell me that it’s only a mask.
I clear my throat, because seeing her like this is like a punch in the gut. “Why?”
“Because it’s my dream.” She grabs my hand as she turns more toward me and continues, “I’ve wanted to work for TVEdge since college. Every job I’ve taken was to build my resume for them. And about six months ago a friend contacted me and told me that they were going to start putting feelers out for some new writers. I sent her my portfolio and she got me in touch with the editor in chief. They put me on a ridiculously long trial period. But they called me about five weeks ago and interviewed me. They told me they were going through some management changes, so they didn’t know if the job would still be on the table. But then they just emailed me a couple of days ago and told me the job was mine.” She takes a shaky breath.
“You found out a couple of days ago? And you are just now telling me?” I ask.
“You’ve kinda had some stuff going on, Simon,” she replies. Which is true.
“Fair enough,” I grumble. “But let me get this straight, you interviewed for this job after we started hanging out …” I trail off, realizing that she could have told me at any point. But she didn’t.
“Why the hell didn’t you tell me, Gia?” I drop her hand and stand up to face her.
“I didn’t think it was going to happen. And at the time, we weren’t dating, just getting on even ground. Then everything with Todd blew up in my face. It didn’t come up,” she says, her voice starting to rise.
“It didn’t come up?” I roar. “How the fuck does you moving to the opposite side of the country not come up?” I’m mad now. Full-blown mad so I continue, “You let this thing,” I motion between us, “go on and get further than it ever has before, all while lying to me. Since when did we start lying to each other?” I start to pace and then stop again, looking into her eyes before continuing.
“Oh, well maybe it was around the time you started lying to everyone else. But God damn, Gia, you lied to me. You kept this from me. You let me fall in love with you, again. And now you are leaving. Again,” I bellow, but my anger starts to slip away when I look at her. When I see that she’s a mess.
Tears are pouring down her beautiful face. There are dark circles under her eyes, like maybe she hasn’t slept in days. I shouldn’t have missed that when I came in earlier. I step over and kneel in front of her to grab her shaking hands. She is taking short, shallow breaths, and I can see the anxiety building up in her eyes. Little gasps escape her mouth.
I mutter a curse under my breath and I pull her down to the floor with me.
“Gia, baby, calm down.” I wrap my arms around her to pull her into me. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have yelled.”
“No … no, I deserve it,” she sobs but pushes away from me. “I didn’t mean to not tell you. I fell in love with you again too—well, I never stopped being in love with you in the first place. Every time I started to convince myself I needed to mention it to you, the thought of losing you was enough to change my mind,” she says, calming herself and looking at me straight on. “I wanted as much time with you as possible.”
With a sigh, I pull her back into me and she lets me this time. We sit there on the floor for a while, me hugging her in my arms as her crying gradually slows down.
Finally, she lifts her head to me and asks, “What are we going to do?”
“I don’t know. But we don’t have to figure it out tonight. We have a few weeks, right?” I help her up, pull down the covers on her bed and tell her to get in. As she does, I take off my jeans and pull my shirt up and over my head. I crawl in behind her and flip off the bedside light. I’m not tired in the slightest. But right now, I need the quiet darkness with her all around me.
She snuggles into me as my arm goes around her. After a couple of minutes of silence, she kisses my chest. She does it again, in the space above my heart. Like she is trying to mend the heart that sat whole beneath my skin only moments ago.
Knowing that it’s too late for that, I pull her up and kiss her.
Carefully, I push her shorts down her legs then follow by removing her tank. My clothes slowly follow suit.
She whispers her apologies through kisses and more tears. We don’t stop to wipe them away. We take our time with our kisses, our caresses, feeling everything as if our battered hearts are only a live wire to our souls. We end up making love for the first time. When we find our release, together, it rocks me to my core.
It’s in the moments after Gia has fallen asleep in my arms that I realize it. The most powerful and meaningful moment of our relationship was also our goodbye.