“Are you going to help me set up my TV?” she asked, leaning forward, brushing her breasts on my arm.
I inhaled sharply, gripping her hair a little. Her eyes widened, darkened, her lids lowering at the move. It didn’t help the situation in my pants. None of it did. I dropped my hand and stopped breathing for a moment, stopped inhaling her sweet scent. Maybe if I didn’t breathe I could cut off some of my blood supply and I wouldn’t get hard.
“I’ll help with whatever you need,” I said, swallowing thickly.
My eyes were on her breasts, which were covered in that stupid Mowgli’s shirt she wore. I was a fan of the band, but not when I couldn’t make out whether or not she was wearing a bra, though I’m pretty sure she was. I looked back into her blue eyes; they were soft and light, the color of a cloudless sunny day. Fucking perfect, like she was.
“Do you guys want something to eat? I have leftovers from last night,” Estelle called out from the kitchen.
I cleared my throat. Nicole sighed and stood up. She leaned down and her hair cascaded over both sides of my face as she placed a kiss on the left side of my neck. I closed my eyes, wishing I was free to pull her onto my lap and kiss her.
“That depends,” I said loudly so Estelle could hear me. “What did you eat last night?”
“Black bean burgers,” she said.
“On bread?” I asked. Oliver had a thing about bread. They normally didn’t keep any in their house.
“Lettuce.”
I rolled my eyes, pivoting my torso to look at Nicole, who was typing on her phone.
“You want black bean burgers on lettuce?” I asked. She looked up, blinking. I repeated the question, and she nodded.
“Sure. That sounds great.”
“We’ll have some,” I shouted as I went back to work. I stood up with the measuring tape and started to mark the wall.
“Okay, it’s ready.”
I set the pencil and tape measure on the floor. We walked to the kitchen together, playfully bumping at each other like high school crushes on their way to their next period. Before we reached the open doorframe that led to the kitchen, I put my arm around her shoulder and pulled her to kiss her temple. It was a quick move. I dropped my arm as quickly as I’d pulled her to me. She stopped walking, though. And I stopped walking. Her lips were parted as if she had something on the tip of her tongue, but instead she shook her head, blinked it away, and smiled as she stepped into the kitchen. I wanted to pull her against me and ask her what she was about to say. I wanted to slither my way into every single crevice of her mind and dig until I found her deepest thoughts, her darkest flaws. I couldn’t, though. I couldn’t, so instead, I followed her into the kitchen and sat beside her at the small wooden table in Estelle’s kitchen.
Estelle and Nicole talked about food and wine as I ate and watched the animated way Nicole moved her hands when she spoke. I had to make a conscious effort to look away from her. I looked at my empty plate instead, but when Estelle brought up the subject of the media, my eyes found their way back on Nicole’s face. I couldn’t help but notice the way her smile dropped, and the light in her eyes dimmed. She shot a quick glance my way before giving a slight shrug and a little smile that upturned the side of her mouth just slightly.
“I don’t think they’ll follow me around anymore. I’m not that interesting. They only really follow me when I’m with Gabe anyway,” she replied.
It was stupid that it bothered me when she called him that, right? She’d been with him for a long time. She could call him babe and I shouldn’t care. But I did. And it irked me. Why the fuck did I care? It was a nickname. Then again, even if she called him by his full name at this point it would bother me. Maybe I wouldn’t care if he was being amicable, but to get a call from her and know she’d been crying . . . I wasn’t okay with that shit. We spent the rest of our time eating and talking about Nicole’s new place on the beach. She took down Estelle’s number and promised to invite her over. I excused myself from the table when I finished because I really needed to drop by the office to pick up some files before I went home for the night, and that had to wait until after I finished putting the TV up and dropped off Nicole.
I was almost finished drilling the stand when I heard footsteps approach. I glanced over my shoulder and looked at my sister, who had her arms crossed as she watched me. She came closer. I looked around but Nicole was nowhere in sight, and for a fleeting moment I panicked and thought she’d left.
“She’s in the bathroom,” Estelle said.
I swallowed and nodded.
“You look at her funny.”
“Funny how?” I asked, lowering my arms.