Ache With Me

“Hey Lily, come see me when you’ve got a minute.” Zina called from the door to her office. I winced before turning around to yell my agreement back. Why did she have to shout it from across the room? Now everyone was looking at me like the teacher just told me to go to the principal’s office. I finished typing the sentence I was writing and then crossed the room to her office.

My red haired pixie of a boss was sitting at her desk, hands folded primly in front of her. She looked every inch the school marm, especially with her hair pulled back in a bun like that. Then her pale face broke into a raunchy grin and she leaned over the desk.

“How was your hot date last night?” Now she looked more like a schoolgirl.

“Are you sure you’re 35?” I asked, sitting down across from her.

“I’m 34, don’t change the subject. How’d it go with your hot artist boy?”

“We had fun. Restaurant was good, I’ve got an article to write, bye!” I scampered out of the office before she could ask anything else. I knew she meant well and she was trying to make sure I was happy, but I didn’t really want to talk about Max right then. I’d sure as hell been thinking about him the whole day though. I finished my article before lunch time and emailed it to Zina so she could look it over and make suggestions. While I was waiting, I dug out the paper clip chain I’d been making last week to try and pass the time.

Then my purse started vibrating and I abandoned the chain to make it stop before the entire building knew my phone was ringing. My phone always sounded like it was about to take off for the moon, it vibrated so hard. Max’s number was flashing across the screen and I ducked my head behind my computer to answer it.

“Max I’m at work.” I hissed into the phone. I glanced around to see if anyone had noticed and sure enough, Margot was walking towards my desk, trying to seem as she was nonchalantly making her way to the other side of the room. I hung up just as Max started saying something, dropping my phone into my lap. Margot seemed almost disappointed she wouldn’t get to hear any gossip. As soon as she moved away, I texted Max saying I’d call him during lunch.

At noon on the dot, a familiar lanky blonde came through the door and made a beeline for my desk.

“Oh sweet baby Jesus.” I muttered under my breath, dropping my head into my hands. A pair of worn leather motorcycle boots entered my field of vision. “Hi Max.”

“I’m taking you to lunch, come on.” He said, tugging on my hand. He looked over my head, grinning. “I’m borrowing Ashworth for a bit. I promise to have her back soon.” I glanced back to see a laughing Zina shooing us out.

“Lily knows when she needs to be back.” With that, she disappeared back into her office. I gathered up my purse and my jacket and followed Max to the elevator. We walked in silence to a small café that we liked to eat at when he came to have lunch with me at work. My hands were shaking so badly I could barely hold my phone long enough to put it into my purse. The weather was good enough today that we could sit outside without freezing to death or getting soaked.

“Do you mind?” Max asked, holding up his pack of cigarettes. I shook my head and he lit up, taking a long drag before letting a plume of smoke out. I picked at my food while he smoked.

“Sorry about hanging up on you, the office gossip was heading my way and I didn’t want her to overhear.” I said, twirling the straw in my drink.

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it.” He took another drag on his cigarette. “Look, I’m sorry about kissing you last night. I shouldn’t have just done it out of the blue.”

“It’s okay.” I paused, smiling at him shyly. “Maybe I’d like to do it again.” He smirked and set his cigarette in the ashtray before leaning across the table and kissing me soundly. And this time, I kissed him back.

“Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s eat our food shall we?” He gestured at my uneaten sandwich. I felt much better now that I knew he’d done it on purpose and that he actually did like me. We talked, we laughed, we ate. Business as usual for the two of us. Then he walked me back to work and kissed me in the elevator until my head felt like it was going to float off.

“I’ll call you when I get home.” I promised, with one final kiss before I went back into the office. Zina, to her credit, didn’t interrogate me when I came back. She had sent my article back with minimal revisions to be made, so I spent most of the rest of the workday building my paperclip chain.

When I got home, I decided to clean up my loft before calling him. It was starting to devolve into a state of disarray. I put my favorite album on full blast and started to clean. Well, I danced more than I cleaned, but soon my loft looked less like a garbage dump. I flopped down on my bed and dialed Max’s number.

“Hold me tight, and bury me deep inside your heart. All I ever wanted was you, my love.” I scrambled back up to turn off the music. Lord knows all I needed was Max overhearing this and getting the wrong idea. I’d just turned it off when he picked up.

“Hey beautiful.” I heard the sound of running water near the phone. He was probably washing paint off his hands.

“Hey yourself.” The water kept running. “Are you in the shower?”

“Don’t you wish.” He laughed. “No I’m washing my hair in the sink, I’m trying to see if dish soap will get the color out.”

“Well I hope it gets it out, the world needs to see all that pretty blonde hair of yours.”

“So you think I’m pretty?”

“Yes I think you’re pretty, you’re prettier than I am.”

“I’m not sure if that’s possible.”

“Why Max I’m blushing.” My tone was teasing, but in reality my face was bright red. There were storm clouds rolling in over the bay and I knew we were gonna get hit with rain tonight. The temperature in my loft was already starting to drop, so I fed Cheshire and put Max on speaker phone while I changed into something cozier than my dress and creepers. I thought Max was toweling off his hair still, as I started taking off my jewelry and then pulled my dress over my head.

“That was the dress.” His laughing voice came out of the phone, startling me.

“Shit, I thought you were still drying off.” My shoes fell to the ground with twin thunks.

“Nope. And those were your shoes. Can’t wait until the stockings come off.”

“Oh they aren’t coming off. And neither is the garter belt.” He let out a low groan.

“Come on Lily, don’t tease.”

“I’m kidding, I’m not wearing a garter belt.” I peeled the stockings off and collected all my clothes to put them in their proper places, be it a hanger or the hamper.

“So what are you wearing?” I let out a loud sigh, hoping the noise would carry.

“I’m wearing leggings and a ratty old shirt, if you must know.”

“I can’t ask what my girl is wearing?”

“Is that what I am?” He fell silent for a moment.

“Well yeah, I thought that was obvious.”

“You didn’t ask me.”

“I’ll remedy that then. Lily, will you be my girlfriend?”

“I’d love to.” I closed the velvet curtains around my bed and curled up on my bed near the window, watching the storm roll in. “Is your hair blonde again?”

“For the most part I think the color’s out.” We spent hours talking, even when both of us got up to make dinner for ourselves. I think I fell asleep on the phone with him, because when I woke up at three to pee, I heard soft snores coming through my phone.

“Good night Max.” I whispered, hanging up the phone and crawling back into bed.