Reese

I’m shuffling through some papers on my desk, waiting for my next client. I’m trying to focus but my mind is wandering as it has been all day.

JC.

I’m wondering what he’s doing right now. Which is, frankly, a pointless thing to be wondering. I keep reminding myself of that, but it doesn't help that I woke up this morning after dreaming about him.

The dream was stimulating in the sense that I woke up and pulled out my vibrator. I almost never do that before work, but...well I had some frustration that needed to be worked out.

The thing about great sex is that it makes you want to have more great sex. The thing about being single is that you often don't know when that'll happen again.

"Get it together, Reese," I mutter aloud. Thankfully I'm in my office alone, and the door is shut, so no one hears me talking to myself.

I'm meeting with a brand new client today at two and I need to get my head in the right place so that I can make a good first impression. I've been working in real estate, with this agency, long enough to know that I know I'm good at what I do. So long as I'm not distracted. And since the little note attached to this client's profile tells me that she's somebody important, I can't afford to be distracted.

I take a sip of lukewarm coffee, my third cup of the day, and roll my shoulders around. I think I'll be dropping into Bikram tonight. I need to decompress and nothing decompresses me quite as fully as stretching and twisting my body for an hour and a half in one hundred and four degree heat.

Glancing at the clock on my laptop, I see that it's nearly noon which means it’s also nearly Sasha’s planning period. She teaches third grade and I think she’s a saint; I like kids, but not that much.

After JC left yesterday, I took care of some things around my condo and mostly ignored the myriad phone calls I received. Bridgette texted a few times, demanding all of the dirty details. My mom called once and left a voicemail that I didn’t listen to. And Sasha called and texted several times, demanding that I call her ASAP because she wanted to make sure I was OK.

I texted back, letting her know that I was in one piece, but now, with some time to kill before my client arrives, I figure I’ll call her and give her the information I know she wants.

I dial her number and she picks up on the first ring.

“Why didn’t you call me last night?” is the first thing that comes out of her mouth.

“Uh…” I draw the sound out, considering my words. “I was tired when JC left yesterday. And you’re the first person I’m calling now.”

I hear Sasha’s audible intake of breath.

"JC?”

“Oh, yeah.” I laugh a little. “His name. It’s JC.”

“He spent the night?” she asks, and I can hear the incredulity in her voice. Sasha knows that this unchartered territory for me.

"Um...yeah.”

“So.” She pauses a moment. “That means things went well then.”

I’m remembering just how well things went. Saturday night. Sunday morning. And afternoon. “You could say that.”

I'm quietly smiling, knowing she’s champing at the bit. Bridgette is shameless and unabashed in her nosiness; Sasha is just as nosy, but a lot more reserved. She totally wants details right now.

"OK, are you gonna make me beg or what? Tell me!" She’s practically squealing at me.

I giggle at her outburst. "What do you want to know?"

"Everything, Reese! I cannot believe that you, of all people, had a one night stand with a complete stranger! What's he look like? What was the sex like? Was it weird in the morning? Are you gonna see him again?"

It’s funny, I suppose. Amongst my group of friends, with the exception of Sasha, I’ve always been the most conservative in the way I handle my sex life. But not this past weekend. And now I'm sighing again, at her last question.

"What? What's that sigh?" she asks quickly.

I have to smile. The side effect of a friendship that's spanned three decades is that we always hear the unsaid things too.

"JC is really good looking. Funny. He’s easy to talk to and I had a great time with him. The sex was…” I shiver, memories of his beautiful mouth and hands all over me cascading through my mind. Goosebumps rise on my skin. “Very, very good.”

That is an understatement of almost epic proportions, and I’m biting my lip and willing my pulse to stop racing so I can concentrate on the conversation at hand.

"Everything, and I'm not strictly talking sex, was going really well. The morning after wasn't awkward at all, and he stayed for awhile, you know?"

“So then why’d you sigh?" Sasha asks.

"There was this moment right before he left where I thought it might be more. He stopped and looked at me like he..." I'm feeling a little silly but I know I can tell my best friend. “I don’t know, Sash. I felt like we connected and I guess I was just hoping, kinda.”

If this is unchartered territory for me, it's completely beyond the scope of all possibility for Sasha. She's been with exactly one man; her experience with casual sex is non-existent.

I hear her sympathetic exhale. "Oh, sweets. Are you OK?"

