The Thrill Is Gone

Harry lay fast asleep on the bed, lips slightly parted as his snores filled the apartment with a less than gracious medley. He hadn’t meant to spend the night. Alistair had made it perfectly clear that it’d be in Harry’s best interest to sleep at the hotel, since they were going to drive back to London early on Sunday morning for an event that was scheduled in the afternoon, but halfway through the second bottle of wine, Harry decided that he was alright with sleeping during the drive and being tired during the event. He wanted to spent time with Paulina. They might not have been doing anything exciting, but simply watching the teli and laughing about random things, was enough to make him happy. He loved how at ease he was, how he didn’t have to keep up his act in her presence. He teased her about the formal manner in which she’d spoken to him at the luncheon, about how different she’d been in the presence of the Trustees, and she teased him right back.

They’d both put on acts for the outside world, each donning a new persona in order to ensure that they’d be viewed favorably and spoken of highly. It had been exhausting to keep up the act for as long as they had, which was why as soon as the opportunity presented itself, they fled from the luncheon and retreated to her small apartment. It was there where they were allowed to be affectionate and to laugh loudly, to have themselves a few smokes and bottles of wine, and when they’d had enough of the drinking and smoking, they lost themselves in each other’s lips. They kissed until their lips were swollen, until their bodies ached for a sweeter release, and then, on the living room floor, they had themselves quite the heated shag which ended with them getting mild cases of rug burn.

Neither had noticed the damage their knees were sustaining, they were too lost in the movements of their bodies, in the salty taste the sweat gave her bosom and his neck. It wasn’t until their euphoria passed that they saw the mess that had become of their knees. They shook their heads, he laughed while she muttered about how she always mocked her friends for getting rub burn from shagging. Harry gently traced the outline of her rug burn, reassuring her that it wasn’t actually that bad, a few days would be enough to see it fade, but his words only earned him a nasty glare. She was mortified. What if her knees didn’t heal properly? What if there was a scar or mark left behind? Oh no! She’d never be able to wear shorts or skirts or dresses without leggings, it was going to be awful, and her overactive mind was bringing about the most embarrassing scenarios that it could possibly concoct.

Her fretting didn’t come to an end until Harry slung her over his shoulder and carried her to the bed. She squirmed in his grasp, mumbling about how he shouldn’t be carrying her around, but to that, he responded by giving her a light spank and playfully telling her that she was lucky their knees were roughed up or else they’d have another go. That earned him a bite on the shoulder, which made him walk faster towards the bed. He set her down, eyes shining mischievously as he stared at her with a crooked grin on his face. She wanted to tell him off a little, just for a laugh, but the way he was looking at her made her a giddy mess that was beaming at him. Being happy was so easy when she was around him. His mere presence made her forget she was homesick or that she had an intimidating collection of books that needed reading and assignments that needed finishing.

Whenever he was around, he was all she could think about, which was why she gazed up at him with loving eyes and a smile that made his chest swell with emotion. He stood between her legs for a little while, staring at her as she rested her chin on his chest and wrapped her arms around his waist. They eventually crawled into bed, burrowing themselves between the covers. She positioned herself with her back to him, and he rested his head on the half of her pillow that was empty and wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her in tight to him so that her back rested against his chest. That was how they fell asleep whenever he spent the night. They’d end up moving around in the night, since they were both horrible sleepers that were prone to wiggling about, but at that moment, they were being decent sleeping partners who wanted to do nothing more than cuddle as they drifted off to sleep.

Harry fell asleep almost instantly. It had been a long day for him and the sound of her soft breathing was a sweet lullaby that carried him off to sleep. She didn’t have much luck falling asleep. She had almost dozed off when her cell phone began to vibrate. An annoyed groan left her lips. Who the hell was texting her? Didn’t they know that she was trying to get some sleep? Frustrated and eager to get back to bed, she carefully maneuvered herself out of his grasp and walked towards her phone, ready to send an angry text message at the unfortunate soul that had disturbed her peace. But the moment her eyes landed on the name on the screen, her anger vanished and in its stead, there was curiosity.

