Chapter Seven
Early the next morning, Julie’s phone was flooded with text messages. She found herself by the kitchen table reading them as she had her pancakes and coffee. It was black coffee, as usual, despite Chace’s insistence to add creamer and chocolate.
“Mel’s being a little ball of fire,” Julie told Chace as the latter sat down to join her for breakfast. Her face scrunched up in disgust when she saw he added a layer of butter, maple syrup, strawberry jam and some blueberry jam. He even added some whipped cream and then dripped hot chocolate syrup on top.
“What is that?” Julie asked with her eyes glued to the monstrosity.
Chace shrugged, took a fork of pancakes, and popped it into his mouth. “Pancakes.”
Julie rolled her eyes and then stared down at her plate. She had two pancakes, layered with hot butter. It looked really boring in comparison but it also looked a lot more edible.
“These are pancakes,” Julie retorted as she pointed at her meal. “That’s the kind of meal you get when Melissa McCarthy devours a human being and then sprinkles candy after vomiting out the innards.”
Chace poked a fork into his meal. “It doesn’t look disgusting at all.” He then popped another fork-full into his mouth so nonchalantly it shook Julie to the bone. She shuddered with disgust.
“Ugh,” was all she could muster. “Well, anyway, disgusting pancakes or not, we need to start practicing. There’s only a week before that stupid Christmas reunion thing.”
“I don’t know,” Chace answered with food still in his mouth – which utterly disturbed Julie but she knew he was only doing it to gross her out even further. “I think we were dancing pretty a-okay last night, Jules.”
She glared at him and pointed her fork at him, “I’ll poke those eyes out. Last night was… it was…” Julie still couldn’t finish her sentence knowing just how good last night was.
“Uh-huh, yep, that’s exactly what I thought,” Chace teased her. “Well, I know we do need to practice – like actual, practice, not screwing-around-because-you’re-so-yummy practice.”
Julie nodded and munched down further. “Okay but when? I still have work to finish today but I’ll be free for like a week and a half after I send this project over to my client. I still have something after that but I can take like ten days off before I start. Cramming is my specialty, you know.”
As she spoke Chace stared straight into her eyes. He could see her lips moving and he knew she was saying something but none of the words were sinking into his head. The whole world was silent as he was caught mesmerized.
“Hey,” Julie snapped her fingers inches from his face. “Did you hear a single word I said?”
Chace stared blankly at her and made up whatever he could on the spot. “Uh, cramming is your specialty?”
Julie let out a soft sigh and then patted his head. “It’s okay little pup, one day you too will grow and spread wings. Until then, you’re an undead zombie just mindlessly crawling up to the neighbor’s yard where you’ll eventually get killed by rabid plants and a lawnmower.”
“Really? Nobody plays Plants vs Zombies anymore.”
“I do,” Julie squinted at him. “Seriously though, I was saying we need to focus.”
“Oh. Yeah, yeah, I get it Jules. Uh, hold on a minute though, okay? Let me just check my email and see what my clients are saying. I might need to take a minute real quick.”
Julie nodded and finished the rest of her pancakes as Chace flipped out his phone and down the rabbit hole he went. He started it off pretty simple – checking his email and replying to a few business clients. Yet a few minutes after he was checking his social media accounts and then his work files. A few minutes after he was busy sorting out files on his cloud storage drive.
“Chace?”
Chace didn’t hear her. He didn’t even seem to notice her. He didn’t even touch his pancakes any further ever since he got his hands on his phone.
“Chace!” Julie slammed her hand on the table. He finally looked up at her but to her chagrin he had a really annoyed expression on his face.
“Huh? What?”
Julie looked at him with disbelief. “I thought you were only going to take a minute to check your email? Your food’s cold.”
Chace twisted his eyebrows and his annoyed expression only grew worse. “Babe, I’ve only been on for like a few minutes. I’ve got a client asking to organize some documents and spreadsheet files before noon so they can get started with the design.”
Chace was a web designer and a really good one at that. Some people paid him thousands of dollars for a single website. He didn’t just design them but he could code them too. One client, a fashion designer, paid him over $95 per hour. He wasn’t particularly wealthy but he was still above the median line for middle class folk. He definitely earned a bit more than I did and I was an event organizer, along with Melissa.
“I know it must all be so important,” Julie started while fluttering her eyelashes at him. “But could it seriously be any more important than spending more time with me?”
Chace stared at her with a dry expression. “Is that even a serious question?”
Julie shrugged and gave up. She knew better than to push him out. They went through that to-and-fro before and it only broke them apart. She knew better than to interfere yet again, she whipped out her phone and started to chat with Melissa.
“It’s happening again,” she told Melissa on their private chat messages.
Fortunately for her, Melissa was online and quickly responded. “Honey, do not pick up that dog no matter how cute it is.”
It took a moment for Julie to even figure out what the heck Melissa was talking about. “Shit. I don’t mean about me finding a stray puppy again, you dolt. I mean Chace is being a little… cold, again, and buried in work.”
This time Melissa managed to reply in a split-second. “Maybe you’re just being paranoid. You guys just got back together, right? Let it settle in, girl.”
“Maybe,” Julie replied. She then looked up real quick at Chace and saw he was already locking his phone and slipping it back into his pocket. “Hey, Mel, I got to go. We’re doing this stupid dance for our reunion party. Wish me luck.”
“Break a leg,” Melissa replied.
Julie then put her phone away and just in time too – Chace was pacing around the kitchen, prancing about as if mimicking some dance moves. It looked ridiculous and Julie made it very clear.
“Chace, babe, j-just stop,” she managed to tell him through the laughter bursting from her insides. “Come on, it looks stupid.”
