It's easy to forget where we are. Your lips are clouding my judgment as we stand necking in a dark hallway, and I know we should stop, but I lose the words as I open my mouth and only a harsh breath slips out.
"Give me your panties."
The now is unspoken but as clear as your voice in my flushed and oversensitive ear. With a second of self-preservation, I glance around us before bending to tug them down my thighs, the fabric uncooperative and sticky. I ball them in my fist before handing them to you low and as stealthily obvious as a teenager palming away drug money.
Into your coat pocket they go, your nonchalance making my nerves hum ever more. I hear a sigh and realize it is mine as you back away. I simmer at the indignity of being left so unsettled - how dare you coax me into something you haven't the decency to finish?
"I'll be back." And then I am pressing a hand to my stomach and breathing slowly, dizzy at the speed with which it is over.
"OK," I say to myself, and slowly trail behind you towards the rest of the party. It is dim and people are laughing, gesturing, shouting over the music and din of the crowded room. My eyes find your tall figure moving purposefully though space, and I soon realize your target. Shit, shit, shit.
"Is something wrong?" Shit, fuck, I didn't know I'd spoken. "No," I smile at the woman next to me, "I just remembered something I was supposed to have done today. I'll live." Will I? What are you doing? What the fuck are you doing?
I shouldn't have said anything, I should have kept my big mouth shut to begin with, but something in me broke free under your command and it just slipped out. Now it's too late to take it back and all I can do is watch helplessly as you approach him, Sam, the only other man in the room who can make my legs go weak.
"Do you want him?" you asked, and my head lolled to the side, the nod too faint for your taste.
"Say it."
"Yes, OK, yes."
"Are your panties wet?"
They are now. And now they are in your fucking pocket, traitor.
It is too crowded to see what is happening below your shoulders, but I can tell that there is an exchange, as suddenly his head bends down and when it lifts it has zeroed in on my face. From across the room I know that his pupils are dilated like mine, I know that he is rubbing my scent all over his fingers, and I know it is going to happen even before he lifts them to his face.
Fuck fuck fuck. What have you done? I want to call you away, but I don't want to make it any worse. What have I done? Are you going to turn me over to him now? Are you done with me, now that you know? I am overcome with uncertainly and a great wave of sadness; eyes that haven't been able to end contact with Sam's suddenly well with tears. I break for the hallway, trying to find my way back to the dark corner, to put myself together.
Your hand stills my shoulder. I can't look at you yet. You'll have none of it. Fingers tip my face towards you.
"Everything is OK. Come now, we're leaving."
I still have no idea what is going on. The drive home is quiet and I am plagued with more fears, but there is nothing to read off of you, good or bad. I decide to practice breathing, meditatively, and then stop before I hyperventilate.
Home, and the engine shuts off. Buckles clicking and muffled latching of doors, nothing registers as we walk into the living room. I feel blind, seeing but trapped in the dark. Say something. SAY SOMETHING.