Chase
“So, did you end up riding the couch last night?” Kat flips down the visor and applies a clear layer of gloss to her naturally pink lips. She looks like she’s feeling better. When I found her praying to the porcelain throne, she legit looked like an extra on The Walking Dead and smelled just as rank. Kohl smears beneath each eye and a random lash was stuck to her forehead. Real disaster zone-type stuff. Now, with all the makeup washed away and her hair pulled into a messy bun, she’s even prettier than she was last night. Beautiful. A face that could launch a thousand ships.
“Futon in the spare room.” Just the memory of her in my bed thickens my cock enough to make my jeans tight. It took all my might not to call out of work, crawl in alongside her, and throw her around like a rag doll. The sudden onslaught of uncontrollable hormones racking my body whispered in my ear as I was saying no. What’s the harm? Give her the stiff one-eye and get it out of your system before she realizes what a fuck-up you are and gets bored.
Even now, they’re plotting my demise the farther I get from my house. I grind my teeth, secretly telling my body to shut the fuck up. Kat doesn’t just turn me on; she intrigues me. I don’t just want to fuck her and forget her. I want to know what goes on inside her. What kind of thoughts bounce around inside that pretty head. Friends aren’t a commodity I’ve been lucky enough to keep. Most of them went by the wayside when things started to go south for me. Funny how that happens. Laugh and the world laughs with you. Develop a crippling drug habit, and you’re on your own. I kind of want to keep her around a while. I like her.
Katy Perry shrieks from the inside of Kat’s bag. From the corner of my eye, I see her face scrunch up as she digs out her phone and looks at the screen.
“Nikos. What’s up?” She lifts a black and purple strand off her shoulder and twirls it between her petite fingers. “Shut up . . . no way . . . no . . . no . . . Nikos, calm the fuck down . . . I’m fine . . .”
I glance to my right. The phone lodged in her white-knuckle grasp is shaking like a leaf in the wind. Her voice falls to a whisper, which seems unnecessary since she begins speaking tongues. “Okay, fine . . . I said fine, will you stop? Eímai me énan fílo . . . Óchi, den eícha kánei sex mazí tou . . . Oh, my fucking God, Nikos, I’m hanging up now . . . Okay, bye.”
“What the hell was that?”
“Just . . . my brother. He worries.”
Judging by the quiver of her lips, this wasn’t just a routine check-in. Nikos dropped a bomb, and Kat looks as though her brain is about to melt. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“It’s nothing,” she says with a dramatic sigh, but her eyes turn to glass, and her lips turn down. “A guy I used to know died.”
“Oh, man. I’m so sorry, Kat. You all right?”
She shrugs. “I honestly don’t know.”
“You were close?”
“We were. But I haven’t talked to him in a while. The thing is . . .” She tears her bag off the floor and starts rummaging through it. I get the feeling she’s looking for a distraction more than anything else. In my experience, people like Kat do what they do because they don’t know how to deal with the feelings bottling up inside them. It’s easier to ignore them than face them. “Turns out Costas had AIDS.”
My heart stops beating for what seems like an eternity. I know where this is going before the words even leave her lips.
“We only slept together once. Maybe twice. It was years ago, though. I’m fine, right?”
“Were you safe?”
Another shrug. “He was my first. He claimed he was a virgin too, but he was a fucking liar.” The corners of her lips turn down.
Fuck! Synapses in my brain fire full throttle. How could she be so fucking reckless? “You need to get tested ASAP.”
“No.”
She reaches for the door, but my fingers close around her slim bicep before she can flee. “You can’t run away from this.”
“I don’t want to know!” she shouts. “I can’t even begin to think about all the people I may have inadvertently killed, and I don’t even have their fucking numbers to call them!”
Tears burst from both eyes. She loses control, crumpling to dust before my very eyes. I rest my calm hand over her shaking one. “I know it’s scary.”
“What the fuck do you know about it?”
“More than you think.”
Her defensive tone wanes. “You’ve had it done?”
“A few times.” I nod. “It’s unpleasant and terrifying, but you don’t have to do it alone. We’ll do it together. Okay?” She swallows hard, blinking back the wetness still building in her amazing almond eyes. “Come here.” I reach out with both arms and pull her to me. Her damp face burrows in my neck, and for a few short moments, our hearts beat together with her body pressed against mine.
One day at a time. That’s all we can hope for.