Chapter Thirteen
Ezra
Friday came as a blur. I had spent all week in anticipation of seeing Hannah again. I was disappointed that things didn’t go a little further the last time she came over, and honestly, it was the first time that I had a woman over here and it we didn’t end up in my bed. Hannah was different, though, and I didn’t want to apply that kind of pressure to her because I didn’t know how she would react. On top of that, we still had to maintain a business relationship, and I didn’t want shit to be awkward between us because I came on too strong. If things were going to go further between us, then it was going to have to be a natural progression. As much as I didn’t want to, I knew that waiting was the name of this game.
I grabbed my phone and dialed her number. “Hello?”
“Hannah. Hey, Ezra here. I was just calling to see if you were still going to come by tonight so we could go over the lines.”
“Oh, yeah. Of course. I have a few errands to run and then I will head that way, around 7-ish?”
“That is fine. I’ll be looking forward to seeing you again. Did you get a chance to read through the script and find a scene a little less racy?”
“Um,” she said with hesitation, “yeah, I looked through it. I was just thinking, though… maybe… it wouldn’t hurt to graze over one of those scenes, you know? Go all the way through with it. I mean, one way or the other, it is going to happen, right? I figured that the best thing to do is just get myself used to it so that it doesn’t all hit me at once, you know?”
I sat quietly on the phone as if I were trying to convince myself that I heard her correctly. Words hid from my mouth like a twisted game of hide and seek as she sat on the other line. “Um, Ezra? Is everything all right? Did I say something wrong? I mean, we can just keep it the way–”
“No,” I said as if I gasped life back into my body. “No. That’s fine. We can do that. I mean, you’re right, it is going to happen eventually. I just didn’t want you to be in an uncomfortable situation, you know?”
“Yeah, I’ve thought about it a lot since the last time we saw each other, and I figured that I should just stop being so um, bougie, and just get my mind ready for what is to come next. So, yeah, I’m good. I will be good. Um, I’m good. Yeah.”
I laughed at her multiple affirmations. “All right. Well, I will see you later tonight.”
“Absolutely.”
I slid the phone onto the couch and leaned back with a smile on my face. I guessed I wasn’t going to have to wait as long as I thought. I remembered what Jeff told me about not falling too fast for Hannah, but shit, you can’t control what your heart wants to do. It wasn’t just a physical thing with Hannah, though. It was the fact that she had become the personification of everything I thought would never exist. A woman with her attitude and sense of humor added to the sex appeal that bubbled from her body like a sauna. The test came when I showed her my boys’ room. I thought she would have felt some kind of way about it and if she did, that would have ended any possibility of us going further with each other.
But she seemed open to the idea. Like the fact that I had two young boys wouldn’t be a hindrance to anything that could develop between us. That right there was the icing on the cake, because if she didn’t have a problem with them, then the sky would be the limit for us. But maybe I was thinking too far into things, or perhaps, just misjudging shit all together. Maybe she just wanted to get her career off the ground, and she was willing to do whatever she could to make sure this movie was a booming success. If that was her angle, I couldn’t be mad at her for it. Hell, now that I think about it, I wanted the same thing, but I would be lying if I said I didn’t want to see what could become of us. Lying through my teeth.
The doorbell rang just after 7 pm. I had just gotten out of the shower 30 minutes before, and there was a cloud of body spray following me throughout the house. A smile was plastered on her face as soon as I opened the door. “So, here we are again,” she said as she stood in front of me. She had on a skirt that stretched to her mid-thighs and a tight shirt that curved to her torso like spandex. Her hair was pulled into a tight ponytail, and her face was smooth, highlighting her best features. Her lips were coated with gloss as my eyes wandered to her breasts. If she didn’t clear her throat, my imagination would have had her undressed within a matter of moments.
“I’m sorry,” I said, floating my line of sight directly into her eyes. “But you look beautiful.”
She smirked, “Oh, please. You don’t have to butter me up. I’m already here.”
She entered into my home as if she owned it, and sashayed over to the couch as I watched her behind jitter with each step. She crossed her leg over the other after she sat down. “So, are you going to stand by the door all night or are we going to get things started?” She had a different attitude this time around. She was straightforward and a little more matter-of-fact with her tone. I gently pushed the door closed.
“All right, boss. I’m on my way.”
She smiled as she removed the script from her purse. “Good.”
She glanced at the script as I sat down on the couch, doing all I could to keep my eyes away from her breasts. The sat perfectly beneath her shirt. Round and inviting with an alluring separation line in the middle of her chest. “So,” I said as I reached for my script, “how has your week been so far?”
“Uneventful,” she said as she paged through the stack of papers. “I haven’t done much since I was chosen to do this movie. Just hanging around the house with my roommate and prepping myself for our movie.”
“Yeah. Have you read the book?”
She laid the script onto her lap. “Yes, I have. Not the whole thing, but I’ve read enough to know what type of movie this will be.”
“Are you cool with it? I mean, have you done anything like this before?”
She sighed. “No, I haven’t. This will be my first time, and honestly, if it wasn’t for my roommate, I wouldn’t have even taken the chance to audition for the role. I always had a thing about um,” she looked away from me, “showing my body, you know? I mean, I didn’t even take showers after gym class in high school because I didn’t want the other girls looking at me. I know that was a long time ago, but some things never change.”
