The days felt empty when Grayson wasn't around.
They shouldn't have. I mean, there was more to life than fucking my dad's best friend at every opportunity, but he was the perfect distraction to everything else going on and I longed for the moments when real life faded into the background and all I needed to focus on was him and the things he made me feel.
I languished in a plush armchair in a boutique dressing room while Jenny marched periodically through the curtains with a new outfit, twirled in front of the mirror, grimaced, and returned to the narrow box to try another. Whenever she was out of sight, I tapped my cellphone screen until it illuminated to check for messages from Grayson.
He was a cautious man and took our promise to keep things secret seriously. I seldom received anything from him while he was at work unless it was innocuous. That way, if someone saw his screen, he could easily explain away our communication as checking up on the young woman Dad had asked him to take care of for the summer. I should've admired his restraint and dedication, but I also wished he'd send me a few sexy notes about how he was thinking of me, or if he'd locked his office doors and made himself come while remembering our night at the hotel.
It didn't help that he was part of a team working on closing some big account. They were pushing hard to snag an advertising campaign, and he wasn't about to leave his staff in the office alone while they were working long hours. Again, that ought to have been admirable. It was admirable. I just wanted him to come home and fuck me instead of giving up his free time for the good of the company. I mean, he was a manager. If he'd told people he was going to take a few hours off, then no one would've questioned it. They'd have been mad at him for abandoning them, sure, but they wouldn't stop him from walking out the door.
I sighed and was about to put my phone back in my purse when a new message appeared.
Home early tonight.
A few more dots appeared on the screen like Grayson was typing out a follow-up message. My heart was in my throat. I hoped more than anything that he was about to tell me what he was going to do to me when he walked through the door. Maybe he'd tell me to put on the camisole so we could relive our evening in the hotel.
No such luck.
The dots vanished and a second message didn't arrive. He'd probably had someone call him into a meeting or something. God, being an employed adult sucked. I knew that I'd be in the same position soon enough. Dad hadn't wanted me to work while I was in college. Sometimes I'd covered easy waitressing shifts for friends if they were in a bind and couldn't find someone else, but he'd sent me enough every month to cover my expenses. I wasn't ignorant of my privilege; so many of my classmates struggled to balance studying and making money. I saw them dozing off in lectures and cutting back on buying food just to get through the week.
In a way, they had a leg-up on me.
Sure, Dad wouldn't let me go hungry and he'd probably always be there to offer support that many parents couldn't, but my classmates had a level of experience in the working world that I severely lacked. It made me regret not taking Grayson's offer of an internship seriously. I could've spent the summer doing something more productive than riding his cock, watching telenovelas, and lounging by the pool.
"Okay, this is the one."
I hadn't even noticed that Jenny had emerged from the cubicle again. As she turned to inspect herself in the mirror, she smoothed down the summery white dress which was adorned with floral embroidery. It fell to her mid-thigh and had thick, modest straps and a sweetheart neckline.
"Wow." I dropped my phone into my purse. "That's... absolutely not your style. I mean, you look great! You always do. But what's with the change?"
"I have a date." Jenny adjusted her boobs, clearly unaccustomed to anything that didn't make them look like they were about to escape the confines of her clothes. "He wants to take me to dinner. I figured I should wear something that doesn't show off all the goods right away, you know?"
"You didn't tell me you were dating someone."
"You've been kind of busy with Grayson lately, babe." Jenny turned and smiled. "Besides, technically we're not yet? I just figured I'd try to get with a guy who doesn't just want to grind on my ass in a club on the first date."
I nodded sagely. "True. That's more of a second date thing."
"Right?" she laughed. "A gentleman always buys dinner first."
I wasn't about to tell Jenny that Grayson hadn't bought me dinner before we first had sex. Unless of course, she counted the dinner he made for me the night I'd teased him. I didn't. I wasn't sure the hotel room counted, either, as it had been a private affair. A dinner date usually constituted going to a restaurant. Not that I was going to ask him for something like that. It was enough that he'd defied all my expectations by taking me to the zoo and kissing me in public. Dinner in our hometown was a risk. Someone would recognize him. Grayson had grown up in the area and everyone knew his family. They were sure to contact my father or post photographs of us together across social media.
The very idea made anxiety squeeze around my heart.
"Hey." Jenny waved a hand at me to grab my attention. I hadn't realized that I'd zoned out on her. I was doing that a lot lately. "Have you made up your mind yet?"
"About what?"
There were so many things to make my mind up about, I couldn't tell which she meant.
"College."
My fingers clenched around my purse. I was giving it as little thought as possible. In fact, it was one of the main reasons I missed Grayson's presence around the house while he was at work. My laptop and cloud storage were stuffed full of assignments that desperately needed my attention. I had deadlines pending and a final year of exams to prepare for. Yet, I'd done nothing. It was like, if I didn't look at or think about it, then the situation might resolve itself.
At first, I'd not wanted to go back because I'd run into Trey and Anna. Now, I didn't give a shit about what they did. If they wanted to bang in every room of the apartment, then that was on them. I didn't feel like the same young girl who'd driven home in heartbreak after her whole future came crashing down around her.
In fact, I barely knew who I was these days.