"Yeah," I breathe out slowly. But honestly, I am feeling a little let down. "I had a good time last night and now it's over. I’m fine." Or at least, I will be.

And as Sasha begins to ask me more questions about the previous night, which I answer in detail, I believe that.

JC

I’m laying in bed, flicking through the channels on the hotel room’s TV while Tia showers. I’m not really looking for anything to watch, but my only other option is staring off into space and at least my hands are occupied while I’m doing this.

She has an appointment this afternoon and, of course, I’m going to be there. Because she wants me to be.

Have I mentioned that I don't want to be here? In a hotel room on a Monday in downtown Chicago. I don't want to help Tia find a condo. I don't care what she buys or doesn't buy. Right now there's literally one thing in the entire city of Chicago I’m interested in and I left her yesterday.

Reese.

Spending the night with her was a bad idea. I mean, worse than I thought it would be. And not just for the obvious reasons.

I haven't been able to get her off my mind since.

I woke up horny this morning, which isn't abnormal or anything, but it was more than just normal morning wood. I had been dreaming about her. Tia noticed and took it as a personal invitation and I...well, I went along with it.

I feel guilty as hell, but well...she’s my girlfriend. And I'm a guy.

To make matters worse, I thought of Reese the whole time. Which is supremely fucked up, I know. But I couldn't help it. Reese and Tia are about the same size, and with my eyes closed, and my hands on my girlfriend, and me telling her I liked what she was doing...well, I was picturing Reese.

Like I said, spending the night with her was a bad, bad idea.

Tia comes out of the bathroom, talking while she gets dressed. I mute the TV and pretend to pay attention to what she’s telling me.

But mostly, I’m not listening.

I’m a little preoccupied right now. With brown skin. Full lips. Wild hair. And a lithe little body. And although that’s not Tia’s fault, even if Reese hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t be into this conversation.

It's all about this foundation her family is starting, the reason she's buying a condo here. She's going to be in charge of marketing and PR for the whole thing.

I'm nodding and 'uh huh'ing' in all of the appropriate places, but I’m not really engaged. And because Tia has this annoying tendency to talk at me, instead of to me, she doesn’t notice. Or maybe she doesn’t care, I don’t know. I’m happy she’s happy about the foundation and her role in it it, but she’s been talking about it nonstop for months and I'm tired of hearing about it.

I’m tired in general, really. I...well, I didn’t get much sleep last night. That’s part of it. But the other part is a lot more complicated.

It’s me. And it’s Tia. And it’s the fact that this relationship is not working. And hasn’t been for some time. And being with Reese just highlighted what I’ve known for awhile now.

"...this whole thing already," Tia's saying and I realize I've missed something. "What do you think?"

I look up at her and she's looking at me expectantly. "It, uh, sounds good, baby. Great."

She's quiet for awhile, and I can feel her eyes on me. I figure she must've realized I’m not really paying any attention. Then she sits next to me on the bed and slides her fingers down my chest.

"What’d you do ‘til I got here yesterday?" She sounds so casual, and the question comes out of nowhere, and for a split second, I think maybe she suspects something.

In the next second I want to tell her that I spent all of Saturday night--and half of Sunday--in bed with another woman. The words are literally on the tip of my tongue and that surprises me.

I swallow the urge. "Uh, I went out with Eli and some of his friends. Some club."

And then her phone chirps. "That’s good, baby," she says absently. And she's standing up and picking her phone up off the desk on the other side of the room. She spends seventy-five percent of her time on her phone these days. "I figured you were holed up in the hotel room, sleeping or something just as boring. How's Eli?"

Before I can answer she's saying, "Hold on a sec, babe. I need to answer this." And now she's taking a call.

I pick the remote back up, turn the volume up again, and go back to flipping through channels. I can't help but wonder what would’ve happened if I’d stayed at Reese’s. At least for lunch, maybe longer if she let me. I wonder what she’d do if I just showed up at her place tonight, unannounced.

How the hell am I supposed to get this girl off of my mind and out of my system? She’s not the first one night stand I’ve had, not by a long shot. But something about meeting her in that club at that exact moment feels like kismet. And I don’t know what to do about that.  

Tia laughs at something the person she’s talking to says and I glance over at her.

She’s beautiful. She's also one of the most intelligent people I know. She’s independent and not needy. She’s the kind of woman that guys fall over themselves to get close to. And instead of feeling good about the fact that she’s with me, I’m dreading everything about this week and being with her.