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♫ such great heights by anderson .paak ♫
They slept into the middle of the night, their contrasting bodies wound so tightly into one another as the bedsheets did little to cover them up. Drenched by the white light of the snow beyond her bedroom window, Frances found her eyes opening to the silhouette of Eli's face that was only getting more visible.
She reached her hand across his chest, getting used to the immense warmth and the solid, hairy texture of his chest. She took to running small, invisible circles along the skin until his stirring pried his notice.
For the first time in months, she didn't feel so alone in the city. She would even go as far as to claim that perhaps this was the first time she hadn't felt alone in years. Bound by their instant connection, she had no intent on letting go so soon. She was 32, naturally in need of a belonging that was a little more tangible than her career.
And lying here, next to Eli, her future was sent down the flux of uncertainty. And something about that felt good, reassuring even. For he was still here. And him being here felt good in its purest form.
"Are you scared to go back?" She asked him, hearing the way the noises of his body settled down from his snores to the light grumbles of his voice.
"There's not much to go back to." He murmured. "I get off that plane, see these people, they'll be nothin' but strangers to me. Just like I'll be to them, I already know it."
"You think they won't accept you?"
When she asked that, she examined the conflict in his soft nod, then frowned. Then, he told her, "I know they won't. But I know I'll just go see them, collect whatever they got for me, then I'll put my shit back together while I'm down there."
"So you're really not coming back to Seattle?"
Calmly, Eli looked over to her, then reaching out, he begun to caress the smooth surface of her cheek. Lightly, his thumb grazed over the edge of her bottom lip. And instinctively, Frances took his thumb between her teeth, only to place the softest kiss upon the print.
Her gesture enamored Eli, and he leaned in closer to kiss her lips away once more. "Stay here..." She whispered softly to him. "You think the people that hurt us care?"
But he remained silent to that question, leaving Frances's finger to trace itself across the dark edges of his jawline. "What if I go down there with you, keep you from staying?"
"What you suggest I do then?" He asked. "Trade my first class for two coaches?"
And she giggled. "Can they do that?"
He laughed with her. "Prolly, I dunno." Then, turning to prop himself on his sides, Eli got a better look at Frances. Even the full contact of her beauty facing him, there was profound guilt that swarmed the look in his eyes. It was with hesitation that he lowered his gaze to the sheets. And after a while, he drummed up another confession. "I got this habit of fallin' too hard. And with how good this time was with you, I can already see the temptation in sticking around."
And suddenly, she dragged his body back down into the mattress, where she climb on top of him once again. To feel his hand on her face some more sent her into a disarray, but she couldn't help but bask in the sensations his touch was giving. "When do you leave?" She asked him.
"In the mornin'." He answered.
"And do you even wanna go?"
"I have to."
"That wasn't what I asked."
Eli sighed. Resting underneath her, he pushed some of her brown hair to the side. Not much was needed to think about her question. He knew he didn't want to go. He also knew that he didn't want to stay here either.
He was at a loss. unsure of his life and all the ways it turned on him. Much like how Frances felt, he too dwelled in the loneliness granted by all of his past circumstances. Deep down, he knew Kelly didn't really need him as much as she claimed. And from the few days he's seen Marcus roaming around with Cora on his arm, he could tell that the closest thing he had to a younger brother was all grown up now.
For once, he was unneeded, his purpose as the moral crutch ceased to uselessness.
And so, as he leaned his way back up to kiss Frances once more, his touch released itself from the side of her face.
But she didn't let him leave. Her grasp was on his wrist, pressing his hand still so closely to her pink cheeks. Then, they shared another kiss, by now having gotten so used to one another's mouths.
"I'd rather go with you," She then said. "I'll take the rest of the week off, that way I be there for you. And when we come back, we'll figure out what's next."
"Hol' up..." He twisted them again until she was back at his side while he looked down at her with perplexity. "I ain't gonna let you just pack your shit and follow me."
"I've always wanted to see Georgia!" She defended. "Besides, I can't just let you give up on the life you were trying to build out here. You said it yourself, there's no one else you got down there. So you go and you'll be just as alone there than you are here with me and Alex."
"But you're talkin' about flyin' with me to see family that I never even met before."
"Yeah, I know." She stated casually. And with a shrug, she asked him a question that stunted him more than almost anything ever has.
"So why not?"
He looked down at her, and she looked up to him. They were both feeling at ease, still hazed out from the aftermath of their sexual healing. And now, they were both mixing each other into their own impulses.
Even if he could do it, Eli had to wonder what it would be like bringing her with him to Georgia. And not only that, but what would it mean for the two of them upon return.
This journey felt beyond him, as it did for Frances.
But she was right, they both knew it. In this bed, neither of them felt lost. With their fingers and legs tangled into one another Frances and Eli mended the combine pain that left them tender and vulnerable in the first place.
It was crazy, spontaneous even. But somehow, it was the least terrible option out of the very few choices laid out in front of them.
"What do you say?"
═════ the morning after ═════
"I say the two of you are crazy as hell," Insisted Alex. He, along with his girlfriend Olive, sat across the round kitchen table with Eli and Frances as the foursome ate away at their breakfast.
To hear the decision that Eli was still going back to Georgia had upset Alex. But hearing that he was bringing Frances with him baffled him even more - as well as leant a spark of hope that his friend would return to help with the bakery. But it wasn't too crazy to believe that sooner or later, his roommate and their neighbor would find someway to get together.
Alex had no care for Greta. He saw her as too neurotic, yet too egotistical as well. From the very few things learned from Kelly and Lulu during their occasional visits, he could've seen Eli and Greta's breakup from miles away.
So Frances moving in when she did was more than enough of an opportunity to get his friend's mind off the heartbreak that was. And seemingly, it was safe to say that it worked.
Then, amid the laughter and jokes around the table, Olive asked, "So how long are the two of you guys gonna be gone?"
Both man and woman glanced to each other. Then with a casual shrug it was left to Eli to find an answer between them. "Prolly two, three days. The funeral already passed, so I'm just out there to see what they want, then I'm headed back."
"Then we're headed back." Frances corrected him charmingly, garnering a laugh from both Olive and Alex.
"Oh, so you're we-people already," Teased the dark skinned girl with the nose ring.
And following her, Alex chimed within his coffee. "Sex must've been real good."
The couple chuckled into their food, leaving Eli and Frances to blush in their own various shades while underneath, Frances felt at ease by the presence of Eli's hand softly stroking away at her thigh.
And taking his hand secretly, she grinned from both her lips to the shimmering orbs of her blue eyes.
All the while, Eli smiled back to her calmingly. In just an hour, Alex and Olive would drive the pair to the airport. The mystery of Eli's late father would be revealed, his feelings towards his secret life laid out for him to emotionally unveil.
Though while he was once worried, he wasn't so sure anymore. Frances will be joining him. The broken girl harbored with the broken boy as they both seek to figure out what will become of their time together on this trip.
The pain of the heartbreak still lingered, and maybe he wouldn't ever truly get over Greta. But for now, he knew that as the girl he once loved was off to get married to another man, he could balm his pain over with the affection shared between him and the girl across the hall.
And maybe even then, there could even be a chance where he's ready to move on from it all.
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