I'd spent my life being a responsible friend and dutiful daughter. All I'd wanted was to make my dad's life easier and to make him proud of me. College had felt like a natural thing to agree to. He was a professor, after all. Of course, he'd want an academic daughter who excelled in her classes. I just didn't know if I was that person anymore. Following a traditional life path hadn't exactly worked out for me the way it might for other people. And, honestly, I couldn't predict what I wanted to do beyond the end of the summer, never mind for the rest of my life. Hell, I hadn't even considered a career path. When I'd applied to college, getting a degree had seemed like enough of a goal to set. Art History was fascinating to study, but the applications of such a degree in the real world seemed limited. I could work in a museum, I supposed, or in a gallery. They were in short supply in our town. If I did follow my degree into a relevant field of work, I'd probably move away again, and that meant leaving Dad, Jenny and, most importantly, Grayson.
"Wow don't hurt yourself thinking about it," Jenny said when the silence dragged on. "It shouldn't be that hard to figure out."
"I'm going to wait until Dad gets home," I decided. "See what he has to say about it."
"Yeah, okay, because your education's gonna be the first question on his lips when he sees Grayson balls deep in you."
I blushed. "As if I'm going to tell him that the second that he steps through the door," I hissed at her.
Jenny shrugged it off. "Gotta do it sometime."
"Not if I can help it," I muttered.
"Was that message from him just now?" Jenny asked. "Grayson, I mean. Not your dad. I mean, I love your dad. He looks good for his age. If I was gonna go for an older guy-"
"Please stop talking," I begged. "Yeah, it was Grayson. He said he'll be home early tonight."
"Oooh, fun. What're you gonna wear to welcome him home?"
I gestured down at my chic jeans and tee combo.
"It's so unfair that he chose you and you're so wasted on him," Jenny lamented. "If a man tells you that he'll be home early, then you make the effort to give him a reason to keep coming home early."
"You think I should just lie on the sofa naked and hope it puts him in the mood to bone me?"
"Or..." Jenny drummed her fingers against her lower lip before an idea struck her like a bolt of lightning. She slapped her fingers together gleefully. "New bikini!"
"What?"
"Didn't he think that you were super hot at your leaving party? Get a new bikini and remind him of that day."
"I don't know..."
"Chaise." Jenny propped her hands on her hips like a toddler about to throw a tantrum. She fixed me with a glare and said, "You're my friend. I love you. But if you don't pay attention to my awesome advice, you're never going to hang onto Grayson, and then, like I said, I'll have to sleep with him and give him what you couldn't. So would you please take that stick out of your ass and act like a hot, sexy woman, and buy an insultingly revealing bikini already?"
"How long have you been rehearsing that speech?" I asked with a knowing smile.
"Oh, Chaise," she smiled. "I've had that in reserve for you and Grayson since you were eighteen."
I'd always known that Jenny wasn't the sort of person who could be argued with. She was stubborn to a fault. As much as I loved her, it was precisely that nature of hers that always got us into trouble.
Trouble, in this case, came in the form of a skimpy bikini.
I'd thought that the camisole Grayson had bought for me was revealing, but the bikini was on a whole other level. Most of it was string with only two tiny fabric triangles to cover my breasts and one on my crotch. It was also stupidly expensive. How a store got away with charging over a hundred bucks for something that was barely there, I had no idea. It hadn't stopped me from buying it, but I resented the fact. I hoped Dad didn't ask to look at my bank statements once he was back. Explaining away sleeping with Grayson was one thing but discussing huge lingerie and bathing suit purchases was another.
Grayson hadn't sent another message, so I assumed that he'd still be home early. He hadn't stated a time, but I had the doorbell camera app on my cellphone, so I set it to detect any motion. That way, I could head into the house to surprise him as soon as he arrived. I didn't want to wait around for after dinner or anything like that. I mean, I'd missed him when he was at work. I could understand his obligations and still resent them, right?
I pitied anyone without a pool during the height of summer, especially in our town. There was nothing better than slipping into the sun-warmed water and drifting idly for hours on end. Even if Grayson hadn't been due home early, I still would've enjoyed wasting away the hours in the water. It was one of the things I missed most about being away from home. There were gyms all over the place around college, but it wasn't the same as having a private space to relax.
I switched up my time between the pool and a lounger so I wouldn't look like a prune by the time he got home. The sun dipped lower in the sky and cast a warm glow which ignited the underside of clouds and turned the ripples on the pool to sparkling gold. Just as I'd begun to think that Grayson wouldn't be back early, after all, my cellphone pinged. I hoisted myself out of the pool and was glad that he wasn't out in the backyard to see me. It wasn't like I did it gracefully after I'd been paddling around for hours. My limbs were heavy and tired. Fortunately, Grayson had just what I needed to feel reinvigorated.
I didn't dry myself fully. The wet look made the bikini even more alluring. The fabric clung to my breasts and showed off my pert nipples. I might as well have walked out there naked, but he'd wanted the fantasy of tearing off my bikini with his teeth and I wasn't about to deny him that.
Satisfied that I was as attractive as I was going to get without a full makeover, I pulled my fingers through my hair, gathered my confidence, and slipped my feet into my sandals before I headed into the house without my towel. The only thing I took with me was my phone. I wasn't dumb enough to leave that outdoors all night.
I didn't think there was a safe way to recreate the moment Grayson had caught me when I'd slipped in the kitchen so we might need to give that a miss, but I was eager to take him back to that day and have him fuck me over the kitchen counter.
I was halfway through the lounge when I realized something was off. There were too many voices and heavy footfalls which betrayed the arrival of more than just Grayson. My stomach flipped in panic and my gaze darted around the room for something I could use to cover myself.
I saw the blanket, but it was too late.
Grayson walked into the room, and he wasn't alone.