“Thanks. When should we meet?”
“Is half an hour enough to get ready?”
“That’s fine. See you then.” I launched myself back into bed and buried my face in my pillow.
I wish she was here.
I let my mind drift back to the kisses that we had shared on the hood of my car last night. The first one had been so wild and unrestrained. Well, Julia was pretty much restrained by my hands, but that was another matter entirely. I loved her passion and lust when she moaned and rubbed herself against me. Although the next kiss had been different, it was just as good, if not even better. It had been soft and tender but still passionate, and I had embraced her through the whole thing. Even though Julia hadn’t agreed to start seeing me again I still saw last night’s outing as successful. She had forgiven me, kissed me, and made plans to talk to me again on Tuesday after class.
I showered quickly, dressed, and headed downtown to the café where Matt and I always met for lunch. He and Shawn were seated at a table outside when I arrived and I was surprised to see them alone. I had thought that maybe Sophia and Megan would be with them, since I suspected that they had spent the night with them after leaving the club. That was certainly my brother’s MO, and the way that Sophia and Shawn had been all over each other made me sure that they would go home together. Of course, that didn’t necessarily mean they would also spend the morning together, as I had learned from my visits to Julia’s apartment. I always left before morning.
“What happened last night?” Shawn all but yelled the second I was within hearing range. “Matt said that you left with Julia.”
“You didn’t notice?” I asked dryly, although I couldn’t help but smile a little.
“I, uh, I guess I got a little distracted,” Shawn said, grinning.
“I’ll say!” Matt boomed and grabbed his shoulder. “You should have seen him and the tiny chick, Stephen. I thought they were gonna to fuck on the bar!”
“Her name is Sophia,” Shawn said sternly. “And she’s not just a chick. She’s…amazing.”
“What about you and Megan?” I asked. “You seemed to be getting along.”
“They went home together,” Shawn revealed.
Typical.
“It wasn’t like that,” Matt muttered. “She didn’t want to stay at her place while Shawn and Sophia were getting it on.”
“Sure it wasn’t,” Shawn said. “I bet you were a perfect gentleman.” My brother looked down, shifting in his seat.
“What happened?” I asked him.
“I, uh, I’d rather not talk about it.”
OK, that’s definitely a first! He usually loves to brag about his conquests. Unless…there was no conquest?
“So you two didn’t…” I trailed off.
“We just…cuddled,” he mumbled.
“What?” I spluttered. “You…cuddled?” I never thought that I would hear those words coming out of my brother’s mouth.
“It was nice,” he said defensively.
Shawn was staring at Matt with his mouth hanging open. “Wow,” he finally said, shaking his head. “Matt’s a cuddler. Who would’ve guessed? Anyway, what happened with you and Julia?”
He looked expectantly at me but before I could answer the waiter appeared. We placed our orders and the second he was gone again Shawn repeated his question.
“I just drove her home.”
“That’s all?” my brother asked, looking very disappointed. “We went through all that with the clothes and the spa, and nothing happened?”
“Well, we kissed,” I admitted.
“Ooh, that’s good, right?” Shawn asked. I nodded.
“When I told her that I wanted to see her again she said that we should talk after class on Tuesday.”
Matt winced as if he were in pain.
“She wants to talk? Sorry, buddy.”
“What’s so bad about that?” I asked. I’d thought that it was great that Julia and I were talking and not just engaging in sexual activities.
“It’s never really a good thing when a woman tells you that she wants to talk. It’s almost always about something bad.”
That can’t be right. Can it?
“But she didn’t say no, either,” I protested. “And she kissed me. How can it be bad that she wants to talk to me?”
“What did she say, exactly?” Shawn asked. I thought for a few seconds before answering.
“She said that she has a lot going on and she hasn’t been sleeping well. She looked really tired…and kind of sad. Well, really sad, actually.”