BURNING FLAME
After Friday, I didn’t see Sein for an entire week. Go figure. That weekend I spent at my dad’s. Simon pestered me and he reminded me how I never spent any time at the house anymore like I used to. He even had a twelve slide PowerPoint with all the reasons I had given in the past why I couldn’t spend the weekend. It was titled: Maxwell MacQucen’s Excuses. Sometimes I hate how good his memory was. I felt guilt afterwards, not because I spent the weekend with them but because it was amazing and I missed it. I made a promise to Simon and myself not to let so much time pass by that I forget what it felt like.
It was during an intense scrabble match between the three of us that Sein had told me that he had just received a call from his boss on a Sunday about a meeting he had to attend the following Monday afternoon. It was a good opportunity for him and in the end he got himself and his agency a new client; that client being a multimillion-dollar company.
God, I missed him. Talking to him over the phone was still comforting. I still loved it and it was still amazing. It was nothing compared to being in his space, though. Nothing could compare to the crinkles next to his, the upturn of his inviting mouth, his big hands and his long fingers that are always messing with something or another when he was nervous, his posture, his aura, and just everything about him that enchanted me to another degree whenever he was in front of me. There is still so much I need to learn about him and yet I still thought he was amazing. That alone was a spell he casted on me, unbeknownst.
Sein got back from Miami Thursday night. When he called he sounded like a drunk teenager at a frat party that didn’t know his dick from his ass. That’s how tired he was. I listened to him talk about the sand on the beach near his hotel for ten minutes before I sent him to bed. Nothing about the damn sand made sense and I refuse to repeat it or even think about it.
Friday I woke up early for two reasons. One, I had a meeting an hour away and then I had a meeting at my office with some ad firm that Lola will have to brief me about. Sometimes I had no idea what was happening until minutes before it was supposed to happen.
To Sein: Buenos días! If you wake up before 12, text me. If you wake up after 12, call me.
My phone rang at a quarter to three while I was going inside my house from the garage. Sein’s picture and name lit up my screen.
“Hi,” I answered him.
I heard him inhale deeply before he responded with a groggy, sexy voice. “Hi.” He paused. “How are you?”
“I’m okay,” I answered. “How are you? Did you just wake up?”
“I’m okay. I didn’t just wake up but I’m just getting up. Have any plans later?” He asked. I could picture him rubbing his hand over his face to get rid of some of the restlessness.
“To see you,” I answered.
Sein was quiet for longer than was okay. I felt nervous and excited at the same time. That was either the wrong answer or a very right answer and it was up to Sein to let me know.
“I’ll be over as soon as I shower and get something in my stomach.”
“I can order food or I can make you mac and cheese.”
“Maxwell, I want real food. I’m starving,” He chuckled softly. It was so low and so soft. Something about it had me halting mid-step. Maybe it was because there was a fondness in his tone or because the words slipped out of his mouth like they were something familiar. No, as if I was familiar.
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. Some good Spanish food. Anything will do as long as it’s not baby food.”
“Ha. Ha. I’m going to get food. Call me if I don’t answer the door.”
“Aye, aye, Captain.” I’m going to bite you.
Sein won’t know that I drove thirty minutes away and broke about fifty speed limits to get the best Spanish food I’ve ever had, thanks to Brian. I got cheesy potatoes, yellow rice, plantains, pulled pork, stew ribs, barbeque chicken, and some avocado salad thingy.
“I’ll be there in five minutes,” I told Sein when he called.
The closer I got to home I started getting nervous. My palms were a bit sweaty on the steering wheel. Suddenly all I could think about was the kisses we shared the last time I saw him and wanting to do it again.
He was double parked on my street when I got there and reversed into my driveway after I put my car into the garage (that was not meant to be as sexual as it sounded). He had a small smile on his face when he got out of his car and looked at me. The biggest smile of smiles wouldn’t be able to rival that one. Nobody but Sein could pack so much happiness in such a small gesture. The most enthralling thing about it was that he didn’t have to tell me how he felt for me to know.
He stopped just a few inches from me, almost stepping on my shoes and even if I wanted to I couldn’t stop the smile that had my cheeks feeling like they were about to say hello to my eyes.
Sein caressed my cheek before he put his hands in his jacket pockets. “I missed you,” he said.
His eyes didn’t leave mine until I wrapped the one free hand I had around him. “I missed you too.”
We went inside and to the kitchen. I hadn’t realized Sein had never been inside until he began complimenting the place. I put the containers on top of the counter top and when I turned around to grab plates Sein was right in my personal space. Our eyes connected for less than a second before I looking at his lips. I looked up once more to meet his eyes but they were downcast, staring at my lips.
