“A hotel would be safe.”
“Being with me would be safer.”
I meant it. Nothing would happen to either of them if they were with me, but Ididwish that I had a slightly bigger apartment. My one-bedroom set-up was a little problematic. But I would make it work. It would be nice to share a bed with Erica again. We hadn’t spent the night together since the day she told me about her husband. I got the impression that she didn’t want to make overnights a regular thing right away for Dominic’s sake.
“You’re a good man, Trainer.”
I wondered if she’d say that if she knew the things I was fantasizing about doing to her body. I was far from selfless. Then there was the fact that I wanted to beat her husband, visiting the pain he’d caused her back on his head and then some. I wanted to avenge herandstake a claim.
No, I didn’t think I was a good man, but I promised myself that I would always be good to her.
“Why don’t you put your bag in the bedroom,” I said, nodding in that direction. “Ignore the mess. It’s the maid’s week off.”
Erica giggled as she headed through the bedroom door. I turned to Dominic.
“You doing okay, buddy?”
“I guess. I didn’t have the time to grab any toys or anything.”
“Oh. Well, I might be able to help you with that.”
Going over to the entertainment center, I opened it up, exposing my game systems.
“Wow! Look at all that,” Dominic shot up off the couch and came to my side. “You have everything! Playstation, the Switch, Xbox… What’s that one?”
He was pointing to the smallest system of the bunch. “That’s the NES Classic. That’s what my original old Nintendo looked like only it was bigger. The company released this version a few years back, and it has all kinds of games that I grew up playing on it.”
“Can we play that?”
“Of course. It happens to be one of my favorites.”
When Erica came out of the bedroom ten minutes later, looking delectable in a pair of pajama pants and a tank top - with no bra, I noticed - we were both seated side-by-side on the living room floor, trying to pick a game from the wide selection.
“I’ve always been fond of Donkey Kong,” Erica said, taking a seat on the couch behind us. I looked back at her as she smiled warmly at the two of us together. Our eyes met, and she mouthed, “thank you.”
“Let’s play Donkey Kong,” Dominic agreed.
So, that’s what we did for the next hour. I hadn’t played this game in years, and Dominic was a fast learner, so he ended up being much better than me. He found that hilarious.
Finally, it was nine o’clock, and Erica announced that it was Dominic’s bedtime. Since the only option for a bed for him was the couch, Erica and I had to go into the bedroom. I headed in there while she made the couch into a bed with my spare blankets. While in the bedroom, I picked up more dirty clothes, shoving them into the nearly full hamper.
I really needed to do some laundry.
And be more prepared for unexpected company.
I straightened out the blankets on the bed, but didn’t bother making it properly. We were about to lay down anyway. When I decided the room looked passable, I pulled my shirt over my head. Just as I tossed it onto the overspilling hamper, Erica came in.
Her eyes scanned my torso, and I’d never been so happy that I worked out regularly. She looked hungry, and if Dominic wasn’t in the next room, I’d already have her under me, writhing.
“Thanks for being cool with his bedtime. I really try to stick to it as much as possible.”
“It’s fine, really.”
“I feel like such an idiot, like I made the wrong decision for us yetagain.Of all the places in La Playa that I could have rented…”
“You’re not being fair to yourself. You couldn’t have known what was going on in the other half of the duplex.”
“Yeah, but I did know that the guy was creepy. He always gave me a bad feeling.”