It was a text from her brother, telling her that she should get online because everyone was hanging out at her parents house. Her eyes darted to the time. It was 11:47 which meant that it was barely 3:47 in California. A part of her was tempted to not go online, to act like she’d been asleep when he text her, but her brother knew that she was going to stay in on that Saturday. He’d heard her ranting about how fucking horrible her week had been and how she was going to do nothing but lounge around and eat, so he’d be suspicious if she didn’t talk to them, especially when she’d recently complained about how she hadn’t seen the entire family together since her birthday.

The only sensible thing to do was to get out her laptop and talk to them. She knew that the odds were that she wouldn’t see them all together until Adrian’s birthday in mid July, and that was too far off for her. So she sluggishly grabbed an oversized t-shirt, along with some undies from her dresser, and fixed herself as best she could in the bathroom. A thorough scrubbing was given to her face, her hair was left tied back in a ponytail since sex had made it a frizzy mess, and once she deemed herself somewhat presentable, she set up her laptop on the kitchen table and stumbled in the darkness towards the bedroom area of the apartment. In order to not wake Harry, she removed the fasteners from the curtains and dragged them until the bedroom area was shielded from view. Then, as quietly as she could, she walked back to the kitchen and turned on the light, ready to talk to her family.

“Chunky butt!” exclaimed Luis when their video chat went through. “What took your ass so long?”

“What are you mumbling about? It hasn’t even been five minutes since you text me.”

“Well your ass should’ve gotten on sooner. I mean you clearly weren’t making yourself presentable, look at that mess you call a face.”

“Keep running your mouth like that and you’re gonna get yourself beat as soon as you land in London.”

“Hah! We both know you can’t take down all of this. You’ve never been able to.”

“But I’ve gotten some good punches in.” Paulina reminded, smirking triumphantly.

“Punches?” asked Adrian, stepping into the cameras range. “Why is it that you two always end up threatening to beat the other one up?”

“Because my dear brother is a savage that only understands punches,” stated Paulina. “But you already knew that.” A wide grin broke across her face. “Everyone knows Luis is a bit off.”

“Check her out. She’s already talking like a Brit.” Luis stated. “By the time she graduates, she’s gonna have a full on accent.”

“Not even!” protested Paulina, for a moment forgetting that Harry was there.

“I think you just might.” Adrian agreed with Luis.

“Of course she is! Especially since she has a –”

“Luis,” she growled in a low voice. The last thing she wanted was for the other male family members to find out she was dating someone.

“She has a what?” asked Adrian, eyeing Luis curiously.

“She has a bunch of fucking friends that talk in those damn accents.” Luis lied. “You’d think she’d try to make friends with the Americans, have some people to hang out with that are from over here, but no, our sister needed the full on British experience, so she shunned the Americans.”

Adrian wasn’t convinced, but he didn’t pursue the issue any further. He’d have a private talk with her some other time.

“It makes sense for her to be friends with the Brits. They know the area and can give her a different experience than she would have with people that don’t know where the hell they are.”

“Egh, I think her ass is just being an elitist.” Luis declared.

“And I think your ass needs to go to the backyard and tell everyone that she’s online.” Adrian said.

“Why don’t you go tell them?” Luis was far too comfortable on his chair to even think about walking to the backyard.

“Because I'm older than you and told you to go do it. So go.”

“Such a fucking lazy ass,” muttered Luis as he walked towards the backyard.

“I can hear you!” bellowed Adrian.

Without turning around, Luis flipped him off and shouted, “You were supposed to!”

“Our brother’s a savage.” Adrian took Luis’ seat as his own. “How they let him become a doctor is beyond me.”

“He probably slept with someone.” She joked. “You know how Luis is. He’s down to fuck as long as the person’s mildly attractive and has a big ol’ bootie.”

Adrian chuckled. “You’ve just described all of us.”

“Booties are the Balcázar weakness.”

“That and big ass plates of food.”

“Ah. I miss big ass plates of Mexican food. The other day I got so homesick for authentic Mexican food that I started watching a cooking show from Mexico online and was just drooling over it.”

“But you’re a good cook.”

“Awe thanks Adrian, but even with my culinary skills. Hah. Culinary skills . . . can you believe I just said that? I'm making myself sound like Ramsey. Oh. But anyways, what I was trying to get at, before I started rambling was the fact that the meals here don’t taste like they do over there. The ingredients aren’t the same quality. The flavors are off. I mean, when I cook, the food somewhat tastes like it’s supposed to. It has a very strong resemblance to it, but it’s just not it. It’s a knockoff of mom’s cooking. Does that make sense?”

