Unexpected Love

Unexpected Love 17: Truly epic

            Chris was all mine. The past eighteen hours had been exclusively ours. We hadn’t thought about anything that existed outside the walls of his apartment. By implicit agreement, we hadn’t mentioned our families or anything that might complicate things. To be honest, we hadn’t done all that much serious talking anyway. We had been in this ridiculous haze of lust that nothing seemed to be able to break. Every time he touched me, I shivered. Every single kiss made me feel like I had electricity running through my body, and it was almost too much to handle, but at the same time, when we weren’t touching my whole body ached and that was more painful. I knew it was hormones and libido and all that, but there was something different with Chris. Something that made it impossible for me to stop the corners of my mouth from turning upwards.

            When I got back to the hotel I pinched myself very, very hard in an attempt to make my grin just a smile. Smiling wasn’t suspicious, but grinning like an idiot would most certainly be. I had texted Jack, and he told me he and our parents would be at the hotel, getting ready for dinner. I slipped into the room I was sharing with Jack right after pinching myself again. Luckily, Jack was in the shower when I got in. That meant I could brush my hair out – I had taken a shower at Chris’s, but my hair had gotten mussed into a sex look again since – and sit down for a minute, trying to look calm and normal, when really my stomach was still fluttering and my heart beating much too quickly.

            I got out clothes to change into for dinner with my parents and Jack and sat back down on my bed, or what I took to be my bed, since the other twin bed in the room had a pair of Jack’s boxers thrown on it. I pulled out my phone and saw a text message waiting for me.

            The whole place feels empty without you. Don’t think I can face going back into the bedroom alone.

            The grin I had been trying to suppress broke out again, if possible even wider than before.

            I was typing out a reply when the shower was turned off and the bathroom door opened. I jumped, stupidly, and put down my phone as though it were incriminating evidence of some misdeed.

            Jack just raised his eyebrows at my strange behaviour. “Well, look who decided to grace us with her presence.”

            I smiled – it’s not like I could help smiling anyway, but there was a little bit of guilt in this smile. “Us? The voices in your head taking over again?”

            “Ha, ha.” Jack chuckled. “You better get ready. We’re supposed to meet Mum and Dad downstairs in fifteen minutes.”

            I jumped up, scooping up the clothes I had picked out, and headed to the bathroom. I was already closing the door and turning on the shower when I remembered my phone still lying on the bed, Chris’s text still unanswered. I quickly stepped out into the room again and grabbed my phone, retreating into the bathroom with it. I ignored Jack’s look of suspicion. Whatever clever but not blatant ‘I miss you’ type of message I had been thinking of replying before had left my head. I didn’t have much time, so I just went with the truth.

            I haven’t been able to calm down since I left.

            I pressed send and got in the shower. The last shower I had, Chris was in the shower with me, I thought. It made me sad and happy all at once. I might be losing my mind, I told myself, shaking my head. I proceeded to get ready in record time, always keeping an eye on my phone for any response from Chris. None came, so I dropped my phone into my handbag, disappointed.

            Jack and I were downstairs right on time to meet Mum and Dad stepping off a different elevator. They expressed mild interest in what I had been up to all day, but I lied as best I could, saying I had run into an old friend from London the day before, and had been catching up with her ever since. I think they accepted the lie easily because any mention of London made them feel guilty about how homesick I had been in Sheffield.