***
“I’m going to go powder my nose,” Perry told me, and I instinctively reached across the table and tapped her on the end of hers. My sexy bunny.
She slid out from the booth and made her way to the washroom. She was wearing a low-cut, bright blue dress that hugged her in all the right fucking places. Watching her walk away was dessert before dinner.
After she came back with Rebecca, she didn’t seem any worse off than she was before. She seemed pretty normal actually, and from the way she yammered on about poor Rebecca and her break-up, I could tell that maybe they didn’t spend much time discussing our relationship at all. Maybe there was no relationship to discuss. I still had a hard time with that one.
There was one thing that was off, however. Despite my smooth moves (which, honestly, was just feeling her up in the kitchen), Perry didn’t succumb to my advances and more or less brushed me off from our sex session, saying she needed to go for a run to clear her mind. Okay, so maybe she and Rebecca did discuss me.
And, keeping in mind what Rebecca had told me, her fears that she pressured Emily too much and drove her away, I quickly removed my hands and told her to go get some fresh air, that jogging was a good way to get to know the city, and other such bullshit that covered up the fact that I wanted to stick my dick in her, make her scream my name, and fuck her until she felt something for me.
When Perry returned from her run, she looked a lot calmer, more pliable. I kept my distance a bit, getting sucked into yet another Mythbusters marathon with Fatty Rab, while she showered yet again and then joined me on the couch.
The interesting thing was that she sat on the other side of the dog. The farty little thing was being used as a goddamn buffer!
“You know,” I said, turning to face her, “when you sit over there, it makes it a lot harder to put my arm around you.”
I knew I was putting her on the spot. Didn’t care. I wasn’t too proud to admit that Dex Foray needed cuddles. Just because we were fucking each other didn’t mean I’d stop being affectionate after the last drop was milked out of me.
She looked at the dog shyly, her hair falling in her face. I reached over and tucked it behind her ear.
“What is it?” I asked and took my hand back.
She fidgeted in her seat, still avoiding my eyes. “Don’t you find this a bit weird?”
“Weird?”
“Yeah.” Her eyes darted to mine. “You and I. Together like this. Suddenly.”
My heart thumped like it took a hit of crack. Now I was really starting to worry about what her and Rebecca talked about. Becs had always been on my side, but chicks before dicks and all that. And in her case, it really was chicks before dicks.
I licked my lips, trying to be careful. “I don’t find this very sudden, Perry. And I don’t find this weird. I’m a bit weird, you’re certainly weird, but this? This is the opposite of weird.”
She smiled. “So it’s normal?”
It’s destiny, I thought. I leaned over and kissed her softly. When I pulled away I said, “Whatever it is, it’s good. It’s very, very good.”
And then I picked up the dog and tossed him to the ground and put my arm around my motherfucking woman.
The pizza place I took Perry to, Zeke’s, was just down the block from the apartment, along the monorail tracks and close to the Space Needle. We got a small booth by the window and put an order in for our pizzas and beer.
I could tell she was nervous by the way she downed her beer and kept playing with her hair. It was pretty damn cute. It was also refreshing, considering I used to make her nervous for different reasons.
While she was in the bathroom powdering her nose or whatever, our server came back over. His name was Marcus and I’d gotten to know him pretty well over the years. He was a good looking guy for what it’s worth, one of those Italian types with black curls the ladies seemed to go gaga over and really hairy arms, like his testosterone needed a place to go.
“How are things?” he asked, loitering around the table, hands folded behind his back. He was also really tall, which I hated. I could obviously take him in a fight though and I was certain my dick was larger.
“Fine,” I told him, eyeing him inquisitively. “I mean, the beer’s fine, if that’s what you’re asking.”
He smiled and jerked his head to Perry’s empty seat. “Who’s the chick?”
I frowned. Look, I’ve called every woman a chick, from the old lady at the post office to my teacher back in university. But it didn’t sit right to hear it from another guy when talking about Perry, not in the tone that he was taking, anyway.
“The woman, you mean?” I asked slowly. “Her name is Perry.”
“Nice,” Marcus said with a grin. “Two women at the same time? I promise not to tell.” He made a crossing motion over his heart.
I was a tad confused. “Two women? I don’t have two women.”
“What happened to the super hot Maxim babe? Your girlfriend?”
“Jenn?” I asked. “We broke up.”
He shook his head. “I swore I just saw you guys in here.”
“It’s mid-March, Marcus. That was back in December. We broke up. I’m with Perry now.” I felt like I was talking to a two-year-old.
He stared at me like he didn’t quite believe me. “And,” I added, feeling defensive, “Perry’s also a super hot babe. She just wasn’t in Maxim. Because it’s a shitty publication.”
Marcus nodded, his eyes going over to the other side of the restaurant where Perry was coming out of the washroom area. “She is pretty hot, I’ll give you that. You lucky bastard. Her breasts are so much better than the other ones. Gotta get them when they’re young, am I right?”
“Hey,” I growled at him. “That’s my girlfriend you’re talking about.”
And there it was. I had just said the G-word. I had just publicly announced Perry as my girlfriend. Thank god she was too far away to hear it.
“Now, if you don’t mind, we’d like another round of beer, stat,” I said to him, watching her come closer. She was turning a few heads as she walked and I was met with this strange combination of worry and pride.
“Gotcha,” Marcus said, firing his hand at me like a gun. He walked past Perry, ogling her bouncing breasts like I wasn’t there. I gripped the edge of the table and tried to keep Hulk Dex at bay. Now wasn’t the time. In the middle of the Canadian Rockies was, but in the middle of Zeke’s Pizza in Belltown wasn’t.
“I ordered you another beer!” I told her, smiling too much.
“Uh, thank you,” she said, taking her seat. She moved her purse to the corner and gave me a funny look. “You okay?”
“Great,” I said, my voice unnaturally high. I needed to calm the fuck down. What the hell was wrong with me?
She pursed her lips, studying me. I felt like she was looking into every crevice. I busied myself with a beer, wishing Marcus would bring back a pitcher instead.
“You’re nervous,” she observed.
I almost choked on my beer. “No, you’re nervous!”
“Yeah, I am, Dex. But you know what? I think that’s okay now. I think we should be nervous. I don’t think we ever gave us this chance.”
She put her soft hand on mine, milky white against light tan.
“I’m pretty sure I used to make you nervous,” I told her. “When you first met me. You looked like you were about to run away every five minutes. Every time you were in the car with me it was like you were being trapped with a mental patient. Which, I mean, was a fairly accurate assessment.”
She smiled and squeezed my hand and the affection was doing weird twirly, tingly, unmanly things around my heart. “You did make me nervous. You make a lot of people nervous, Dex.”
“Cause I’m too awesome for them to handle.”
“Yes, well, that’s also true. But I was nervous because I didn’t know you…I didn’t know how you thought. I didn’t know what you thought of me.”
“And now?”
“Now I know you. I’m starting to know how you think. And I think I know what you think of me. I’m nervous for a whole new set of reasons. Because I’m…scared. And I’m excited. This, this us, this is totally new for me.”
We stared at each other and I felt blessed with her bout of honesty. “It’s new for me too. But new can be good.”