PLENTY of time
9 minutes now
tick tock baby
I close my eyes for approximately four seconds pretending I’m going to make the responsible decision before I head for the shower. I take the fastest shower of my life, pull on joggers and a t-shirt, and walk out of the locker room in the opposite direction of the meeting room.
The equipment storage hallway is on the other side of the building from the locker rooms. It’s empty right now because practice just ended and everyone is either showering or heading to the meeting. I can hear my footsteps on the concrete floor and I can hear my heartbeat in my ears and I’m walking fast enough that if someone saw me they’d think I was late for something, which technically I am.
I push open the door to the closet and she’s there. Leaning against a shelf of folded towels in jeans and a zip-up hoodie with her hair down and she’s grinning at me like she’s been waiting for this all day, like she planned this the way she plans everything, with strategy and timing and zero hesitation. She’s got the hoodie unzipped low enough that I can see the edge of her bra.
“Hi.” She’s bouncing on her toes. “Close the door.”
“Mackie, this is insanity. What are you doing here?”
“I had a meeting with the media department.” She grabs the front of my shirt. “Zach. They offered me an internship.”
“What?”
“The playoff internship. I’m going to shadow their reporters during home games. I get a press credential. It’s actually happening!”
I want to tell her that I’ve never been prouder of another person in my life but I don’t get the chance because she pulls me down and kisses me.
Her back hits the shelf behind her. Her hands are under my shirt and Jack is somewhere in this building and I’ve got fifteen more minutes before the meeting. She hooks her fingers into the waistband of my joggers and pulls my hips against hers and I groan into her mouth, the sound bouncing off the concrete walls. I should be thinking about the hundred ways this ends badly but all I’m thinking about is the way she tastes and the heat of her skin under the hoodie where my hand has found its way to her bare stomach.
“We can’t do this here,” I say against her lips, and even I can hear how unconvincing it sounds.
“We’re doing it here.” She bites my bottom lip and tugs. “That’s the fun part.”
“The fun part is the risk of someone walking in?”
“The fun part is you not being able to say no to me even when you know you should.”
She’s right. I can’t. She unbuttons her jeans and shoves them down her hips and I should stop her but I don’t because my hands are already helping, pulling them down far enough. Her mouth is on my neck, sucking hard on the skin just below my jaw and I can feel her smiling against me while she does it. I know she’s leaving a mark and I should care about that but I can’t because she’swrapping her legs around the outside of mine and pulling me closer and I want her so badly I can’t see straight.
“Mackie, I don’t have a condom.”
“I told you I’m on birth control.” She pulls back far enough to look at me. Her eyes are bright and certain and her voice doesn’t waver. “If you’re okay with it, I am.”
I look at her half-undressed in an equipment closet inside my workplace and I have thirteen minutes before a mandatory team meeting. She just got the news she’s been working toward for years and she wants to celebrate it here, with me, like this.
Fuck it.
I push my joggers down far enough and lift her onto the edge of the shelf. She gasps at the cold metal against her thighs and wraps her arms around my neck. Then I’m inside her with nothing between us and I stop breathing.
She’s so warm. So close. Every part of her. I can feel everything.
“Zach.” Her voice is barely there. “Oh my god.”
“Yeah.” I can’t think of a single other word. My forehead is on her shoulder and I’m holding still through what feels like an act of god. She’s breathing hard against my ear and her fingers are digging into the back of my neck, every nerve in my body is lit up in a way that’s never happened before.
She shifts her hips. Just slightly. Testing.
“Don’t move yet. Please. Give me a second.”
“We have ten minutes.”
“Mackie. I’m serious. If you move right now this is going to last about ten seconds.”
