I wasn’t good at apologies—I had no experience making them. But I did want to make this morning up to her, so I was doing it the only way I knew how. I was going to give her what she liked: baseball and food.
“You want something to eat?” I asked.
She looked at me suspiciously. She probably thought I meant my cock. “What’s on the menu?”
I grabbed my tablet and pulled up the menu from the Stratum’s restaurant. “Burgers, Caesar salads, steak tips…”
“I’ll have a burger,” she said and shrugged, trying to sound casual. “And a Caesar salad. And a beer.” She looked at me quickly. “If you’re having one.”
I picked up my cell phone and ordered two burgers, two Caesar salads, and extra onion rings. “They’re good,” I mouthed to Audrey while I was on the phone.
“What about the beer?”
“I have some.”
She got up in that outfit and went out the kitchen. I got to see her glorious ass, round and muscular, in a thong. She made her way out the door slowly, making sure I got a good, long look. Holy shit. My dick got instantly hard. One minute later, she clicked back in, carrying two IPAs. She placed one gently on my nightstand, leaning down so her tits were practically in my face. She looked over and saw the obvious bulge in my pants. Then she stood up and smiled, as if she’d won something. She strutted back to her side of the bed and showed me that ass one more time. Then she sat down, drinking her beer and ignoring me until my erection gave up and finally withered, dejected and alone.
The door buzzed, and Audrey looked down at herself. “I think you better get it,” she said. She eyed my pants. “You okay to do that?”
“I’m fine,” I said, grinning. “I’ve just seen your ass in a thong. I’m gonna die a happy man.”
We started to eat on my bed. I got up and threw Audrey one of my old Wharton T-shirts.
“What’s that for?” she asked.
“You need to be comfortable while you eat. I hate to ruin the view, though.” She went into the bathroom for a second and came back out wearing the T-shirt and only the T-shirt, which made my cock stir again.
I knew what was under that shirt and I wanted it, bad.
She padded out barefoot to the kitchen and came back with two more beers. It was almost as if this morning had never happened, that I’d never fired her and she’d never left. We ate in silence, watching the game, sharing the onion rings.
I picked up the dishes when we’d finished. Audrey looked up at me, the bravado gone from her face just like the lingerie was gone from her body. “Thank you,” she said, and it was a loaded thanks, not just for clearing the dishes.
“I should be saying that to you. You were brave to come back here.”
I went out to the kitchen and threw everything in the sink. She was brave, and I was a coward. When she’d put her hand on me last night at the restaurant, I’d lost my mind. I’d lost all control. Her touch had scorched me, and without thinking, I’d let my instincts take over. My instincts wanted to fuck her, hard.
But that’s not all they wanted, and that was the larger part of the problem.
I went back to my room and sat down next to her, closer this time. I stroked her arm lightly and I felt her stiffen, as if she was bracing for the worst. I couldn’t blame her, not after the way I’d betrayed her this morning.
“Do you remember everything that we did last night?” I asked her, my fingers trailing up her arm.
She bit her lip and looked at me. I could see the traces of puffiness around her eyes still, the vulnerability in her face. “I wish I could forget it,” she said.
I continued to stroke her arm. “I have…issues, Audrey. I sort of told you about them. I have a hard time getting close to people.”
She was watching my face.
“Last night was pretty intense,” I said. “I didn’t know how to handle it in the morning. I was confused and feeling…” My voice trailed off as I struggled to articulate my thoughts.
“Feeling what?”
“Just feeling.” I watched my finger move up and down her arm. I didn’t look her in the face. “It made me uncomfortable. That’s why I fired you.”
“So why’d you hire me back? And also say you wanted sex, if it was the sex that caused the problem?”
One of the things I liked about her was that she was direct. But that could also be a challenge—especially when you were trying to obfuscate the truth from yourself. I sighed and rolled onto my back. “We don’t have to have sex if you don’t want to, Audrey.”