Never Again(2)

“Hey, Ella. Hope I’m not bothering you,” she says mischievously. “Now that you guys are all settled in, it’s time for me and Matt to invite ourselves over for coffee. Is one hour from now okay?”

I glance at Josh, who is standing by the couch in all of his glory, watching me. I bite my lower lip and nod, remembering a second later she can’t see me.

“Umm... yeah, sure,” I respond.

“Great, can’t wait to see you!” she says, before I hang up and go back to Josh.

“We have exactly one hour,” I whisper to him, and we continue where we left off.



We take a quick shower, get dressed, and then I hurry to the kitchen to make coffee. In ten minutes, Sophie and Matt will be here. Thank God they’re almost never on time, so I can regain my senses after everything Josh did to me earlier. I shake my head, laughing out loud.

“What is it, honey?” Josh asks as he puts his long arms around my hips, and kisses the back of my neck.

“Mmm…” I close my eyes, completely intoxicated by the smell of his aftershave. “I was just thinking about what would happen if Sophie and Matt got here early.”

“They’d have to wait. Pleasuring my woman is simply the priority here.” He winks at me, and turns to the cupboard. He takes out four coffee cups, and puts them on the counter.

“Have I told you lately how much I love you?”

“Yes, but it doesn’t hurt to say it again.” His response brings a wide grin to my face. The doorbell rings. “I’ll go,” Josh says, as I pour the coffee and bring the cups into the kitchen.

“Wow, it finally looks like it’s a real home,” Sophie says excitedly, as she checks out the kitchen. Sophie is a fiery redhead with short hair that’s always delightfully messy, and makes her very attractive and interesting.

Sophie and Matt helped us move all the things we own. At the time, we just put down the boxes with our belongings wherever there was space, and it looked like a bomb went off in the house. Now that everything is in its place, it looks great.

“The kitchen is awesome. I like how bright it is, even though the counters and appliances are such a dark color.” As the tour of the apartment ends, we sit down at the table so we can drink coffee and chat.

“So, how’s your bike turning out?” Josh starts. I roll my eyes; I swear lately motorcycles are the only things on his mind.

“Great, actually. Now that it’s getting warmer outside, we spend almost every day on that bike, riding around. It’s so addictive,” Matt says with a spark in his eyes.

Winter is finally over, and now that it’s April, nature is waking up and everything smells like spring.

“Lucky bastards, I’m so jealous of you two. I’ve been dreaming about buying one for myself, but my Ella here is totally against motorcycles.” He leans back in his chair, and puts his hand around my shoulders. “I logged thousands of miles on my Honda back in the day. I was really sad when I had to sell her.”

“Hey there, if you hadn’t sold it you wouldn’t have met me,” pretending to be offended, I gently poke him in the ribs with my elbow.

Josh and I met at a car fair. I was selling my old Mazda and he his motorcycle. We spent almost the whole day there, standing right next to each other, chatting occasionally when nobody was around. At the end of the day, we both sold our vehicles and then he asked me out. The rest is history.

“I know, and that was the best day of my life,” he smiles at me.

“That’s better.” I give him a tender kiss.

“You can join me sometime, and the girls can go grab coffee while we ride. I’m sure they won’t mind,” Matt suggests.

Josh gives me a questioning look since I’m not a big fan of motorcycles, but he’s obsessed with bikes and motorcycling, so I nod.

“Okay, okay, we’ll find something to do. We could go shopping, I haven’t bought myself anything in ages.”



~ * ~



A week later, Josh and I lay on the couch, wrapped in each other’s arms. We are watching TV, a motoGP race, to be precise. Well, Josh is watching the race, I’m just reading a book on my e-reader. The trip Josh and Matt went on resulted in Josh becoming even more obsessed with the notion about buying a motorcycle.

“Wow, this Jake guy is really something. His first race in this class, and he already kicked their asses.”

“Uh-huh,” I reply, uninterested, and continue reading. Josh turns off the TV, and turns toward me, looking me in the eyes.

“Ella, why are you so against me buying a bike? Do you know how fun it would be riding around the country together? There are so many beautiful places I’d like to show you. We’d have a great time.”