LAUREN

 

Tyler insisted on driving me back to the airport, even though I assured him that Jimmy could complete the task. He barely spoke and the silence weighed heavily on me. I was fine with silence, but this one was too obvious, too strained. I instructed him to simply drop me off, rather than walking me to the terminal, and he seemed more than happy to oblige.

Even though my car was waiting in the airport car park, Gabe was there to greet me. He embraced me, lifting me off the ground and planting a sloppy kiss on my forehead.

“I missed you,” he said and I couldn’t help but return his brilliant smile. Dressed in his usual jeans and t-shirt, his blond hair was loose and falling to his shoulders, the sides still short from Billie’s haircut, though they were beginning to grow.

“I missed you too.” I kissed him briefly before throwing my pack over my shoulder. “How was your first day?”

“Boring,” Gabe replied. “Extremely boring.”

“Many people in the class?”

“A few. How was the big smoke? How was Tyler?”

“He wasn’t there for most of it,” I said. “Something to do with Jake.”

Concern crossed Gabe’s face as we exited the terminal and started the short walk to the carpark. “Is he okay?”

“I’m not sure. Tyler doesn’t exactly give much away.”

Gabe snorted. “You noticed that too, huh? He’s a great conversationalist. I sometimes think that if he can’t phrase something as a direct order, he simply doesn’t bother saying it.”

Gabe walked with me to my car, leaning on the passenger door. “The boys have ordered pizza, you good with that?”

“The boys?” I questioned.

“I told them you’d come over tonight. I hope that’s okay.” Gabe pulled himself off the car and wrapped his arms around my waist, smiling and planting a small kiss on my nose. “I kind of want to show you off a little, you know. We haven’t been to my house since we’ve been officially dating.”

I sighed. “I’ve got a lot of work to do.”

“Do it later,” he said.

“But I’ve got to sort through the photos and edit them all before sending them through to Tyler. He’s expecting them tomorrow.”

Gabe laughed. “See? An order. Just ignore him. Do it tomorrow night. You aren’t working tomorrow and he can just wait.”

“Tomorrow night we’re going out with Peta and Shrek for dinner, remember?”

“Shit,” Gabe cursed. “And here I was planning on spending the night in bed with you.”

“I thought you said I could edit the photos then?”

“I may have tried to distract you once or twice.”

“How about we go to your place, have pizza and then I’ll just leave a little early and sort through the photos. You can stay at your place for the night.”

Gabe pouted, then tugged me close and bent his head to my neck. “But I want to play with you tonight.”

I pushed him away playfully. “You can play with me tomorrow night.” Gabe’s eyes gleamed. “After we go out for dinner,” I added.

We drove our separate cars and arrived at Gabe’s house. The music pumped through the open windows and the pizza delivery man pulled up just as we did, so we took the pizzas from him and walked inside.

“Lauren!” Drew said when I walked in. “It’s so good to see you. This guy has been talking about you non-stop, so now that you’re actually here, maybe I will get a break from his constant whinging about how wonderful you are.”

“Well, look at her.” Gabe placed the pizza boxes on the coffee table. “How could I not go on?” Flopping onto the couch, he tugged me onto his lap.

Stefan emerged from his room, hair mussed up and sleep in his eyes. “Oh,” he said. “You’re here.”

“Nice to see you too,” I replied sarcastically.

We ate pizza and watched some reality show of naked people left alone in the wilderness to fend for themselves. I didn’t get it, but Stefan cursed at their choices and Drew yelled at the TV, proclaiming it wasn’t real. All I could think about were the images I had shot. I was keen to get to my computer and start sorting through them. When enough time had passed that I felt it polite to leave, I excused myself and walked out the door, Gabe following close behind.

“I wish you didn’t have to leave,” he said, pulling me close.

“You’ll see me tomorrow,” I replied, stretching on my tiptoes and placing a chaste kiss on his forehead. He jerked me tighter, my chest pressing against his.

“I’m not letting you away with that.”

Lowering his mouth to mine, he kissed me gently, his lips moving over mine seductively. Then his hands moved up my back and knotted into the hair at the base of my neck, forcing our kiss deeper. I surrendered, pushing further into him as though I could lose myself in his skin, running my hands over his shoulders and gripping onto the firmness of the muscles that covered them.

Finally, Gabe broke away from our embrace. “There,” he said, grinning down at me and seeing the desire lurking in my eyes. “Now you can go.”

* * *

I stared at the photos on the computer until my eyes were sore and glazed. Some of the images were great. I was happy with them. Others were crap. I sorted through them, selecting the ones I considered worth editing, and deleting the ones that made my skin crawl before climbing into bed, well after midnight. Sleep came quickly and I was up early the next morning to start work on them. I barely noticed the time and worked through lunch, only stopping for the odd cup of coffee, and around four o’clock in the afternoon, I finally emailed them through to Tyler. I didn’t include any message, just sent through a few of the images, the ones I thought the investors would be most interested to see, and included the link to the cloud-based software Tyler had requested I use. I waited for a few minutes, clicking on the ‘send and receive’ button in a desperate attempt for a response to arrive, before admitting to myself that Tyler was probably not waiting at his computer. I had just enough time to flick through the shower, actually get changed out of my pyjamas for the day, and slap on a little makeup before Gabe arrived to take me to the restaurant.