“Strangely enough, it does. But mom’s gonna be there in a few weeks and you’ll be feasting so just hang in there.”

“That’s easier said than done. You get to have her cooking whenever you want! What I would do to have some of her cooking.”

Adrian shook his head, smiling as he did so. “Estas loca (you’re crazy).”

“Not even. You’re the one that’s crazy.” Paulina sat up straight, doing her absolute best to seem composed. “There’s nothing wrong with me. I'm fantastic.”

“Sure you are.” Adrian glanced over his shoulder checking to see if his family was coming. They were barely getting up from the table. “So, what was Luis talking about?”

“Huh?”

“Don’t act like you don’t know what I'm talking about, chunky butt. What are you two all secretive for?”

“Adrian, I love you, but I think you need to get your head checked out, because Luis and I weren’t being secretive. You’re just imaging things.”

He was about to say something when a particularly loud snore caught his attention. “Who’s there?”

“Olivia,” she quickly lied. “She ended up coming over to hang out. We lost track of time so it was too late for her to head out and she just crashed on the bed.”

“And she snores that loudly?” he asked, unconvinced. That snore belonged to a man. He knew it.

Paulina nodded. “It’s a bitch to fall asleep whenever she crashes here, but she’s a great friend.”

“Whatever it is that’s goin on, I'm gonna find out.” He told her.

“You, my good, are beyond paranoid.” Paulina rubbed her tired eyes. “So where is everyone? They’re taking forever to get – ah! There’s the noise.”

Sure enough, the glass door that separated the dining room area from the backyard was open and in walked the entire family. Well, Ronaldo and Teresa ran in, shouting that they were going to get to talk to Tia Paulin first, and the pair ended up pushing Adrian off his chair, claiming the seat as their own. Ronaldo was the first that started talking, but Teresa had a louder voice so when she joined in, she easily took control of the conversation. They talked to their aunt in Spanish. That was the only language they were allowed to speak at home since their parents wanted them to master both English and Spanish, and Paulina, knowing the rules, answered them back in Spanish, her eyes twinkling with delight as they told her about how they were nearly done with classes and were all going to have a trip to Disneyland when she came back from England.

The kids had to be threatened with a nalgada (spank) in order to make them give up the seat and let the adults talk with Paulina. It took more than one threat in order to get them to leave. They had so much to tell their aunt! Teresa hadn’t even mentioned that she was doing Judo, and that she was going to have a match soon. Ronaldo hadn’t told her that there was a girl he liked, but they’d have to wait until next time to talk to their aunt, because everyone else wanted to get a word in with her. Her parents did the usual inquiries; asked how she was, if she’d been sleeping well, how school was going, if they were giving her too much homework, the usual. To each question she answered in a positive light, bending the truth here and there, because her parents didn’t need to know that she’d gone from simply dating a prince to sleeping with one. No. It was best that they didn’t know there was a Prince in her life. Better said, it was best they didn’t know there was a man in her life.

They were still getting over her break up with Joaquin, even if it had happened nearly a year ago. In their eyes Joaquin was exactly what she needed. He was a Mexican Roman Catholic that was family oriented, well mannered, and had an education. They didn’t understand that the fact that he was family oriented was one of the reasons why Paulina had broken up with him. He wanted her to decline the Rhodes Scholarship, to get married as soon as she graduated from school, have kids and have her be a stay at home wife. Nothing about that pleased Paulina. She, eventually, wanted to settle down, have a family, but she didn’t want to be a stay at home mom. There was too much to do in the realm of politics for her to be a home maker. That was fine for other people, men and women all across the world opt to be stay at home parents/spouses, but she wasn’t one of those people. So she broke up with him and had been dealing with her parents occasional complaints, ever since.

