“How can that woman be so hot?” Marcus asked the world at large as he drank from his tumbler.

“Who?” His friend, Paul, asked.

“Over there. With the long straight platinum blond hair and eyes so green we can see their color across the haze of the dance floor.”

“You’re really into this girl? Oh, her. Wow. That hourglass figure must have been work.”

“You think?”

“Maybe. Why is no one near her?”

“She’s in a league all her own. Deservedly.” He drank again.

“Or they all know she has chlamydia.”

Marcus nearly choked on his drink. “Fuck. Really?”

“You can find out if you really want to.”

“No, I can’t.”

“Why can’t you?” He put his drink down noisily for emphasis. “You already think you’ve failed. Actually failing changes nothing.”

“Yes, bu--…”

“But, but, but, nothing. Don’t give me that I still have a chance if I don’t ask. Bullshit. You don’t know anything unless you ask. The number of answers gotten without questions is zero. And by your logic, for all you know you are avoiding success.”

“Fine.” He finished his drink.

“Good.” Paul said. They both sat there. After a moment he said, “When?”

“I have an idea.” Moments passed. Paul was talking about his cousin meeting someone when Marcus shot out of his chair and made a beeline for an open spot at the bar. As he arrived, so did the blond woman. “May I offer to buy you that drink you just ordered?”

She checked him out and took her time doing it. The bartender put her fruity cocktail on the bar and she picked it up. “I’ll buy my own drink, thank you. But, I’ll be over there drinking it if you want introduce yourself before asking me out.”

Marcus stood there dumbfounded.

“Hey, Buddy,” a voice called.

Marcus turned. It was the bartender holding a tumbler that looked like it held another second round of his drink. “What?”

“Get your ass over to that table. This one’s on me.”

“Thanks.”

“I don’t see you at that table soon, I’m charging you double.”

Marcus took a swig. And another.

The bartender waved the back of his fingers at Marcus. “Shoo!”

Marcus arrived at the edge of the table and said. “Hi. I’m Marcus. May I join you?”

“You really don’t like to do things in the right order. I’m Layna.” She held her hand out and shook it. “Was that so hard? Now I say, would you like to join me?”

“I guess I only screwed it up a little.”

“The night is young.”

“I appreciate your faith in me. Are you alone here tonight?”

“I am. I made the mistake of having friends who decided to marry the first person they fucked and then start a family immediately.”

“Why would they do that? Any divorces?”

“One and a half.”

“And that makes them less available because of the kids.”

“Yep. The only cool thing is I’m able to be their kids’ favorite Aunt Layna.”

They spoke for a while. He invited her to dance and they did. She didn’t press against him so he figured he shouldn’t press for a fast hookup. He wondered where that maturity had come from. Maybe it was all the talk about her virtual nieces and nephews.

They exchanged phone numbers before going their separate ways at the end of the night.

*****

The next day, Marcus worked as hard as he could so he wouldn’t blitz her phone with text messages. Every time it rang he had to stop himself from answering before the ringtone finished sounding. The one time he failed, it was Paul.

“Expecting a call.”

“Shut up.”

“Was I right?”

“You know the answer. I saw you leave two hours after I met Layna.”

“Nice name. Though the hair said Darla to me.”

“If you ever meet her mother, let her know.”

“You’re going to introduce her to me?”

“Maybe a couple months from now.”

“Bold. Second date is in the bag?”

“It should be.”

“Right, you’re expecting a call.”

“I will call her this evening if she doesn’t call first.”

“Don’t set a time for that.”

“What do you mean?”

“You know how you are. You’ll sit for three hours thinking whether you should call at six or seven. Go back and forth. Eight o’clock will seek dominance. And then you work out how you’ll avoid calling at exactly seven o’clock. You’ll wonder if seven oh four is enough delay. Should it be more than ten minutes but not exact ten minutes. Soon you’ll consider seven fifty-two and then realize it’s really close to eight and you don’t want to call exactly at eight.”