As usual, Peta and Shrek were late. Peta bustled in, face flushed, hair slightly in disarray, Shrek following silently in her wake, and sat down at the table, dumping her handbag on the seat next to her.

“I thought we were never going to make it. First, Henry vomited all over himself, then Charlie decided that he would prefer to eat the cat’s biscuits rather than the dinner I made him. Then the babysitter arrived late, and, to top it all off, Nic claimed to have a sore tummy and ran after us just as we were pulling away. I tell you, we’re lucky to be here at all.”

Shrek removed the bag she had dumped on his chair and placed it on the table.

“Hello,” he said, a smile crossing his face at his wife’s rambling confession.

“Do I feel like red or white today?” Peta turned to her husband.

“Definitely red,” he replied.

“I’ve never been so pleased for January to end,” she said, referring to her sugar-free month. Flicking her hand into the air, Peta signalled for a waiter and ordered two glasses of red. Then she turned to Shrek. “Anything for you?”

It was the first time the four of us had really spent any time together. Gabe was quiet, his hand resting on my thigh under the cover of the table. I knew he wasn’t interested in dinner when his hand crept higher and higher, inching the hemline of my skirt up until his fingers moved down to caress the bare skin he had left exposed. A shudder ran over me and I squeezed my thighs shut. But Gabe, still staring intently at Peta as she explained in entirely too much detail about their Christmas dinner at the in-laws, inched them apart again, his thumb moving in gentle circles over the sensitive flesh of my inner thigh.

When our meals arrived, venison for the men and pork belly for Peta and I, the tingling sensation between my legs had intensified to the point where I could barely eat. Gabe didn’t even look at me. He engaged Peta and Shrek in conversation, ate his meal and drank his beer as though he had been doing nothing at all. Determined to wipe the calm expression off his face, I placed my knife and fork neatly on my plate as my mother had taught me, and slid my hand across his thigh. Unlike him though, I didn’t play around, I moved straight to the bulge that I knew was there and gripped it hard, giving it a gentle squeeze. Gabe choked on a mouthful of venison and coughed, smacking his chest.

“Excuse me,” he said, still coughing. “Something must have gone down the wrong hole.”

I patted him on the back with my free hand. “Are you okay?” I asked. “You look a little flushed.”

Gabe turned to me, his eyes flashing with a mixture of desire and amusement. “I feel great,” he said.

“So, how’s the course coming along?” Shrek's words were mumbled by a mouthful of food.

I stroked Gabe under the table feeling him grow under my hand.

“Great,” Gabe replied, his voice a little higher than normal. He cleared his throat, his eyes closing just a fraction as I toyed with one of the buttons on his jeans. “It’s great. Wonderful.”

A strange look passed between Peta and Shrek.

I worked the button away from its hole and poked a finger through the opening. Finding the tip of him, I massaged it through the thin fabric of his boxer shorts. He twitched, straining further against the restrictive material of his jeans.

“It’s great,” Gabe said again. “Really, really good. So good.”

My phone started ringing and I released my hold on Gabe to reach into my bag. Tyler’s number was displayed on the screen.

“Excuse me,” I said getting to my feet. “I’ve got to take this.” And at Peta’s enquiring look, I added, “It’s about the photoshoot.”

Walking out past the bathrooms and into the little courtyard reserved for smokers, I swiped the accept button and brought the phone to my ear. “Speak,” I said, mimicking the way Tyler had answered earlier in the day.

There was silence on the other end for a moment before Tyler cleared his throat. “Lauren?”

“Were they okay? Did you like them?” I blurted out, unable to stand pleasantries.

“They were adequate.”

My heart sank. “Adequate?” My voice cracked a little.

“They weren’t what I was expecting.”

“You never told me what you expected,” I said, growing a little annoyed.

“I told you to do what you did at the showroom. You didn’t. The images were fine, but they were what I would have expected from the original photographer we had organised. There were none of you in there.”

“I didn’t know I was hired to take selfies.”

Tyler let out an exasperated snort of air. “That’s not what I meant. I meant, I didn’t get to see the site through your eyes. That’s what I wanted, not just the regular shots of the construction progress. Yes, I need those, but I wanted more.”

I thought of the images I hadn’t uploaded. The one of the boot prints in dust. The half-eaten sandwich. “I’ve got those,” I said quietly. “I just didn’t send them.”

“Could you send them now?”

“I’m out for dinner.”

“With Gabe?” His voice stayed in the same gruff tone.

“And friends.”

“Well, I will let you finish your dinner. Send through the rest of the photos as soon as you get the chance.”

“I will,” I promised, a little relief working itself into the tightness of my chest. “I’ll send them as soon as I get home tonight.”

“Lauren?” Tyler asked.

The door to the restaurant opened and Gabe walked through, looking at me enquiringly.

I pointed to the phone and mouthed “Tyler.”

Gabe rolled his eyes.

“Yes,” I replied to Tyler.

“I look forward to seeing you again. Does Thursday next week suit?”

I mentally scanned through the café shifts in my mind. I was pretty sure I had a shift that day, but considering I was best friends with the boss, I should be able to swap it for another.

“Thursday will suit fine.”

“I will see you then.”

“Okay,” I said hesitantly.

“Wear decent shoes,” Tyler ordered and then hung up.

Gabe grinned. “I would have come out here sooner but I was a little afraid to stand. You left me with a hard-on and an open fly.”