“This is awesome! I’ve never had a friend who had any interest in this! Even in the genealogy club, none of us are really friends. We hardly talk and just share new sites that we find and that sort of thing.”
“You’ll help me, then?” he asked.
I rolled my eyes and said, “Duh.” I briefly closed my eyes at the childish gesture and response. “I meant to say that I would really love to help you with your family genealogy.”
“Wonderful, Salem,” Elijah said.
As I helped him organize his notebook with the full names of the family members that he knew, time flew by in a blink. It seemed like Elijah and I had just started when I got the text from my mom saying she was on her way. I was supposed to be ready and waiting outside so she wouldn’t have to wait since she was pressed for time. Elijah rode the elevator down with me and waited outside until my mom arrived. I would much rather to stay with him and work on his ancestry.
“How was the appointment with Dr. Hamilton?” Mom asked as soon as I got into the SUV.
“It was good. I told him about Sioux and about starting up our own book club. That reminds me, can we stop by the bookstore tomorrow? I want to pick up a copy of the book she and I going to start reading.”
“Yes, we can go in the afternoon. Thomas and I are going to the spa in the morning.”
Of course they are. They have to erase the damage that they’ll do tonight at the party.
“Oh, guess what else?” I started.
“What?” Mom asked, sounding half interested.
“He started mapping out his family tree. He said I inspired him and that he’s been wanting to do this for a while now.”
“Who?” she asked. Her brows were furrowed as if she were trying to retrace this conversation. I really didn’t think I was speaking in code. She wasn’t interested or paying attention.
“Elij—Dr. Hamilton.” I thought I’d recovered from my blunder of almost calling him by his first name.
“Ohh.” My mom dragged out the word as if she were pacifying me. “That’s nice, sweetie.” Yeah. She was definitely pacifying me, and it pissed me right the fuck off. “He was probably trying to find a common ground to get you to be less introverted,” she said.
“What? No! He was interested in it!”
“Alright, sweetie. You don’t have to get upset and yell.”
“I’m not!”
From then until the time Mom and Thomas left for the party, I stayed in my room and didn’t bother saying goodbye to them when they’d left. I was still pissed off about her insinuating that Elijah was pretending to be interested. I didn’t feel like that was how it was at all, but there was a tiny bit of second guessing going on in the corner of my mind.
I felt that I needed to see if Elijah and I were truly friends, or if he was just saying we were friends because he thought it was what I’d wanted to hear. I took off the soft flannel shirt that I’d never wash again and tossed it on my bed. I quickly shed my tank top and bra and then put the flannel shirt back on. I left it unbuttoned and snapped a pic of myself from the neck down. It wasn’t showing too much. All that could be seen were the curves of my tits that accentuated the center of my chest. The shirt covered the rest.
Before emailing it to Elijah, I sent him an email from my regular email with the links to a few free genealogy site that I used frequently. Then I sent him the picture from my other email. Now I’d wait and see if he’d reply. If he replied to the genealogy email, it would be safe to assume that he saw the other one too.
I tossed and turned all night, nervous and sick to my stomach over what I had sent to Elijah. He was probably going to call my mom and stop seeing me as a patient. And I didn’t know what I would do if I found out that I’d lost the friendship with him.
It was still too early for me to get up, but I reached for my cell phone to check my email. I was relieved when I saw a reply from Elijah to my email about the genealogy links. He hadn’t mentioned theotheremail, but I didn’t pick up on a cold shoulder reply from him either. I was glad that my mom was wrong and that Elijah and I really were friends.
* * *
Being Friday,I was naturally in a great mood. After school was my session with Elijah, and though I was nervous, I was also very excited. I wasn’t sure if he’d bring up the other email that I’d sent last week or if it would go into the category of something we didn’t discuss. Which was fine because I was somewhat embarrassed I had sent it in the first place. Unfortunately, though, my mom was waiting for me in the lobby today. So I was ticked that Elijah and I wouldn’t have the opportunity to work on our genealogy projects.
Once behind the closed door of his office, I took my usual seat, and he sat across from me. His smile made me feel warm, and when I eyed the bulge in his brown tweed pants, I could feel the apparent dampness between my legs. I glanced at his thick fingers longingly, as they had satisfied me over and over in my fantasies before bed each night.God, I think I’d combust if I actually felt two of his wide fingers slide into my soaked—
“How was school this week?” he asked, yanking me out of my hot thoughts.
“It was good,” I managed to say.
“Did you and Sioux start up your book club with each other?”
“We did, yes.”
