Keira's eyes fluttered open. She frowned briefly in confusion - light was coming from the left, but wasn't her window usually on the right? - before her mind readjusted and she smiled. She'd slept at Devin's. She turned her head to look at him, his chest rising and falling slowly with the steady rhythm of the soundly asleep.
She reached out and lightly brushed her fingers on his shoulder, needing reassurance that he was there, this was real, but not wanting to disturb his slumber. She still couldn't quite understand what was happening to her. Ever since she met him - had it really been just a week? - she could feel something inside her blossoming, thriving. She felt seen in a way she never had before. She felt understood, heard... accepted.
There was the sex, of course, she couldn't deny that: Devin was awakening something in her and she craved more. But beyond that, she felt comfortable with him. Of the many first few dates she'd been on, she'd rarely felt chemistry like this one. They spoke, and joked, and sat in silence, and it all felt so very natural.
Unable to resist the call of nature any longer, Keira slid out of bed as quietly as she could and snuck to the bathroom. On her way out, fully awake now, her body demanded another need be met, and she made her way to the kitchen for some coffee.
I'm sure he won't mind if I rummage a bit
, she thought to herself.
Keira flipped the kettle on and started searching. She got lucky, and found the French press on her first try. She heaped some ground coffee from a tin sitting on the countertop, slowly poured the water on top, and let the mixture brew.
Another bit of rifling through cupboards, and Keira soon had two steaming cups of coffee ready. She sipped at her cup, the heat spreading through her highlighting the chill her bare feet felt on the cold kitchen tiles.
"Hey."
Devin appeared in the kitchen doorway, rubbing a hand through his dishevelled hair. He squinted in the light streaming in through the window.
"Good morning," Keira smiled.
Devin stepped up and kissed her, her cup of coffee trapped between them. "It is a good morning
now
," he said, then reached behind Keira to grab his own cup and settled beside her. They leaned against the counter, their shoulders touching, and enjoyed the warmth - both each other's, and the coffee's.
Coffee turned into breakfast, which turned into a walk down the river, then a late lunch, a comfortably competitive round of mini-golf at the back of a pub, and before either of them realised, they were sat on a bench watching the sun set.
"I should probably head home soon," Keira said, "but I really don't want to."
"I don't want you to either. Especially as I'm away all of this week," he grumbled.
Keira sighed. Devin had mentioned it, during their hours-long conversation throughout the day. An accounting conference of some sort - he'd waved off the details. This was perhaps the one area of their lives where they disagreed: Keira thought work took up so much time, you may as well enjoy it, while Devin preferred to focus on the other areas of his life.
"It sounds like your work does put a lot of faith in you. Are you
sure
you don't like it? Come on, there's gotta be
something
good about it?"
Devin chuckled. "Oh it's fine enough, but it gets in the way of what I really want to do... for instance, you."
Keira smiled and rolled her eyes. "Well I won't deny that this week away is certainly less-than-ideal, but maybe I can call you?"
Devin leaned over to kiss her, and reached his hand to her waist to pull her in close. "Please do," he whispered.
***
As it happened, taking a phone call during an accounting lecture wasn't that practical, but Devin and Keira spent most of the next two days texting back and forth. Keira smiled every time her phone buzzed, and even had to borrow a charger off a colleague halfway through the day to avoid running out of battery.
Looking for something to distract her and get her thinking about
anything else
, Keira called Sheila and headed over for to hers dinner. Her two rowdy kids were always great fun to be around, and Sheila appreciated having someone chase them around to tire them out before bedtime.
Once the children were soundly asleep, the two women settled on the couch and cracked out the bottle of red Keira had brought over.
"So, tell me about this new guy, then," Sheila said, smirking.
Keira blushed. "It's, uh, intense," she giggled nervously. "Not to kiss and tell, but the sex is... have you ever had sex with someone and suddenly realised all your previous partners were terrible?"
Sheila laughed. "Kind of the opposite, actually! As much of a prick as he was, I've not had as much fun fucking anyone since their dad," she said, her head indicating her children's bedroom on the other side of the wall.
