Deciding to see Rose and actually seeing her were two different things. Rose was the one who would decide what happened next, and Ashley worried Rose might not ring. That she might only have said she would to get Ashley to leave without a fuss.
Ashley was relieved, four days later, when she did.
“It’s good to hear from you,” Ashley said. She was in a hallway near her office at work, coming back from a meeting. It sounded like Rose was in a locker room. There were metal bangs and voices in the background.
“I just wondered if you were free?” Rose said. “If you wanted to do something.”
“Now?” Ashley said, and then looked at a clock. It was five. Normal people with normal lives, she supposed. “Can you give me a couple of hours?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“Your place?”
“Okay.”
“Tell me the address again.”
Rose did.
“I’ll see you by seven.”
*
Rose met Ashley at the door, and kissed her tasting of beer and smoke and herself. Like the first time, they ended up half-naked and grinding against each other in the hallway behind the door.
“I can’t believe what you do to me,” Ashley whispered.
“I know.”
“Your just…”
“I know.” Rose kissed her. “Shut up.”
They stumbled to the bedroom and Ashley spent half an hour slowly licking Rose out. Because she hadn’t had as much practice, and because she was selfish and demanding, and because she didn’t want Rose feeling she’d missed out.
Then Rose did her, and everything seemed to be okay.
Ashley lay on the bed afterwards. Rose went and got her cigarettes and an ashtray and a bottle of water. She held out the water to Ashley.
“You’re the only person I know who still smokes,” Ashley said.
“Do you mind?”
“It’s your house.”
Rose looked at her for a moment, then went and pulled a window open. A big sliding sash, with a wooden frame and sill. She sat on the sill, not bothering to get dressed, and blew smoke out the window.
“I didn’t mean that.”
“It’s okay.”
“Come back to bed.”
Rose looked at her.
“To your own fucking bed. I didn’t mean anything. I was just saying.”
Rose lay down where she’d been. “I tried to stop a few times,” she said. “Then got sick of all the fuss of having to. I don’t that much. I don’t normally at work unless someone else is. It’s probably more around you than any other time.”
“Oh.”
Rose grinned. “You know, cause of after sex.”
“Sorry.”
Rose shrugged.
“Is it hard? The stopping?”
“Yep. But shut up.”
They lay there a while. Ashley stroked Rose’s arm, watched the muscle in her other arm move as she smoked. “It’s really fucking hot how strong you are.”
YOU ARE READING
Ashley's Deal
ChickLitAshley is in a relationship with an older man. She is twenty-three and he is fifty-one and there are times when that is almost unbearable. Ashley loves David with all that she has, but she cannot cope with the idea of settling down so young, before...
