“What like phone sex, again? I don’t know how good I’d be this tired. The FaceTime with me in the shower this morning wasn’t enough?”
That involved a wall mount for my phone and a lot of maneuvering to get everything into the right spot, but it was worth every bit of hassle and then some.
“That was amazing,” he rasped. “But I don’t think phone sex is what we need right now. Lay your head on my chest.”
I turned on my side, imagining resting my cheek on Joe’s hard chest instead of my therapeutic neck pillow.
“My finger is running up and down your back. Do you know you fall asleep in less than five minutes when I do that?”
“I do?” I lifted my head off of the pillow.
“Yes. That and playing with your hair but, sometimes, after … you have a lot of tangles.” I grinned, nodding in agreement although I was alone in the dark of my bedroom. “But the tip of my finger up and down your back always does the trick. You slump against me, and you’re out like a light.”
“I wish you could do that now.” My heavy eyes welled up before I sucked in a breath and blinked it away. “I can’t sleep very well these days.”
“I wish I could, too. I wish … I wish for a lot of things. And you’re at the top of my list.”
“So are you.” I relaxed, picturing Joe’s finger moving up and down my back in my mind’s eye, almost feeling his chest rise and fall under mine. I thought of strong arms, a crooked grin, and the sexiest blue eyes I’d ever seen. If I tried hard enough, I could see the man who knew me for only a short time but better than I knew myself—the man I wanted to be mine.
35
Caterina
“Is it tomorrow yet?Are you sure you just can’t call out sick or something early?”
I giggled into my pillow, shaking my head at Joe’s adorable impatience. Deciding to try not to be the office doormat anymore, I told my boss that I would work remotely for Labor Day weekend. She was fine with it, but Sharon, the other manager on my team was not and didn’t hold back showing it. While I put in all those needlessly long hours, Sharon made sure to never linger past six and took our new remote policy a bit too far at times, going “dark” as we all liked to joke for the day while she was supposed to be working from home. We were both on the same level, but she had five years seniority and wasn’t afraid to use it whenever she could.
“Do you know me at all, Joe? I’ve never called in sick unless I had no choice. I would have had perfect attendance in high school had it not been for my stupid appendix almost bursting in senior year,” I whined. That’s always bothered me.
“Sometimes, I feel so bad for you when you were a kid. I can see you crying to your mother to be allowed to go to school like my sister would even though she had a fever.”
“I can’t help the way I’m wired.” I rolled out of bed and rubbed my eyes. Joe’s hours were getting later, and his phone calls came right around the time I had to start getting ready for work. He might have been miles away, but he was still part of my everyday life. The excitement over seeing him for the first time in over a month sparked a glimmer of hope in my chest that maybe, just maybe, we could make this work. “Love me or leave me.”
My sleepy eyes bulged when I realized what I’d said. Yes, I loved him, but I didn’t want us to say it over the phone at five o’clock in the morning. It seemed cheap, and even though we both had whiplash from how fast we were going, that, at least, shouldn’t be rushed.
The long beat of silence between us unnerved me a little.
“I’m definitely not leaving you.” The familiar creak of his bed as he settled in made me impatient, too. I should be there, and, in only a couple of days, I would be. “I haven’t tasted your pussy in so long,” Joe groaned. “I think I’m going to do that the second I see you.”
“Really? I’m meeting you at the restaurant. You’ll do that with all your customers there?” I crossed my legs, wishing that second was now.
“I have an office, remember? With a couch. There’s no way I’m waiting until we close. I can almost taste you right now.” His gravelly whisper took me back weeks ago, to those few wonderful days that were probably the best of my entire life.
“Is that all you want me for? A Labor Day sex marathon?” I laughed, expecting to hear him laugh with me but was met with another long minute of nothing.
“I want you for everything, and you should know that. I miss you more than I’ve ever missed anyone. It’s like a limb is missing or something. You were only here for a short time, but I can’t remember what it was like before you.” Joe yawned, and my lips tingled to kiss him goodnight.
“I know the feeling well. Crazy, isn’t it?”
“That’s the thing. It’s not crazy at all. Go to work. I’ll text when I get up.”
He was right, the crazy part was that itwasn’tcrazy. In fact, nothing ever seemed more right.
* * *
“You’ve gotto be kidding me.” I glared at Amy, not wanting to believe what she said.
“Nope, Sharon called Emma this morning to say that she’s so sorry, but she had to leave on a family emergency for the weekend. Who calls their boss on a Thursday to call out for an entire weekend? Want to bet the emergency is on Long Beach Island? Emma is pissed beyond belief, but now we have to come in Friday and maybe Saturday to split the work she would have done for the weekend.”
