“Mm?” He looked up, blinking, a piece of lettuce dangling from his mouth. After a moment he seemed to realize, and his tongue went in search of the lettuce, pulling it up slowly and messily.
Chloe watched him in fascination. It shouldn’t have been sexy, watching him haul a piece of lettuce into his mouth like a particularly uncoordinated giraffe. It shouldn’t have been even remotely appealing.
Then why did it look so damn good?!
She cleared her throat again, though more with embarrassment this time, and tried to sound offhand. “Hey – leave some of that for me, will you? I’m glad you’re discovering your tastebuds and all, but I did want to at least try the hamburger.”
Startled, Ethan looked down at the half-devoured burger in his hands, before looking back up at her. “Oh. Sorry. I’ll buy you a new one –”
He started to stand up – burger, bizarrely, still clutched in his hands – but Chloe waved him back down.
“No, no, I wasn’t being serious – I only wanted a taste. We already have way more food than we’ll ever need.” Though she was starting to suspect that they were going to make much more of a dent in it than she’d originally thought, given the rate Ethan was going at. She indicated the half-eaten hot dog. “Do you want to swap?”
He nodded eagerly, and the two of them passed their condiment-loaded, half-eaten meals across the table to each other.
After a few bites of the juiciest burger Chloe had ever had the pleasure of tasting, she took a self-enforced food break for a minute to let her stomach settle… but food breaks didn’t mean drink breaks.
She searched amongst all the items on the table until she located the enormous metal milkshake cups, glistening with condensation, and the smaller, empty milkshake glasses next to them.
“Here,” she said, pouring a small amount from one of the cups into one of the glasses. “I got a malted chocolate thickshake and a malted banana maple thickshake. I thought you might like to try the banana one, since it has fruit –”
She watched, entranced, as Ethan ignored the small taste of banana thickshake that she was so kindly pouring for him,and instead grabbed the enormous silver cup that housed the chocolate thickshake, lifted it to his oh-so-kissable lips, and started chugging. And chugging. And chugging.
“I’ve created a monster,” Chloe murmured.
She stared for a long moment as he continued to drink… before shrugging.
“Well, when in Rome,” she sighed, before picking up the silver cup containing the malted banana maple thickshake and taking her own long swallow.
Oh my God. It’s like an orgasm in my mouth.
The shake was sweet, but not overly so, and was quite possibly the creamiest thing she’d ever tasted. It was obviously made with real bananas and maple syrup, and she had to physically force herself to stop drinking.
If his was even half as good as this one, then I totally get it.
She looked over at where Ethan had –finally– put his drink down. His eyes were bright, and somehow he looked more…messythan before. Not that his clothes had magically rumpled themselves or his hair was sticking up in all directions or anything, but he looked like an actual human, rather than some kind of inhumanly perfect cog in the corporate machine. And it seemed that all it took was actually getting him to allow himself to enjoy something for once.
“Good shake?” she asked wryly.
“Hm?” He looked confused for a moment, like he was coming back to reality. “Oh. Yeah. Not bad, I guess.”
Chloe burst out laughing at that. Like he hadn’t just been drinking that stuff down like his life depended on it! “Not bad?! Okay. Whatever helps you sleep at night, I guess.”
He stared at her intently, then, to the point where she started to feel self-conscious. It was like he thought she was the most fascinating thing in the whole world.
She opened her mouth to ask him what was going on, when he reached over – and, before she could react, gently wiped some banana shake from her cheek.
That warm buzz from earlier passed through her again, and she shivered. It was inexplicable. It wasn’t like she’d never had boyfriends before, but the gentlest, most ordinary touch from Ethan set her afire in a way that the most deliberate touches from her previous boyfriends never had.
This guy is going to be the death of me, I swear.
She was flailing mentally, trying to work out how on earth to respond to any of this, when, improbably, ol’ Eula came to her rescue.
“How is everything, darlin’?” she asked as she approached.
“Amazing,” she replied truthfully, and Ethan nodded his agreement.
“Good to hear,” said Eula with a smile. “You need anything else, you just holler, okay?”
