43
Lola
“Man this place is the cat’s meow today,” Mellie observes.
“I know.” I pause to take a breath. “I’ve been running all day.”
Gatsby’s Place is doing really well. So well in fact that I now have a total of four employees and plans for expansion early next year. But at present, I’m just trying to get through Christmas and the ad campaign that has the bell on the door chiming every five seconds.
“Have time for a coffee break?” Mellie asks.
I glance up at the cash register. Britt and Bonnie seem to have everything under control, but I still feel a bit guilty leaving them when it’s this busy.
“Maybe just a quick one,” I tell her. “I should really be here if they need anything.”
It’s funny because when I was trying to help Daire through his rehabilitation, the shop was the last thing on my mind. I let the employees handle the customers, and Mellie stepped in to help with the business side of things. But now that I’m back, it’s become my sole obsession again.
“You’re working too much,” Mellie says as soon as we get our coffees at the shop down the street.
“I’m just highly focused.”
She picks at her blueberry muffin, squishing the pieces before stuffing them into her mouth. “Still no word from Daire, huh?”
I swallow a big gulp of coffee, and it burns all the way down. “Nope.”
It’s been two months. Not a text. A phone call. Nothing. And I still feel like I’ve abandoned him most of the time. If it wasn’t for Grazi giving me progress reports every few days, I would have been back at his door asking how I could help.
“Grazi says he’s doing well,” I tell Mellie.
According to her, he’s actually letting the nurse help now. And he’s one hundred percent focused on his rehabilitation. He hasn’t looked at a drop of alcohol or even asked for one. And she claims his mood is better too, though I’d probably have to see it to believe it. It should make me happy, but it only makes me feel worse. If his mood improved after I left, then there’s just one conclusion I can draw from that.
“I bet he misses you,” Mellie says. “You should check in with him.”
I lean over and steal a chunk of her muffin. “I don’t think so. I don’t want to distract him or upset him.”
“The only distraction would be your magnificent tits,” she jokes.
I roll my eyes and burn my tongue on another sip of coffee. “Gah, why do they always make it so hot?”
Mellie gleefully takes a sip of her cold brew. “I don’t have that problem.”
I chew on my fingernail and glance around the room. Everyone is out preparing for the holiday season, and I can barely muster the energy for the festive spirit. My smile is plastic when I tell the customers to have happy holidays, and inside I feel empty.
I do miss Daire. But when you don’t know if those feelings are reciprocated, it’s time to let it go.
Mellie sighs and tells me I’m boring. I toss a crumb at her across the table and tell her I know.
“Still going home for Christmas?” I ask.
She nods. Home for Mellie is in Ohio, which means she won’t be spending the holiday season with me either.
“You’re more than welcome to come. You can be my side bitch. I’ll tell my parents I picked you up on an abandoned highway and they’ll fawn all over you.”
I laugh and shake my head. “Wish I could, but I need to stay to help at the shop. I have a feeling it’s only going to get busier.”
“What about your mom?” she asks.
I shrug. “Don’t know. Last I heard she was making plans with dad again, for when he gets out of prison.”
“I imagine that conversation went well,” Mellie says.
“About as well as could be expected. I just don’t have the patience for it anymore. She doesn’t get that he’s never going to change. He’ll be right back in within the year. Guaranteed.”
Mellie’s eyes soften. “You know you can’t help who you love.”
“Maybe,” I agree. “But that doesn’t mean I’m going to condone it either. He was never around when I was growing up. And it isn’t me he wants to see anyway. He just wants to use her for a place to crash.”
“So, no Christmas then, I take it.”
“Not with them,” I answer. “But it’s fine. I’ll stay home and watch cheesy Christmas movies and eat junk food. Sounds way better if you ask me.”
Mellie frowns. “Please just consider coming to Ohio with me.”
“I will.” But I know that I won’t. We finish our coffees and walk back to the shop. Mellie hugs me goodbye and goes back to her life while I go back to mine. The store stays busy until late since the hours are extended for the holiday season. But I let Britt and Bonnie go home before closing anyway because they’ve had a long day and I can handle the few stragglers that are left.
I’ve just finished ringing up the last customer and flipping the closed sign when my phone chimes from beside the cash register. I pick it up and see a notification from Tap Left, which my first instinct is to ignore. But then I notice the name attached to it. My heart spasms when I open the icon.
ThatGuy:
We never did get to meet.
It feels like a game, but it’s hard to tell. I reply anyway because I’m too tired to try to figure out Daire’s motives.
LolaB:
No, I guess we didn’t.
ThatGuy:
How about tonight?
I bite my lip and leave my fingers dangling over the keyboard.
LolaB:
I don’t know. I seem to recall that last time you stood me up.
ThatGuy:
Not exactly true. I was there, you just didn’t know it.
LolaB:
Right… well, what did you have in mind?
ThatGuy:
How about a wheelchair ride?
I’m typing out my reply when the bell on the door chimes. I must have forgotten to lock it. “I’m sorry, we’re closed,” I call out.
“That’s too bad,” Daire says. “I heard this place had great ambiance on Yelp. Wanted to come and see for myself.”
I can’t help the smile that spreads across my face when my eyes meet his. He looks good. Healthy. And much stronger than when I last saw him. He’s still in the chair, but he’s dressed nicely. It’s not a suit, but a black knit sweater and gray trousers.
Adrian Daire is back.
“Wow,” I murmur. “You look really good, Daire.”
