Friendly Affections

“But I want you to come.” I persisted.
“But I can’t just –” She tried, but I continued.
“Live a little, Jo! It’ll be fun.”
“Watching a sport I barely understand. Sounds great.”
“You’ve watched it before and liked it!”
“You were there to explain to me. But you’ll be on the ice this time. And I don’t know Jack,” I heard her sigh loudly through the phone. “I shouldn’t take off that much work.”
“Bullshit. I know you schedule your own hours and you have all sorts of work you can do on the plane. Plus I already bought you a ticket.” I had actually, and spent a sizable amount on it too.
She shrieked, “You did not! I’ve flown overseas I know how much a tickets costs so I can only imagine how much a first class ticket costs! Jack, don’t spend that kind of money on me. Especially when I don’t even know if I can go.”
“Because I’m really suffering when it comes to finances.” I responded dryly, and I heard her break demeanor for a moment and laugh in response. “You’re saying you won’t miss me at all? You aren’t slightly interested in going to Finland...?”
“I mean, I am –”
“Good!” I answered before she could go on. “Pack your bags we leave in two day at 8:45 in the morning. I’ll take you out the night before and we’ll get dinner, because I know you’re probably mad at me for talking you into this and food will make things better.”
The line was mute for a moment before her voice returned with a demand. “Only if it’s Italian. We haven’t had Italian in forever.”
I grinned and promised her Italian food, gave her a time I’d pick her up and ended the call. She was already exploding with worries about what to pack, what the weather would be like, if she should included her flat-iron or not and acting just as I expected her too.
When I told RJ that I had invited her, I received a knowing look. “Are you getting it in there and not telling us? Especially when we talk about that kind of shit all the time in the locker room?”
“No, actually.” I answered him. I wish, I added silently.
“You’re kidding.” Jared added in, laughing. “You’re always with her and you have to put up with all her weird girl shit but you’re not getting any sex out of it? That’s not even right, man.”
“Patient,” I answered, sarcastically, “Is a virtue.”
But that night when I pulled my SUV up in front of her building, I turned it off and sat for a moment. Countless times I had wanted to make a move on Jodie, but I always felt like she was still a little messed up over Mark. And I wasn’t going to be that dickhead guy who sleeps with a vulnerable girl right after a rough break-up. That’s what I considered her, a hurt and vulnerable girl. Granted, that was before she grabbed me and kissed me flat against my couch. And then kept kissing me, straddling my body and pressing our bodies so deeply into my my couch I knew that either we were going to have sex or I was going to need a cold shower. I got the latter, after she jumped up off me, shrugged on her coat, kissed my cheek and walked out my front door like it wasn’t a big deal that I was sitting on my couch with an erection over her tongue in my mouth and her body against mine. I had even jokingly continued our question game a few days later and asked her who was the last person she kissed only to be answered with a cheeky grin and flirtatious wink I didn’t entirely understand.
I hadn’t invited Jodie to Finland with the intention of screwing her, but if it happened, it happened. And I was hoping it might happen. I tried not think about her body and mine together and unclothed as I opened the passenger-side door for her. But that was hard when I noticed her simple, but attractive ensemble: sunglasses, capri yoga pants, a loose but sheer short sleeved tee-shirt, tennis shoes and a Columbus Bluejackets zip up hoody two sizes to large, I identified as mine, tossed over her arm.
“Hi!” She greeted me cheerfully and gave me a brief hug. I felt her breasts press lightly into my chest for an instant and I was even more aware, if possible, of my attraction towards her. I groaned softly when she pulled back.
“You okay?” She asked when she heard me and I nodded.
“Worked out earlier, still sore. It'd been to long.” I informed her to cover up why I had truly groaned. “And I gotta say you’re going to turn say you’re going to turn some heads in the restaurant dressed like that.”
She chuckled, slipped the sunglasses into her hair and revealed her eyes, which I was surprised to see bore no make-up. She usually had her face dolled to perfection every time she left her house, and I hadn’t once seen her without mascara and whatever else girls wear on their eyes. She looked so different and yet somehow nicer, almost innocent—if that word could ever be applied to her.
“I didn’t want to go through the effort of getting dressed up, doing my hair and my make-up just to come home, crash and then wake up early to catch a plane. That’s doing too much.” She explained, with a smile.
We got into my SUV and before I even put the car in drive she was fiddling with my radio, adjusting all of the presets and changing it from stations to stations. I laughed at her, since this happen every time we got in my truck. She was never happy with whatever I was listening to before and it always took her a good ten or fifteen minutes to find something she liked.
I studied her from the side as she concentrated on the dial, twisting it back and forth searching for the one country station she loved but I always changed the preset of to a classic rock one. I shamelessly watched her like a show, studying the obviously pleasant body shape beneath her clothing. I tried to advert my eyes from the neckline of her shirt, where her skin disappeared into it and left me curious to explore, but I was lost in smooth skin and curves.
She caught my gaze and swatted me in the side of the head. “You creep.” She scolded playfully but I didn’t mind, she had turned and I could see clear down her shirt. Ever the gentlemen, I managed to tear my gaze and way and look at her face.
She regarded me carefully, waiting for me to make the next move. So I did what I thought both of us wanted, leaned over the counsel and kissed her. I didn’t move any other part of my body, I didn’t put my hands in her hair or on her waist, I didn’t drag her onto my lap. All I did was kiss her gently, a soft hello and precursor to another action I wanted us to engage in soon.
I broke the kiss and leaned away, but she wasn’t having it. She knotted her fingers into my hair, dragged me back and kissed me intensely. Caught off guard, my body reacted with out command. I moved my hands to the curve of her waist and both of us pressed against the council unable for our whole bodies to touch but still wanting to.
She was small enough that I could pull her over the counsel and put us in such close quarters I could feel her back arching against the steering wheel. I kissed down the slope of neck and all over the exposed skin that had held my attention minutes prior, as my mind melted and I could feel myself losing control. I couldn’t contain myself with every inches of her body pouring over mine, and I let the tension between us take over. Thoughts weren’t possible, with all the blood in my body flooding south. Her kisses were like fire on my skin and when she pulled back and rest her forehead against mine the only sound in the car was our labored breathes.
From up close, her eyes were like velvet and filled with lust. “Jack. Let’s –”
I kissed her words away. Pulling back, I spoke. “Yes. But are you sure?”
She leaned in the slightest, her lips beside my ear and whispered: “It’s not your turn to ask a question.”
And before I could release the breathe I’d been holding, she was out the driver side door and racing back into her apartment building. I followed, of course, thrilled by the turn of events. Italian food could wait.