As her parents told her about what was going on in their lives, she thought about what they’d think about Harry. She had a feeling her dad wouldn’t like him. Not at first, at least. The playful glint in Harry’s eyes would be viewed as dangerous, and Ricardo wouldn’t want his daughter dating someone that was trouble. She was his only girl and he had to make sure she’d be alright. Also, Harry didn’t speak Spanish, and since Ricardo was limited in his English, he preferred if his children’s, significant others spoke Spanish. Even Adrian’s partner, Thomas, spoke Spanish. It had taken determination on his part, but Thomas now spoke it fluently and had lengthy conversations with the man that he hoped to one day call his father in law. Paulina had a feeling that her mother would be more taken with Harry. She’d be watchful of him, wanting to make sure that he was good for her daughter, but Irmalinda had an affectionate disposition and with Harry being capable of being utterly charming, it’d only be a matter of time before Irmalinda approved of him.

In a few weeks time she’d find out whether or not her mother would approve of Harry. The mere thought of him meeting her family made her anxious, but she had a feeling they’d get on. Luis might interrogate him for awhile, but in the end, he’d be the friendly guy that her friends always seem to worship. She still couldn’t believe that Harry wanted to meet her family. She’d thought that he’d politely decline, say that he had something else to do, but he’d accepted the invitation and now it was only a matter of time before her family found out about him. Paulina just hoped by then, she’d be able to introduce him as something more concrete, something other than him being this guy she’s dating, because after so many months, after so many shags, she was beginning to want more.

Talking with her family ended up taking a few minutes short of an hour, by the end of it her eyes were struggling to stay open and she was longing for the warmth of Harry’s body and the comfort of her bed. As soon as she finished saying her goodbyes to everyone, she exited the conversation, shut down her laptop and turned off the lights. It was finally time for bed. She stumbled in the darkness, straining her eyes to see where she was going, and when she opened the curtains of her bed, she was surprised to hear Harry’s voice.

“I love it when you talk in Spanish.”

She jumped back, taking in a sharp breath. “I thought you were sleeping.”

“Well, I was, but then my body realized you weren’t fidgeting anymore.” Harry said. “It’s strange how accustomed I am to getting kicked in the middle of the night.”

“You’re one to talk. You’re as bad of a sleeper as I am,” she said as she untied her ponytail, freeing her messy curls. “The other day you kicked me in the back.”

“What? When did that happen?”

“Last week,” she told him, pealing off her shirt and then crawling into bed. “I woke up like at four in the morning because you kicked me. It wasn’t a hard kick, didn’t leave a mark or anything, but I felt it.”

“Hmm, I don’t believe you; I think you’re just trying to make me feel bad.”

“Believe what you want, but I know what happened,” she turned on her side to face him. “But anyways, how was listening in on a conversation that you didn’t understand at all?”

“I understood some of it. Alright, not some of it, but I understand a few words here and there. Someone mentioned Disneyland and I heard someone say Londres, which can be a laundress, but I'm fairly certain that’s the way people say London in Spanish. Am I right?”

“Surprisingly enough, you are.”

“Then I think I deserve a reward.”

“But I'm sleepy.” She pouted.

“Get your mind out of the gutter, wasn’t talking about having a shag, even though we should have a go since – bloody hell! I hadn’t told you yet, have I?”

“Told me what?”

“Could’ve sworn I’d told you, then again, I forget everything when you’re – Oi! Don’t give me that look.”

“I'm not giving you any look.”

“Yes, you bloody are.”

“I'm just lying here, waiting for mi güerito to tell me what he forgot to tell me.”

“Me weareto?” he asked, butchering the pronunciation.

“Mi güerito,” she repeated. “It means my pasty one.”

“Sounds loads better in Spanish. Some might even say it sounds affectionate.”

“Well it was meant to. Since you were going on about how much you love it when I talk in Spanish.”

“Goin on? Really?” he smiled.

“Mhm, you’re talking my ear off about it.”

“You’re such an ass.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be telling me something?”

“Oh, right, well, you know how I’ve told you about my charity, Sentebale?”

She nodded.

“Since I’ve been back from Afghanistan, I’ve done quite a bit of work with it, and myself and the Prince Seeiso have decided that it’d be best for the charity if we moved our main office to Lesotho, that way the main operations can be run inside the country.”

“That makes sense. It’ll be more efficient to have everything be local.”

“Exactly,” he said. “And since we’re moving offices, I’ve got to fly out to Lesotho to help get them set up and to sort a few things out with Prince Seeiso. I shouldn’t be gone to long though, only a week or two, and if I’ve got to stay longer then I promise that I’ll fly back for that Mexican feast you promised this wearito.”