“All right. All right! I’m bleeding profusely here.”

“Was I close?”

“I did not have that precise chain of thoughts verbatim, no.”

“Okay. I believe you. So was she all makeup?”

“All the time I was close to her she was even more beautiful than from across the room.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“I know what you meant. She signaled loudly she wouldn’t like it if I asked on our first meeting. We left separately.”

“Hope you didn’t mess that up.”

“Yeah, that hadn’t occurred to me at all.”

*****

Their lips met comfortably. This was no first kiss. Their bodies enmeshed in a practiced matter that they never considered ‘practice.’ Tongues poked against lips, which parted to allow the tongues to dance against one another assertively, playfully, teasingly, pleadingly.

They stood in darkness, eyes closed, witnessing their tongues’ dance only with their lips and teeth. Their arms held each other. Their hands explored each other. Time lost meaning for a while.

His hand slipped around the front of her thigh and the illusion that this would be a kiss to last forever was broken. She flinched and stepped back.

“Sorry,” he said.

“Damn,” she said. “No. It’s me. It’s never you.”

“No, I pushed where I knew I shouldn’t. It’s me. You are not responsible for involuntary reactions.”

“I shouldn’t be like this.”

“Layna. It’s okay. If we have to go slow, we have to go slow. I’m okay with that. If I weren’t I wouldn’t be here.”

“After all this time.”

“What?”

“I finished your sentence. You wouldn’t be here after all this time. I don’t deser--”

“Stop that. You deserve happiness. And I will give you as much as you let me.”

“We’ve been dating for weeks. I’m sure you will tire of my putting you off eventually.”

“If we could break up in the future, it won’t be because of a kiss.”

*****

Paul met with Marcus a few weeks later. They hadn’t seen one another since Paul had met Layna.

“I haven’t seen you around,” Paul said. “How’s it going?”

“It’s good.”

“Seeing anyone?”

“Yeah. I think you were there when I met Layna.”

“The woman with chlamydia?”

“She is STD free as far as I know.”

“But you don’t know for sure?”

“Well, we haven’t gotten to sex so I guess I could be wrong.”

“No sex? And you’re still seeing her, what, six or seven weeks later? She must give good head.”

“You are unbelievable Marcus.”

“I try. Tell me about this amazing woman so I might understand.”

“She’s funny but serious when she should be. I’ve met one of the friends, Kara. Layna said Kara abandoned her to become a baby mill.”

“How many kids does she have?”

“Just the one, Bonnie, I think. The baby mill thing gets under Kara’s skin. But Layna manages not to be mean about it.”

“Do you want kids?”

“That’s a lot of steps skipped there.”

“I know but it sounds like Layna doesn’t want children.”

“I don’t think she does. Not important. We haven’t done anything that might cause children.”

“You said that. How slowly does she want to go? Is she saving herself?”

“I asked her that and she denied that being the reason.”

“So what is the reason?”

“Some kind of rebound I think. She was a little vague about having had her heartbroken by taking things too fast.”

“This sounds like a red flag if she now taking things so slowly.”

“I’m not having this conversation.”

“Fine. It’s not me you need to talk to anyway.”

*****

“It’s great to see you, Layna. It didn’t work out with Marcus?”

“He’s spending an evening with his friend Paul.”

“Has he told Paul?” Kara asked slowly, watching Layna’s every move.

“How’s little Bonnie?”

“Have you told Marcus?”

“No.”

“Layna! What happened to your four week rule? It’s been at least seven or eight weeks by now.”

“Seven. And I… I’m afraid.”

“You want another Roger situation?”

“No. But I don’t want to lose Marcus.”

“And so you lie by omission to him and lead him on.”

“That isn’t fair.”

“Life isn’t fair, Princess.”

“Don’t admonish me by quoting my favorite movie at me.”

“Don’t make it so easy. You have to tell him. Doesn’t he ask why you won’t…?”