“And you’re comfortable with doing this movie?”
“Well,” she slowly turned back towards me. “I am getting there. I mean, being with you helps.” Her eyes bucked open as she put an embarrassed hand on my leg. “Wait, I didn’t mean it like that. I meant… you know,” she hesitated, “you just have a way of making me feel comfortable. That’s all. I think if I was with anybody else, I might be more apprehensive about what was to come next. But I can honestly say that you are helping me with that. I don’t know if you are doing it intentionally or not, but you are helping.”
I smiled. “Honestly, I don’t see what your issue is as far as your body goes. You are put together flawlessly from my point of view, you know? Most men would kill to have their wives or significant others’ body to resemble yours. I know I would.”
She smiled bashfully and lowered her head towards the script. “Thank you,” she said without looking up. “My roommate says the same thing. I think I am the only one that has to be convinced.”
I watched her page through the stack of papers, searching for something that she couldn’t seem to find. “So, do you have a place in mind that you want to pick up?”
“I figured we could go back to the scene we left off on a few days ago. And… maybe we can just go through until the end of the scene.”
I glared at her as she kept her eyes down on the paper. I knew what that entailed, and as my heartbeat sped up in the silence, I admired her beauty. The way one lonely strand of hair had wrestled its way free and laid down the side of her face. The French tip manicure on the edges of her fingernails. The way her eyebrows arched perfectly at the edge. “Yeah,” I said with a smile. “Yeah, we can do that.”
“Ok.” She stood up, “This time, I am going to step out of the room so I can walk back in. That is what the scene calls for.”
I stood up next to her, “Yeah, all right. Do your thing. Just let me know when you are ready.”
My eyes fell on her backside once again as she walked towards the hallway. I smiled to myself, and as she disappeared around the corner, I quickly reached beneath the cushion of the couch to make sure the condoms I left were still in the same place. I was prepared just in case things went in another direction, and it felt like they were about to. “I’m ready,” she yelled from the hallway.
“I’m in here, babe.”
She walked into the front room confidently without the script in her hand. It made me feel like I was slacking on my job because I hadn’t memorized anything yet. She spoke in the middle of my thoughts. “I’ve been calling you for the past few minutes. What were you doing?”
“I’m sorry, I guess I didn’t hear you.”
She rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Look, can you button this dress up?” She lifted her hair and turned her back towards me as I pretended to latch the buttons on her dress. She continued, “You know, I am going, to be honest. I hate going out with your sister and her boyfriend. I mean, your sister is fine, but that guy is just no good for her. At all.” She dropped her hair back to its place, then spun around to me.
“Yeah, I know; I feel the same thing. He is a fuckin’ loser, and I’ve tried to tell her about him, but you know how that goes. It does nothing but push her closer to him.”
“Maybe he just needs a little guidance, you know? I mean, he is kind of young.”
“Well, I’m not his father, so I hope you’re not suggesting that I step in and show him what he should have known already.”
“No, I’m not.” She paused, “OK, well, maybe I am a little bit. He doesn’t even know the basics. Hold the door for her, pull out her chair, you know? That is basic. He should at least know the basic things.”
“You forgot one thing,” I said, stepping closer to her, “one thing I do without disappointment.”
She laughed and put her hand onto my chest. I could tell she allowed it to linger more than she wanted to. She glanced at her bare fingers, and upon realizing that she had left it there for much too long, she quickly removed it. “Oh,” she said, picking up her spot on the script, “here you go with that again. Babe, why do you always have to take it there when we aren’t even talking about anything remotely close to the topic.”
She turned away, but I gently grabbed her hand and pulled her back to me. “Oh, it is remotely close.” I put my hand on the small of her back. “And you know you can’t deny it. The way you moan when I spread your legs–”
“Babe!” she said with an embarrassed smile, as if we were standing in front of a room of people. “Come on now, don’t start. We have to be there in an hour, and I am still not done getting ready.”
“–to the back of your head. How your thighs twitch as I rub against your clit with my finger.”
“Babe–” she said as if she were out of breath. I slid my hand up her dress slowly, just as the script called for. She tensed up and squeezed my arm with her hand, leading me to stop. “No,” she said as she took a deep breath, “just go. Just keep going. I’m fine.”
“Are you sure?”
She slapped me on my arm, “Don’t fuckin’ ruin the moment. Just keep going. I said I would be fine.”
She propped her leg onto the table; her long high heel clicked on the surface as soon as she put her foot down. I walked my hand up her thigh until it met the outside of her panties. I stroked her. Her underwear was moist in the front as she exhaled softly, as if she were preparing for what was to come next. Her eyes closed as I pushed her panties to the side and slipped my finger slowly into her vagina. She gripped my biceps as I flexed and pulled her closer with my finger still dancing inside of her box. She dipped her head back, exposing her neck as I leaned forward and slid my tongue onto her flesh. The script didn’t say how to go about the sexual scene; it just called for a sexual scene. How it went down was up to the director, but right now, it was up to us.