Keira's phone rang, and she shifted to pull it out of her back pocket. It was Devin. She smiled and held one apologetic finger up to Sheila. "Be two seconds."
She picked up and quickly explained to Devin she had company and couldn't talk, but promised to call him the next day, and wished him a good night.
Keira hung up and glanced back to Sheila, who was grinning like a Cheshire cat on steroids.
"What?" Keira asked, suddenly self-conscious.
"You liiiiiiiike him," Sheila said, still grinning. "It's pretty obvious from how your face lit up when you saw his name... and you're
still
smiling."
Keira realised it was true, and shrugged. "So what? Yes okay fine, I like this one, shut up," she mumbled before taking a long sip of wine. "I don't know how to explain it, but he
gets me
, Shels".
"Well, my advice: keep it physical, babe. Men are the worst, and if you give them an inch they'll take a fucking mile and then some," Sheila said, draining her own wine glass.
Sitting on the bus bringing her home, Keira thought back to Sheila's advice. Were men really all terrible? One the one hand, she'd met some not-so-charming guys, men with no concept of boundaries, or healthy communication... On the other, she'd met just as many shitty women in her life.
Assholes are gonna be assholes
, she concluded to herself,
regardless of gender.
And Devin really felt different. She was sure some of this was puppy love, that immediate infatuation, the giddiness brought on by new relationships, but a voice inside her told her it was more than that, too. He didn't feel like a perfect idea, he felt like a real person.
A person she couldn't wait to see again, if she was entirely honest with herself. And for now, maybe that was all that mattered.
***
"So tell me, how many jackets with elbow patches have you seen these past few days?"
Devin chuckled. "Well, now I feel personally attacked. I
own
a jacket with elbow patches."
"Shit, sorry!"
"It's tweed..." Devin trailed off.
Keira tried her best, but couldn't suppress a chuckle. "Could you
be
any more cliché?"
"Hey, I'll have you know I look
good
in that jacket," he scoffed in mock outrage.
"I bet you look even better out of it," Keira mumbled.
She could hear the smile in Devin's voice as he said, "I heard that."
Surprisingly, Keira didn't blush nearly as much as she'd expected. Hell, she even felt good enough to venture another comment. "Yeah, well, you can't just rock a girl's world in bed and leave her for a week, you know."
"Oh, trust me, I'd
much
rather you were here with me," Devin said, his voice imperceptibly dropping to a deeper tone. "I put on my best 'yes-I'm-listening' face during these meetings, but all I can think about is you."
Keira swallowed. "I'll be honest, it's not been my most productive week either..."
"Well then, in all my thinking, I've come up with an idea," Devin suggested. Keira's stomach did a little dance of joy. "But I need to have something delivered to your address, first... can you work from home Thursday?"
Keira nodded. "Yes--" she cleared her suddenly dry throat. "Yes, I can. What's your idea?"
"It's a surprise," Devin replied. Once again, she could hear the smile, this time distinctly tinged with what she could only imagine was the sexiest wicked look she'd ever seen.
***
Keira waited on pins and needles for the Amazon delivery guy all day. She nearly knocked her chair over when the doorbell rang and she rushed to open the door. She tore the cardboard box open as soon as the door clicked shut, and was immensely grateful for Amazon's plain packaging when she realised what was inside.
A remote vibe. Devin had bought her a freaking remote vibrating egg.
She knew she should wait, but curiosity got the better of her, and she took it out of the box. Looking for all intents and purposes like a bright pink misshapen egg with an antenna, she experimentally pressed the "on" button. The egg vibrated in response, a single short burst, as it activated.
Within minutes, Keira had downloaded the relevant app. She was putting the finishing touches on connecting the toy via Bluetooth when a text popped up on her screen.
I just got a delivery notification... have you opened it yet?
Keira smiled and texted back.
...Maybe.
Followed by the emoji of a monkey hiding its face.
Don't use it yet,
Devin replied.
Just get it connected and send me your username. When are you off work?
My last meeting ends at 6,
Keira wrote, knowing full well she'd be bloody useless on that call now.
Great. I'll call you around half past
, Devin finished, with a smiling devil emoji.