“He doesn’t. He wants to. I know he wants to. I’ve felt it.”

“Felt it. Don’t tell me you’re doing him and saying he doesn’t have to do you.”

“I won’t tell you.”

“Layna! That can’t work and you know it.”

“Alright, alright, I know. I’ll tell him.”

“Next time you see him. Promise?”

“Don’t nag me.”

“As you wish.”

*****

They’d met at the restaurant. While they lived in the same city, it could take an hour to travel between their apartments if they were going to have dinner together. The traffic traveled against one of them at that hour depending on which restaurants they might be visiting.

“I’m a little miffed with you,” she said after the server took their drink orders.

“What did I do?”

“Mira called me out of the blue and wanted to go to that club on Ninth to catch up. I had to tell her I had other plans. When I told it was a date, she ribbed me good. Asked if I needed your permission to arrange my social calendar.”

“I fail to see the problem.”

“By itself, it wasn’t a problem. Then the mommy brigade found out. They’re asking when I’ll be able to join them on play dates.”

“Is that something you would do?”

“That’s not the point.”

Their food arrived and the normally chatty woman was paying more attention to her meal than Marcus had seen before.

“Do you need to talk to someone, preferably me, about something?”

“What do you mean?”

“You got very quiet.”

“Do you want kids?”

“That’s a lot of steps skipped there.” He said with a laugh.

“It is but… why are you laughing?”

“I’m sorry. It’s not at you. It’s about Paul. He asked me that same question a few days ago.”

“Why? Are you cheating on me with Paul?”

“I lived with him in college. Not a chance in hell. I know where he hid the bodies.”

“Why did he ask?”

“I was telling him about how you called Kara a baby mill.”

“Mark my words. She’ll have four kids in five years.”

“He went on to wonder if you want kids as he was guessing from how you rib your friends that you’re considering a child-free lifestyle.”

She looked down at her plate, poking the food with her fork methodically.

He watched her for moment and decided to let the silence fester.

“Maybe.” She said.

He didn’t say anything.

She put her fork down harder than necessary to make as much noise as politely possible. “Say something, you rat bastard.”

“If I say anything, you will use it to change the subject away from this topic that is both bothering you and that you want to avoid.”

“That’s not--” her protest stopped in the face of his disapproving look.

“You haven’t poked that cucumber slice yet.”

“I’m messing with it’s head. Everything else has been poked. When will I stab it?” She put her fork down again and looked him in the eyes.

“Whatever it is. Just say it,” he said.

“That’s easy for you to say.”

“Probably.”

It took her another minute. He wasn’t expecting what she said after giving the area around them a look, “You like getting head?”

“Was that a question?” He whispered.

“Yes.”

“Of course. I assume all guys do.”

“So do I.”

He looked at her quizzically. After a moment she tilted her head slightly and looked straight down at herself.

“You’ve received…”

“Many times. Though it’s been about eight months now.”

His posture sank a bit not in sadness but in contemplation. She returned to poking at her food. The cucumber didn’t suffer long.

“I like you,” he said.

She looked up at him. “I like you.”

“This explains your hesitancy to initiate or receive intimacy. And that was a good decision on your part.”

“Oh?”

“I would not have been receptive to this idea if I hadn’t spent all this time with you, gotten to know the real you. I wouldn’t have been rude about it, I hope. But, I’d have missed out on, at a minimum, a friendship.”

“You’re okay with this.”

“Emotionally. It remains to be seen how I’ll be physically with it.”

“What do you mean?”

“The words I need to say are easily misconstrued so bear with me. I’m not attracted to men. I don’t know how my body will react if we… when we explore this further.”

“When?”

“That is why you told me. Isn’t it?”

“And you expect it to happen.”

“I repeat. I like you. I like doing mundane things with you. I like doing fun things with you. I even like doing boring things with you, very rarely in the moment though. Afterward, reflecting on it, I will have enjoyed the time spent with you. Sex can be all those things sometimes. It remains to be seen if I’ll like doing that with you. But, so far, so good.”