He didn’t stop and instead came closer, held her hand, and pulled her up to dance along with him. “Okay, follow my lead. I’ll teach you the basics of Cha-cha first, okay? It’s a simple one-two, one-two-three, okay? You can do this, it’s easy as pie.”
“Yeah, if the pie was a target the size of the moon,” Julie answered in a sarcastic tone. She tried her best to follow his instructions but even with her best efforts she was still stepping on his foot. She could see the spark of frustration in his eyes but he was still being patient enough with her that she didn’t make an issue of it.
They swayed to and fro but they didn’t explore some of the more intricate moves that Julie expected from such a dance. She wasn’t too disturbed with their slow progress – she knew she was a slow learner when it came to things like this. It was just mellowing and comforting to see Chace not give in to the darkness that once pervaded his heart. Where once he would have screamed and walked out on her, he now bit down on the frustration and worked with her to iron it out.
After an hour and a half of practice they were too exhausted to do anything else but rest in the living room. Julie noticed that Chace still had the big painting she bought for his birthday a few years ago. It was hanging above the hearth.
“Hey, you still have the Lodle,” I pointed it out to him as we sat back down on the couch. He sat beside me and brought us a bowl of potato chips to snack on.
“Huh? Oh, yeah, I couldn’t get rid of it. You know the day you gave it to me is my favorite birthday party ever? Like seriously, Jules, I keep thinking about that day all the time.”
Julie took a handful of chips and munched. “Really? Was it because of the sex we had in the laundry room or the kinky stuff we did after?”
A naughty smirk creased his face and he playfully raised his eyebrows. “You know you look so hot when you’re sucking my cock with a blindfold around your eyes and a collar on your neck?”
She laughed and nudged him with her elbow. “Shut up. That was a one-time thing.”
Chace laughed too but he didn’t stop at all. “There’s that thing you do with your tongue, you know, that just makes my dick harder. Like fuck, Jules, it makes me want to tie you down against the door, stand in front of you, and like face-fuck you until you drool and all my cum just blows out from your mouth.”
“Oh my fucking God, Chace,” Julie’s mouth went wide and she smacked him on the shoulder. “Stop it, I’m serious. It’s disturbing and it’s turning me on maybe more than it should.”
“Yeah it is?”
Chace was teasing her more than she thought he would. Already she could feel the warm moisture between her legs and the tension in her chest was tingling more than ever. That was when she realized her breath was getting shorter and raspier. That was when she noticed she had one reaching down between her legs and she knew Chace could see it too.
“Babe, get over here and fucking kiss me,” Julie instructed right as she slid her hand underneath her clothes and began to gently caress the soft flesh of her womanhood. A soft mew of a moan escaped her lips and her eyes narrowed with desire burning within them.
Chace did not disappoint and before she knew it he was right on top of her, his hand on her breast and his lips pressing down on hers. The warmth of his passion was flooding her senses and Julie began to feel a little overwhelmed with the weight of his attack. It was drowning. It was suffocating. It was intoxicating and damn did she love every second of it.
Their bodies melted together, fitting like two pieces to a puzzle, and for the first time in a long time Julie felt like her weight wasn’t an issue. She felt free and it allowed her to be as wild and as passionate as she wanted.
Buzz!
In a fraction of a second, in one single moment, all that freedom and beauty of the moment evaporated like it never ever existed. Chace had to step away from her for a moment and dug his hand into his pocket. To Julie’s chagrin, he pulled out his phone and in another moment or two he was seated, his back against the couch rest, thumbing through the messages on his phone.
Julie sat up and made no effort to hide her dismay. “Really? You’re going to bury your face in your phone instead of ripping my clothes off? I wonder what my pussy tastes like. Oh, that’s right, you’re not going to find out because I’m not going to let you have a go at it if you’re going to shrug it off in favor of your phone.”
Chace looked at her real quick and then tossed his phone off to the side when he realized Julie was not kidding around. She was mad, with her arms crossed and her lips pursed tightly.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered as he scooted back to her side. Chace gave her a peck on the cheek and then on the neck, hoping she would melt right back into his arms. “I didn’t mean to. I was just worried that maybe it was something important.”
“Please don’t ever do that again,” Julie told him. “I don’t want us to repeat the same mistakes that tore us apart. I love you, Chace, I do and I don’t want us to be ripped apart because of our stupid decisions.”
Chace shook his head but she noticed a sudden flare of anger in his expression. “Me checking my phone while we’re making out and you sleeping with someone to comfort your self-esteem are two very different things. Don’t try to equate those two on the same ground because one is clearly more severe than the other.”
Julie knew when she was being savaged and she wasn’t going to let this one down. “Chace, don’t try to bring this back down on me. We were all fine and dandy until you had to remind me of all the bullshit from the past because you couldn’t let go of your phone and make out with me.”
“Jules, I’m sorry,” Chace clearly didn’t want to keep fighting with her. “Let’s just forget about this. Want to binge-watch something on Netflix or something?”
Julie sighed but instead of getting really pissed off she just shut her eyes, calmed herself, and nodded in agreement. She then scooted closer and he wrapped his arm around her.
“Sure, as long as I get to pick what we’re watching,” she relented. “I don’t want anything scary or traumatic. No romantic-comedies either.”
“Gee, that severely limits our options,” Chace responded as he reached for the remote control for the TV. “How about we go with a dumb but entertaining action flick, eh, Jules?”
She laughed and cuddled into his arms, resting her head on his chest. He snuggled her in warmly, gave her a kiss on the cheek, and allowed them to finally have a moment together, free from the distractions of his work.