All that happened in a second and within the next Sein had my bottom lip in his mouth, sucking fervently before I reacted and returned the favor. Sein groaned and I swallowed the noise, moving my hands down to his waist and pushed him back a few steps until his back was against the fridge. He spun us abruptly as he slipped his tongue into my mouth. I was a goner. I sucked on his tongue, swallowing all the little noise he made as I chased said tongue back into his mouth, licking and tasting and teasing to my heart’s content.
The air around us felt thick and my body felt like it was at a temperature it wasn’t supposed to be. That familiar scent of Yves Saint Laurent’s L’Homme crowded my olfactory nerves and the axiomatic minty taste of Colgate flooded my tongue and all around my mouth as if it was my own taste.
Sein grabbed the wrist of my wandering hands that had been running up and down his outer thighs and held them above my head on the fridge before gently coaxing my palms open, teasing my palm and spreading his fingers through mine. The action brought a whining sound from my throat. Even my knees felt weak. He released my hands, trailing the tips of his fingers down my arms, sides, all the way down to my hips before going back up and wrapping his arms around my back, crossing over my spine. I dropped my arms around his neck and hugged him with the same fervor as our kiss slowed into something softer, deeper, and more passionate until we were breathless and breathing each other’s breaths with our foreheads pressed together.
“I’ve been dying to do that again.” Sein sighed blissfully. I kissed him again to express my agreement, pecking his lips playfully before pulling away.
“Let’s get some food in that tummy,” I said and ran my hand over his clothed abdomen for emphasis. His sharp, almost inaudible, intake of breath didn’t go pass me but I’ll save that for a rainy day.
I left Sein to share the food while I went up to my bedroom to change into more comfortable clothes. I choose a pair of red sweatpants since they made me look half decent and a white Henley.
Sein pushed a plate with a little bit of everything in front of me when I went back to the kitchen.
“Something to drink? I have juice but your eyes say you might need some coffee.” Sein laughed and nodded.
“Iced coffee,” he said a beat later, getting up. “I’ll make it.”
“Sit.”
“Well since you ask so nicely…”
“Yeah, yeah,” I mused shaking my head.
It didn’t take long for us to settle into the familiar routine of food and conversation. He went on about his trip and about meetings and conference calls that he had been in up to his elbow. It turned out that he didn’t even get a chance to go to the beach. He couldn’t figure out why I found that to be the joke of the century. I guess that’s an inside joke I’ll have for myself.
I was aware of how I looked at him when he spoke. I couldn’t stop myself from doing it, nor did I want to. Sein was as beautiful as he was everything else. Everything that was Sein made him even more beautiful. He was an honest man and a good person and—
“What?” He asked, snapping me out of my daze.
“Nothing. I just find everything about you beautiful and I can’t help but stare and wonder sometimes.”
“I hope you don’t change your mind.” His voice was soft.
“If you don’t change then I won’t.”
“I won’t.”
We cleaned up the kitchen, putting the dishes in the dishwasher and whatever food was left in two containers. One was for Sein to take home. He wanted to know where I got the food, to which I’m sure I blushed when I told him it was a secret.
We moved to the couch to see what was new on Netflix. It wasn’t hard to find something we agreed on. For the most part our tastes were similar except for the weirder stuff that I liked like, documentaries and historical stuff, thanks to Simon.
“May I?” Sein asked as the TV screen went black with Netflix in dark red. He had one of the throw pillows in his hands, gesturing to my lap. I opened my legs and he settled comfortably, my hand on his back. Comfort is underrated. Feeling comforted and comfortable is close to feeling loved. That’s how I felt with Sein. And even though he fell asleep about twenty minutes in, despite the coffee and despite the fact that he slept all day, it was fine because I couldn’t take my eyes off of him long enough to know what went on in the movie. And tonight was going to be a night like the first nights we talked on the phone because he was going to have a hard time falling asleep.
I wasn’t sure why everything about him felt so familiar, in a sense that this was our life and it had been for a long time. Whatever it was subjugated any fear I once held about anything. It made me want everything with Sein and every single spark of feelings that licked up my spine felt like an incandescent immortal flame that came back with a vengeance. I welcomed it.
A/N
OMIGOSH!! THAT LAST PARAGRAPH MADE ME WANT TO TURN THIS STORY INTO SOMETHING OF A FANTASY LIKE REINCARNATED LOVERS ARE WHATNOT. I HAVE BIGGER PLANS THOUGH.