Paper Planes

I woke up and groaned. My brain was pounding holes through my head. I tried to roll over onto my back and hit a body.

Tucker.

Memories from last night started trickling into my eyes. I grabbed my dress, my undergarments, and a blanket and walked to the bathroom.

I turned on the shower and waited for the water to warm up. I got in and let the warm water run through my hair and over my body.

I sighed and couldn't help but think about what I'd gotten myself into. How much I was playing this man. I washed my body off. I found a razor and shaved. I washed my hair. I ran out of stuff to do, so I just stood there.

"Padma?" Tucker said, knocking on the door.

I turned off the shower. "I will be out in just one minute, Tucker," I called through the door.

I wrapped a towel on my body and got out. I considered putting my clothes back on, but why bother? I opened the door. He was wearing his boxers. I kept my eyes from wander over his body and still managed to avoid his eyes.

"Uh, we should leave soon. I'm going to… take a shower.”

I nodded and moved out of his way. He went in and locked the door. I sat in a chair and heard the water tick on. That’s when I remembered my clothes are still in the bathroom.

I groaned again and looked at the bed. I could feel my face contort just looking at it.

I sighed and walked over and laid down in it. I got under the sheet and just laid there. I looked up at the ceiling and drifted off.

I don’t know how long it was, but Tucker came out of the shower. He had my dress and… undergarments in his hands. I looked over at him and he came over towards the bed. He sat down and we were silent.

“So… I guess we should get ready to leave, huh?”

“Yes,” I replied.

I got out of bed, still clutching my towel, and removed the clothes he’d placed on the bed.

I dropped my towel and out of the corner of my eye saw him turn around and blush. “It’s not like you haven’t seen me before,” I said.

“I guess so,” he replied, still staying turned around.

“I need you to zip up my dress anyways,” I told him, turning around. My skin tingled as his fingers trailed up my back in front of the zipper. I turned around and thanked him. I picked up his dress shirt and pants from the floor. “Would you like me to iron these?” I asked.

“No, they’re fine,” he said, taking them from me. He pulled the pants on and buttoned them, never removing his eyes from me. “Sit down,” he said to me, motioning me over to the bed. “We should… talk.”

“Okay.”

We were silent for a moment. “Look, I didn’t mean for last night to happen. That’s not why I took you out. I really just wanted to have a nice dinner together. We’ve been getting along great together recently, I figured it’d be nice.”

“Yes, and thank you.”

We were trapped in silence again. “Look, this is a talk. A conversation. Don’t you have anything to say?”

“Er, no.”

He sighed. “Well then I’ll talk. I feel awful about last night. I feel like… a horrible human being. And worst of all, I don’t even remember it. Do you?”

“Not really…”

“I mean that’s no way to remember your… first… time…”

I laughed. “Well obviously I remember more than you do.”

He looked at me odd. “Wh-what?”

“I said, obviously I remember more than you do.”

“I heard you, I just don’t know what that means.”

I smiled. “Last night, you said the same thing. That my first time should not be like that.”

“…and?”

“Well, we went on with it, right?”

“So… who else have you…”

“We are not getting into my past life. Let’s talk about last night, right?”

“Right. So… how do you want to treat this?”

“What do you mean?”

He sighed. “Are we together or are we the same as before?”

I bit my lip. I don’t think he really wants to be together. “Well… I mean I guess one night wouldn’t change everything,” I lied. Well, actually, I was telling the truth. It wasn’t last night that made me start feeling differently about him. It’s been the past week or so.

“That’s what I thought,” he said. “So let’s just… pretend everything never happened.”