I might be having a stroke, but I probably should be happy. “I think I’m happy,” I say, finally. “It’s just taking me some time to believe.”
“Out of left field right? Your brother’s best friend makes a pass at you. You’ve probably never thought of me that way.”
“Well…” I start. How much do I tell him? Do I tell him that I stole his white undershirt in sixth grade and slept in it for three years? Do I tell him that the first time I had sex with a man, I shouted out Stone’s name in the middle? “I might have thought of you once or twice,” I say. It’s not a total lie. I have thought of him once and twice.
“I’ll take it,” he says and pulls me down. With his hand on the back of my head, he pulls me toward him, smashing our lips together in an explosion of pent up desire. I can’t believe this is happening, but I don’t dare pinch him again, and besides, my body is telling me that this is happening, and it’s happening fast. After a lifetime of dreaming and longing, Stone’s tongue is in my mouth, his body is growing harder underneath me, and his hands are exploring my body under Ruby’s Juicy pants.
It’s real, real, real.
In one swift movement, he flips me over, and now he’s on top of me, his arms encircling me with a knee pressing between my legs. The kiss is molten lava, and it transports me to another dimension. Wherever I am, I’m not here. How could I be? I’ve never felt like this before. The Chinese say be careful what you wish for because it might come true, but my wish has come true, and I’m high as a kite because of it. Forget medical marijuana. Medical Stone Jenkins is so much more potent. I’m already addicted and we’ve barely begun.
“Get me naked,” I moan against his mouth.
“I’m going to get you all kinds of naked.”
He yanks Ruby’s sweater, pulling it up, but Bark appears and yaps at Stone for all he’s worth.
“He’s jealous,” Stone tells me. “Get away, Bark. Norma is mine.”
Norma is his, I think and giggle. I’m so thankful for cataclysmic storms. I wish we had one every day. Who knew horrible weather would finally get Stone on top of me, kissing me with wild abandon? But Bark doesn’t care about the wild abandon in my life. He wants to sabotage my happy ending. Bark gets a mouthful of Stone’s shirt and attacks it with a vengeance.
“I’m not sure I’m going to get out of this night alive,” Stone comments as Bark rips his shirt. “It’s like your brother knows that I’m trying to get into your pants and he’s determined to kill me.”
“It’s worth death!” I shout, wrapping my hands around his neck and pulling him down to me where I kiss his face, his chin, and his ear. It’s hard to aim at his mouth because Bark is now going for flesh, and Stone is flailing in self-defense.
“Damn it, Bark!” I shout. “I will drop kick your ass off this island if you vagina block me one more second!”
Either my screaming or the mention of my vagina does the trick. Bark stops going after Stone and runs out of the room. Left alone, Stone and I get right back to it. Our faces are nearly touching, and I can smell his Jiffy Pop breath. He tucks a lock of my hair behind my ear and studies my face, again. I touch my nose, terrified that I have a booger or something. Why else would he be studying my face? He’s seen it most every day since I was in elementary school. He hooks his finger with mine and brings it to his lips, kissing it gently.
“Oh,” I breathe. He’s really good with his lips. I wonder what else he can do with them. The electricity may be off in the house, but it’s building between us on the floor, a charge that runs from him to me and back again. Sizzle. “Are we going to do this?” I ask, breaking contact with his lips.
“Why not?” he asks, kissing me again.
Why not? Why not? I know there’s a reason why not, but I’m having a hard time remembering it right now. Oh, yeah. My brother. Stone is a friend of the family. He’s practically another brother to me. We can’t just get naked amongst the ashes of Ruby’s furniture.
Can we?
But we are. I’m getting nakeder and nakeder. “We really shouldn’t do this,” I say, and he quickly tucks me back into my sweater. “Or maybe we can,” I add. “Or maybe not. Or maybe we could.”
I stare into Stone’s patient green eyes and grab onto his arms, giving them a good squeeze. “What does this mean?” I ask.
“I don’t know.”
“I don’t either. But it’s bad, right?”
“It was feeling pretty good there for a minute.”
He has a point. It feels good. There’s nothing bad about feeling good, right? But I’m lying to myself. The why not has nothing to do with Stone being my brother’s best friend. The why not is that I’m in love with him, and he only wants to have sex. My lifelong fantasy of being his doesn’t stop with a roll on Ruby’s rug.
But I want everything. The picket fence. The two-point-five children. The happy ending. I mean, a thirty-year happy ending, not a rub and tug happy ending. If I have casual sex with Stone, then my fantasy is over.
On the other hand, I just made a wish to end my Stone fantasy and never think about him again. This could be the way to make that wish come true. One night of unbridled passion to get Stone Jenkins out of my system. Maybe afterward I won’t freak out every time I see him. Maybe I’ll stop spilling food on him and get on with my life.
Maybe a roll in the hay is just what the doctor ordered.
“Okay,” I say.
“Okay?”
