Aubrey (Revolving With Axis)

025:

I can't say I didn't do a little butt slapping dance as we exited, making sure Macy wasn't following us. Then, with my arms full and right before we hit the main cafeteria room, I felt a different kind of butt slap. This was the kind where the hand is on the belt, the hand slips as you round the corner, and slips even further-- all contrived, mind you-- to caress and then playfully slap the butt cheek. I knew that move, and gave Aubrey a saucy glance. She was up for the challenge and gave me a naughty girl look from under her lashes. I wanted to kiss her right then!

The mood was light, not as light as the night we'd first met, that had been tremendously unique. But this was still light--- and I wanted nothing more than to be in her company, so how light it was didn't matter. In fact, I knew it had to get darker and deeper before it could get light again.

"There will be no food fight, this time." Aubrey said as she unloaded the bag of goodies onto Kell and Maille's blue and copper marbled counter. She placed the can of whip cream out of my reach.

"Ah ah." I laughed reaching for it. "If I can't have it, you can't have access to it either."

"There isn't a chance in heck that I'm going to risk staining my sister's carpet, couch or cherry wood cabinets. But you--."

I reached the bottle, popped the top and squirted whip cream into my mouth, almost gagging, the squirt was so big and defiant.

Her brows rose. "And I won't kiss you with whip cream in your---" That was my cue to grab her and force her mouth open for my kisses.

I smeared the white stuff all over her lips and cheeks, as she struggled to get away, and her laughter was the ice-melter in my book. I love this chick's laughter. I had to hear it more, and so squirted whip cream again, in the corner of our joined lips, and she choked and gagged and I held her, tossing the can and cupping her cheeks and the back of her head.

Um... I can't tell you enough how amazing Aubrey is to hold. She's not like anybody I've been with. At all. Not that I would have any trouble distinguishing girls-- I had never had any trouble forgetting the last one and moving on, and never did one girl's kisses interfere when I was kissing another. But Aubrey-- she was alive with it.

We came apart, her eyes big-- and reached for the bowls she'd gotten out without another word.

Aubrey knew about banana splits. How to cut the banana, how to lay it in the bowl, how to scoop the ice cream, how to place all the berries and the pineapple. With her fingers, and quite unexpectedly, she popped a purple berry in my mouth, making me roll my eyes as she left her finger in my mouth long enough to suck on it as I chewed the berry-- that she called Montana huckleberry. It was sweet-- quite sweet-- not tangy like the others, and I liked it. I also liked her flirty fingers.

We took the bowls with our amazing creations to the floor in the living room and to my amazement, she actually turned on the TV. I had visions of Tangled, and Brave and Wreck it, Ralph and almost blew out my proverbial breath in negation-- I'd rather lay on the bear skin rug if there was one, and make out all night-- feeling the restraint wearing thin. But she turned the channel to computer and then to YouTube and I had a moment of real anxiety.

True to form, Aubrey clicked the controller to my name.

"Uh, you may not want to do this." I warned.

"Really?" She quipped. "After Mack, and Johnny, and Darrin Reethree, and your friend Kareem gave me the grilling of my life about why in the world I was with you-- and then Macy! I think it's only fair that we watch you in person, while you are right here to explain-- " Her voice was tinged with amusement. "Like the other night at the bakery, you felt it necessary to show me the ones you wanted me to see. What about all the others?"

We were sitting cross-legged, I leaned far across her to catch the controller she held out in the air. "There are so many better things to be doing."

"Maybe you'd rather just tell me why they are all warning me off. Are you really that bad?"

"Well, honestly, Aubrey." I felt a weird kind of solemn seriousness enhance the atmosphere. Dang, not what I wanted, but obviously what we needed. "Why don't you tell me?"

"If you're bad?" She hooted taking a big bite of banana caked ice cream with purple dribble.

"Yeah. I've given you the impression of me I hope you'll like, that's the me I hope you want to see. Not the me in the past who used to be--"

"So, you're not of the belief that the past shapes who you are today?"

I kept my eyes on her steadily. Let's get this over with. "I've smoked weed. I've slept around. I've got tattoos over a good third of my body, and I've had piercings-- not now-- but I have had them. I've gotten drunk and done incredibly stupid things. And I like porn."

I looked away. There was something baffling about admitting those things number one: all in one breath. Number two: to someone who I knew had either never done them, or was scrupulously never going to. She didn't say anything. Nothing at all. I could hear her breathe.

She took a bite of her ice cream and I heard her savoring it. I finally chanced a glance up. She was gazing at me levelly.

"Okay?"

She shrugged. "Drugs?"

I shook my head. 

"Not even experimenting?"

"I don't do drugs."

"Marijuana is a drug."

"That's debatable."

She looked away, ascertaining my opinion from that statement. I wasn't going to sugar coat it. That was my true feeling. I wasn't defending my right to use, I was honestly saying I wasn't sure it could be classified as a drug.

"How many women have you slept with?"

I blinked. Not a typical question one asked a multimillion dollar celebrity singer. She gazed steadily, watching me for any signs of hesitation. Was this a moment of honesty? I thought about it. Yep. Yep, it was. She was testing me.

"Upwards of ten." That was all I could offer. I actually wasn't sure, and hadn't kept count.

She scratched her chin and nodded. The judgment of a virgin hung in the air around us. That one could be a deal breaker, I thought suddenly, having never encountered it before. I hadn't ever thought to return to the church, or date a Mormon girl who might value chastity.

"Recently?"

My first thought was that it was none of her business. Other girls didn't ask me this kind of stuff. But then my eyes rose to meet hers. It was the first moment I realized I'd been slumping. Why was I slumping?

I straightened. "Somewhat."

She swallowed. "Within the last three months?"

I tried to think. I didn't have a steady girlfriend. The longest I'd been with one woman was a year. That's not very long in anybody's book. "Nope."

"Since you met me you've been celibate?"

I nodded, wondering if that was perfectly true and thinking that it was. I hadn't gotten drunk either. Or smoked weed. I told her before I was trying to clean up my life-- or maybe I'd just said change it, and not been very specific.

She looked away out the darkened windows. "Maybe you have questions you'd like to ask me?"

Whew, now that was a relief. I sighed and finished off my bowl.

*****

Author's note:

Do you think Aubrey knows Rafe well enough to be grilling him like this? It's nice of him to put up with it, but really, guys, it was kind of like the inquisition. Is this in character?