Gray
Looks like you’re doing laundry too then. {{winking emoji}}
He sends a crying emoji.
Ash
Pretty please? I want to go to the club! {{praying emoji}}
I let the phone sit a good minute while I put groceries away. Going with Ash and the guys to hang out is entirely too tempting. It’s been almost two years since I’ve been dancing at a club. Celena and I went out regularly in our early twenties, but then life took over, and somewhere along the way we became lame, responsible adults.
My phone pings twice more before I pick it up again to answer.
Ash
PLEASE?
Ash
Kelsier will never let me live it down if I don’t get you to go.
I smile and type out my response.
Gray
Alright. But only so Kelsier can’t hold it over you.
Ash sends a celebration GIF followed by details about the time and place, a private area the team uses in a club at one of the casinos.
Ash
You can invite Celena if you want.
Gray
She already has plans.
It’s a little white lie. Celena has a problem with gambling, but luckily she knows it’s a problem and tries to avoid temptation whenever possible, so I know she’d turn down the invitation. It would kill her, but she’d turn it down. Better that she doesn’t know she was invited in the first place.
Part of me wishes Celena could come so I’m not alone with the guys and their puck bunnies, but another part – one I won’t acknowledge – is excited at the idea of hanging out with Ash without having to split my attention with someone else.
I instantly feel guilty for the thought, but I also know Celena wouldunderstand and even approve of my selfishness in this case.
Ash
I’m still riding high from Gray’s agreement to come out on Saturday night as I lie in bed texting her. It’s only nine o’clock, but this week is kicking my ass, and I’m exhausted. I can’t go to bed without checking in with her, though. These nightly text-fests have become as much a part of my daily routine as working out or brushing my teeth.
I’ve barely seen Gray the last few weeks. She did come to a few more practices, but she and I haven’t had any real time to get together in a while. We’ve both been too busy to meet up at night, so we’ve worked on my trash talk issue either by talking on the phone or via text message.
Not seeing Gray has started to feel like withdrawal. It’s the kind of itch I used to experience when Grace and I hadn’t seen each other for too long because of our schedules, the kind of itch I get when I need to see a woman I’m dating…
I had a dream about Gray the other night. Yeah, that kind of dream. The kind where I had to change my underwear because I came in them after dreaming about Gray moaning beneath me while I pumped between her thighs. The kind where I pinned her hands above her head as she wrapped her legs around my hips, and I fucked her hard until we both came minutes later, panting with ecstasy.
I’ve given up denying I want her. I don’t know when I decided it for sure, but the dream was – ironically – my awakening to the realization.
It’s been difficult keeping our text conversations casual, because I’m dying to ask her what she likes in bed. I keep an eye out for any hint of flirtation in her messages so I have an excuse to move the conversation to something more intimate, but so far she’s been all business. Or mostly business. The best I’ve gotten from her is that her favorite ice cream flavor is Amaretto, and she wants to go back to Croatia on her next vacation.
I never would have guessed either of those things, and it only makesher more intriguing to me.