She was overwhelmed by his kindness and understanding. She looked down at the table between them and couldn’t remember when it had happened: her hand was enveloped by his. He was lightly using his thumb to caress the back of her hand as he held it.

*****

Layna read the text message. She grabbed her bag and rushed out of her apartment. She skipped the elevator and walked down four flights. She was half way through the lobby when she heard him call out. She considered pretending she hadn’t heard him shout. She turned around.

Marcus was standing next to her. He took her hand and gently pulled her toward the elevator. She followed.

Once the doors to the elevator closed, he said, “One of the things I like most about you is your no nonsense attitude.”

She remained silent.

“These past two weeks. You’ve been avoiding me. Is it fear?” He stepped off the elevator and walked toward her apartment without looking back.

He did not turn around for five minutes. She stepped between him and the door to unlock it. “Maybe I just like the chase.”

“Sure, date a guy for months and then once you’re able to talk together about future plans, that’s the perfect time to dump him.”

He sat on her sofa and she sat next to him. He put his arm on her shoulder and pulled her close. She accepted his offer of comfort readily.

“I didn’t dump you.”

“Ghosting isn’t better.”

“I didn’t do that either.”

“The limbo I’m in could only be reached by a ghost.”

“I don’t want to lose you.”

“And therefore you avoid me.”

“I didn’t say I was rational.”

“I suppose not. I have a simple solution.”

“It isn’t a simple problem.”

“True. It isn’t a problem at all. Unless you complain, I’m going to kiss you.”

“We’ve kissed before.”

“And then I’m going to touch you. My hands will go places they haven’t gone before. Usually you stop me. I’m asking you not to stop me and we’ll see how it goes.”

“Only if you’re sure.”

“If I only did things I was sure about, I’d be very lonely and frequently disappointed. Pucker up.”

His lips touched hers. She pressed herself against him, her hands rested on his back.

His hands held her hips. Slowly they roamed to her back, to her stomach, to her breasts. Down, then up, then further down, then up, then further down some more. His hand slipped under the waistband of her skirt. She flinched. He held her firm, continuing his journey downward.

He could admit later he was fighting his own anxiety. He’d touched other women. He’d seen erections other than his own. Until today, he’d never touched an erection other than his own. The skin was hot and pliant while firm.

She moaned as he stroked her. She sat back to give him easier access. Her hand found its way into his shorts. She stroked him.

He stopped. She pulled her hand back and said, “What?”

He laughed. “I don’t think we want to be wearing clothes. Nor do we want to just make a mess of each other’s underwear.”

“Oh. We could maybe try the bed.”

“The one in the bedroom?”

“Odd, I wonder what they called that room before there were beds.”

*****

She cuddled up against him. Messes ended up being made. But a couple towels were on hand to mitigate that. “Well?”

“Four stars, would mutually masturbate again with Layna.”

“Only four stars?”

“We made a lot of mistakes. We’ll probably improve with a lot of practice. And I haven’t heard if that practice will happen. Can’t overinflate my numbers.”

She giggled. “I’m sure there’s an app for helping us get better at stuff.”

“I assume it was good for you.”

“If I’m honest… Oh, calm that face down… I prefer to be more dominant in bed.”

“Are you saying it was hard for you to have me lead?”

“Yes, it was hard. Hard just for you, it was.”

“I get the pun,” he said. “Well, next time I can see if subbing is for me.”

“It will be.”

“How do you know?”

“Just do as you’re told. It will be.”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

“The term is Mistress,” she said with a laugh.

“I’m not sure I like this side of you.”

“You will. I only bring it out in the bedroom. The rest of the time I’ll be your good girl, Sir.”

---

Author's Note: I don't normally write non-magic environment stories. I love comments. Don't be shy about saying anything at all about this story below. Thanks for reading.