Secretly

It was two in the morning on a Saturday night (or Sunday morning?), and Jon was grocery shopping. He’d normally still be at some club, dancing the night away and into the wee hours of the morning with a really hot blonde in his arms. His hands, he knew, would never be empty of a drink. And if they were, then that would be because they were all over said blonde.

Now, he had the handle of a shopping cart in his hands, and he was wheeling it down the bakery aisle in a local twenty-four hours Safeway.

Julie was walking next to him, running a finger on the various boxes as they walked past.

If someone had told Jon last week that he’d be in a Safeway that coming Saturday, he would have laugh. Now, there was no place he’d rather be.

“There should be an aisle JUST for s’mores,” Julie said, locating the candy section. Jon smiled as Julie threw about two dozen bags of marshmallows into the cart. She then hugged as many boxes of graham crackers as she could fit into her arms and dropped those into the cart as well. Close to fifty packets of Hershey’s chocolate followed.

“Jules,” Jon laughed. “Are we gonna need all that?”

“Yes, Jon,” Julie answered matter of factly. “Yes, we are.”

The cashier gave Jon a funny look as he rang up the endless supply of s’mores ingredients. Jon just shrugged and glanced at Julie, who was busy flipping through a People magazine.

…

An hour later, they were on Jon’s large balcony, laying on their backs on a blanket and staring up at the night sky. Julie had inhaled close to twenty s’mores as Jon watched in amazement. He had no idea how someone so small could eat so much. They’d sober up a little, but they still couldn’t stop laughing.

On the way up to his apartment, Julie had twirled and danced non-stop until she ran into a bookshelf. Jon made her promise to stop dancing, but she didn’t stop laughing.

She was quiet now, and he thought she’d passed out from all the dancing and sugar.

“Patrick’s crazy,” Julie said suddenly, starting to laugh again.

Jon couldn’t help but smile. “Yeah, he is.”

“Do you know what he asked me the other day?” Julie asked, giggling.

“What?” Jon played along. Julie was laughing so hard at the memory that she was gasping for air. “What did he say?”

“He asked me,” Julie gasped. “He asked me – oh my god – he asked me if the Joker and a clown had babies, then --”

“What?” Jon pressed, laughing. “Tell me or you won’t be able to talk much longer.” He turned his body towards Julie and pinned her down. It wasn’t as easy as he had anticipated, since she was writhing around with laughter.

“I can’t breathe,” Julie laughed. “He asked which hockey player that baby would look like most!”

“Who did you say?” Jon asked, still pinning her down. She’d calmed down, but was still breathing hard. Her chest rose up and down with each inhale and exhale.

Julie shook her head defiantly. “Nope. I didn’t say anyone.”

“Yeah, you did,” Jon guessed. “Admit it. Who did you say? Tell me or I’ll tickle you!”

“Hey Jon?” Julie asked un-expectantly, no doubt trying to distract him. It wouldn’t work. “Why do the guys call you Captain Serious?”

It worked. This was the oldest question in the book.

“Because they think I take things too seriously.” Jon answered automatically. He was seriously getting tired of people asking him about that and then telling him what a great job he was doing at such a young age. It was nice, but tiresome. He hated feeling like he had to prove himself.

He got off of Julie and prepared himself for the inevitable and predictable comments Julie was no doubt going to say.

But she surprised him, like she often did.

“Do you realize,” she asked, her face skeptical. “That if you were a superhero, then your superpower would be… being serious?’ She scrunched up her face. “I’m sorry, but that’s really lame.”

Jonathan burst out laughing. “It’s like Captain America! His power is, what? Being American?”

“Woah there,” Julie warned. “Last I checked? America is awesome. I’m sorry you’re Canadian.”

Jon was up like a shot. He was on top of her again. This time it was easy because she wasn’t moving around. One hand pinned both her arms by the wrists above her head and another hand was dangerously close to her waist. His legs held her in place.

“Take it back,” he smiled, “Or this time, I’m really going to tickle you.”

Julie pressed her smiling lips together. “Never.”

“Do it,” Jon gave her another chance. She shook her head and he showed no mercy.

“I love America!” Julie screamed in laughter.

“I’m not stopping till you take it back!” Jon laughed.

“Jon! Stop!” Julie was gasping again. “No! Ow, ow, bruise!”

Jon stopped immediately, frowning, worried he’d hurt her.

“Bruise,” Julie murmured again.

Jon had never met anyone more accident-prone. He sat back on her legs and Julie lifted the hem of her top to expose a sliver of skin just above the low cut waist of her shorts. Sure enough, Jon could make out the blob of dark black and blue close to her hipbone.

He absentmindedly traced circles around the bruise with a finger. She shivered at his touch.

Without thinking about it, Jon bent down and placed a gentle kiss on the bruise, letting his lips linger on her skin. Quickly, he realized what he’d done and pulled away.

Their eyes met and for the longest time, no one said anything. Jon searched Julie’s face. For what, he wasn’t sure.

Permission, maybe.

Resistance, absolutely.

She raised herself up on her elbows, closing the distance between them. Her face glowed in the moonlight and, still straddling her, Jon found himself being pulled in. Slowly, he leaned forwards until their lips were only inches apart…