He smirks. “Save the pillow talk for later, LB. I wasn’t kidding about the wheelchair ride.”
“I think you just want me to sit on your lap.”
“Well, then you’re probably right.”
I walk towards him tentatively. “Wouldn’t I hurt you?”
He reaches out and surprises me when he tugs me onto his lap like the old Daire would have. The chair creaks and I let out an awkward laugh before he wraps an arm around my waist.
“You look good too, LB.” His voice is rough, and his eyes are warm, and there isn’t a single thing I don’t love about this moment. His warmth, his scent, they hit me like a tidal wave and pull me right back under his spell.
“So where are we going?” I ask.
“Nowhere.” He smiles. “I really just wanted you to sit on my lap.”
“Pervert.” It’s supposed to sound like a joke, but hot tears leak out of my eyes, and I can’t really keep up with my emotions right now.
“Why are you crying?” Daire sweeps the tears away with his thumb.
“I missed you.” I wrap my arms around him and squeeze. “I missed you so much.”
His palm comes up to my back, pulling me closer. “I missed you too, Lola. You have no idea how much.”
A dam has broken inside of me. Whatever was holding me together and keeping me in check is gone now. I cry, and I reach for his face and kiss him. Daire grunts in surprise when I adjust my body to straddle him. He’s hard for me, and I don’t need his words right now. I need to know that I’m not going to lose him again. I need to feel him against me and inside of me the way he’s inside of my heart.
“I’m just going to say it.” I sprinkle his neck with kisses. “I don’t care if you don’t like it or if it freaks you out. I love you, Adrian. I love you even at your worst, which is pretty fucking bad. Because you can be awful.”
“Lola,” he groans.
I really don’t care what he thinks because I’m sliding my hands beneath his sweater and onto his skin. I’m tasting his throat. I’m grinding against him and desperate for him to be inside of me.
“Lola.” It takes some effort, but he manages to pin my hands between us and force my gaze to his. I’m afraid to look. And I’m not as brave as I was a second ago because I don’t know what he’s going to say.
“I—” his voice cracks and he clears his throat, starting over. “I love you too.”
“Holy shit.”
“I know,” he says.
There isn’t a single part of me that doesn’t believe it’s the first time he’s said those words to anybody. And he chose me. Somehow, I broke Adrian Daire. I got through to him. And it doesn’t make any sense, but he said the words, and he can’t take them back now.
I tell him so.
“I wouldn’t even if I could,” he says. “I am stupid in love with you. And I might be a dick, but I’m your dick, Lola.”
“Speaking of your dick.” I reach for his zipper, and he looks up at me.
“You really want to do this right now?”
“You’re hard. You can’t deny that you want—” My mind flashes back to that day in his shower, and for a moment, fear threatens to steal my joy. Daire recognizes it quickly and puts out the fire before it starts.
“I was embarrassed,” he says. “I didn’t want you to know that I had the worst case of blue balls from being around you and not being able to touch you, Lola. That was all there was to it.”
“You could have touched me.”
“How?” he asks. “I could barely slap two pieces of bread together. I wasn’t going to go to bed with you if I couldn’t please you.”
My hands soften as they reach for his face. “As if that could ever happen, Daire. Just being with you, that’s all that I need.”
“But you said we should be friends,” he points out.
“I know,” I admit. “That was stupid.”
“We need to work on this communication thing,” he says.
I agree, but right now all I really want to do is tear his clothes off. The improbability of that happening in his wheelchair is quite apparent though, so I settle for retrieving his cock from the confines of his trousers. He groans and shudders when I touch him and doesn’t take his eyes off of me.
“I need to be inside of you,” he says. “Like yesterday, pet. So quit playing games and get on my dick.”
I pull my panties aside and sink onto his shaft. It’s a tight fit because it’s been so long, and both of us feel every inch of it. Daire grabs my hips and pulls me all the way down until I’m impaled on his cock and can hardly breathe. “Oh fuck,” he grunts. “I’m not going to last long, LB. Not this time.”
Something Daire would have never admitted before. It gets me hot for him when he’s exposed like this. When he’s human, and he doesn’t care if I see it. Because that means something. As far as Daire is concerned, that means an awful lot.
I ride him like my life depends on it. I kiss him and suck on any part of him my lips can reach. I roll my hips, and he slides in and out of me. He reaches down between us and touches me, groaning at the wetness there. It’s good to see his motor skills are in fine form because Daire takes full control of my body in a matter of seconds. I’m close. So close. And then I’m there. I convulse around him and nearly black out. Daire is on the verge too when something occurs to me.
“Shit,” I murmur. “I forgot to tell you something. I’m not on the pill, Daire. I quit taking it when—”
He buries himself all the way inside of me and unloads with an explosive grunt.
“Did you hear me?” I ask.
He looks up at me and tightens his grip around my waist. “I heard you, Lola.”
“You do realize this means I could get…” I’m afraid to finish that sentence.
“I realize,” he answers. “Maybe we should have talked it out, but I don’t have a problem with it.”
“You don’t?” I feel like this is a trick, and I’m waiting for the punchline, but it never comes. He kisses me again. And his dick gets hard inside of me again. But he won’t let me move.
“I really did have intentions of taking you somewhere tonight.”
“Do we have to?” I wiggle around. “My apartment is right upstairs.”
His face is amused, but I can tell I’m not going to steer him off course. “Let me put it this way, poppet. If you go with me, I’ll let you do whatever you want to my dick for the rest of the night. Capiche?”
Now that’s an offer I can’t refuse.