Page 94 of Sexy

“Don’t.” He places a fingertip over my lips. “You don’t need to be sorry for anything.”

“I know, but I just need you to know that it wasn’t fair for me to throw this show in your face. Not when I’m basically doing the same thing. I was wrong to judge you.”

He gives me a crooked smile that reaches all the way up to his eyes. “The apologies are over, and you were right about everything, Tiffy. I’m here because I want you. Not the new you, not the old you. Just you. Any way you want to be, I’m in, princess.”

I take a deep breath and look him in the eyes. “I’m in too, Fletch. I have never felt this way about anyone in my life. You are always there. Always on my mind. And even though I know I can do it without any help from anyone now, I don’t want to.” I swallow hard. “I really don’t. I want you there with me. Next to me, every night, for as long as you’ll stay.”

“I love ya, Tiff,” he says, pulling me to his chest and kissing my head. “I love ya. I want to be in your life and I’m not going anywhere unless you kick me out.”

I check my watch, and then have an idea. “We have twenty minutes before the show starts. Can I show you something?”

“Show away, princess. I’m your captive audience tonight.”

I pull him along by the hand, since he’s still holding mine, and go out the door into the lobby. “It’s upstairs.”

He waggles his eyebrows at me. “Sure it is.”

We get into the elevator and I lean back against the mirrored wall, fanning myself with my free hand. “I’m nervous.”

He just smiles. We get off on my old penthouse floor and he chuckles as I lead him down the hallway. “I like where this is going.” I bite my lip as I look over my shoulder at him. “Hey,” he says. “No using my tips and tricks against me tonight.”

But then he does that little tongue thing where he touches it to the tip of his front teeth, and I laugh. “I like your tips, so feel free to use them on me all you want.”

He shakes his head as he smiles. I walk past my old penthouse door and keep going, straight to the one at the end of the hallway.

“The roof?” he asks, his eyebrows up.

“Just wait, Fletcher.” We go through the door and walk up the flight of stairs that leads outside.

I stop and look at him for a second, my hand on the knob, ready to show him what I’ve done. Somehow the fight is over. It’s like we needed to say all that stuff back on the beach in order to move forward and now that it’s out in the open, everything feels… right.

I open the door and step aside, letting him get a good look at what’s beyond.

“Holy shit, princess. You turned my rooftop into the royal gardens.”

“Do you like it?” I ask, looking at my recently completed project with his eyes for a moment. The raised beds are filled with flowers and shrubs. The ground has been paved with stones, and little bits of grass and moss peek through the edges, like it’s been growing this way for a hundred years. White lights are strung around the perimeter, and the glow is just enough to give it a special ambiance that mixes with the fading sunset.

“I love it,” he says, taking it in as his gaze wanders from garden bed to garden bed.

“I just had the trees planted last week. In fact, I just moved up here from my old room a few days ago. And look what I did to the garden shed, Fletch.”

I realize when I say his name that we are true friends now. These last few minutes are new and old in all the right ways. He feels like a part of me. He feels like he’s been with me this whole time. He feels… real.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

The wonder and happiness in her face settles my nerves and calms me down. I have never been so filled with apprehension going to meet a girl as I was tonight. Everything raced through my mind as I pulled up to the valet. All the possibilities left hanging between us. All the ways I could fuck it up. Just how easy it would be to lose this girl and how I’d feel if that happened.

It wasn’t going to happen, I decided. I wouldn’t let it.

So when she came up to me downstairs and let me take her hand, it felt right. Like every decision that led to this moment was right.

She pulls me along towards what used to be the shed. But now it’s bigger. The dingy old cinderblock bricks have been painted white. The windows have shutters and flower boxes spilling over with color.

She opens the door to the new and improved garden shed and steps back to let me walk in first. It’s not big. Just a room, really. With a small kitchen where the old potting bench used to be and a king-size bed where I laid her down on the floor and ate her pussy until she came.

I shoot her a sidelong look. “How many men have you fucked in this bed?”

She laughs, getting my joke. “None, you sicko. I make them stand.”