Best Man 9

I drive to the airport with the windows rolled down and Bob Dylan playing softly in the background. It's hot - California hot - and my thighs are sticking to the leather seat before I've even hit the freeway.

The last time I saw Liam was four years ago at our high school graduation. When I tell people I'm from Cali they usually assume I'm some city-slicker from Los Angeles or San Francisco, but the reality is that I grew up in a small town upstate, where there's only one high school and you attend it with the same people you went to kindergarten with. Liam was one of those people. We were close as kids because our moms were, and we were both part of the same circle of friends in high school. I always had a bit of a crush on him. He was cute and funny, and besides that he was on the soccer team and won the math award every year. He moved to New York after graduation, but now he's back in town to be Best Man at the wedding of two of our friends from high school. My job, as Maid of Honor, is to provide transport from the airport to my apartment, where he'll be staying on my pull-out couch for a few days. I don't mind the inconvenience so much as I do the awkwardness. Liam was never anything but nice to me, but the fifteen-year-old girl inside of me is still nervous to see him after all this time.

I pull into the airport parking lot ten minutes early, and am just checking my makeup in the rearview mirror when a tall man approaches my car and taps on the glass beside the passenger seat. As I roll down the window he says,

"Hey, Hales!"

"Liam?!"

Liam is unrecognizable. Tall and toned with ashy blond hair, his clear blue eyes are the only reminiscence of the teenage boy I once knew.

Damn, is all I can think.

Fortunately, he climbs in the car and begins to talk before I have time to look too speechless.

"Sorry to startle you like that - my flight landed a half hour early. But how've you been? How's the old town? You have to tell me everything!"

"Good — I'm good," I stutter. "How're you?"

"I'm great!" he says. "New York is amazing - you'll have to come out sometime - but good ol' California will always be home."

"That's great," I say weakly.

I'm pathetic.

*

The drive home is long, and Liam and I cover every topic in an attempt to keep the silence from weighing too heavily; school, work, our moms... until the conversation eventually makes its way 'round to the inevitable subject of relationships.

"So... are you seeing anyone?" he asks.

"No," I answer too quickly. "Are you?"

"No."

We're home. As I pull into the driveway and put the car in park, my hand accidentally brushes against his, and I feel a rush of heat move through my body.

*

"Oof," I exhale as I fall against cushions, trying to stretch a fitted sheet across the mattress of my pull-out couch. I'm so involved in my task that I don't hear the shower turn off until I turn around and see Liam standing awkwardly in the doorway... in a towel.

"Hey," he says.

"Hey," I reply, brushing a strand of hair off my forehead, sweaty from the exertion of making the bed. "Sorry, I'll just, uh, get out of your way."

I'm in the kitchen before I realize I don't have anything to do there, but in order to get to my bedroom I have to walk back through the living room, and I can't very well do that when Liam's in there in nothing but a thin towel. I lean against the sink, the image of water droplets dripping down the crevices of his muscular chest burned in my mind. It's been so long for me.

When I re-enter the living room he's in pyjama pants and a grey t-shirt, finishing the bed-making job I left behind.

"Do you have everything you need?"

"Oh, yeah," he says. "Thanks again for everything."

"Sure," I shrug. "What are friends for?"

I turn and am just about to leave the room when he says,

"Haley?"

"Yeah?"

"Come here for a sec."

I go over and perch beside him on the edge of the bed, our knees just barely touching.

"How are you?" he asks.

"Good," I say again. I thought we already covered this.

"How are you really?"

Something must show in my face because he reaches up and tucks a strand of hair behind my ear. Then he tilts my chin so that I can't help but look into his eyes. I open my mouth to answer, but before I can say a word he presses his lips against mine.

I freeze for a moment, unsure what to do but sure as Hell not moving away. Liam must take my hesitation for reluctance, because he quickly pulls away and begins to apologize. Just as quickly, I wrap my arms around his neck and pull him against me. He grabs my waist and, as our lips begin to find a rhythm of motion, I move my hands to his hair and run my fingers through it, pulling gently. Our bodies are already pushed against each other, but I want to be closer, closer. His tongue pushes gently against my teeth, parting my lips and finding its way deep inside my mouth. He lays me down against the pillows, lifting my legs onto the bed and holding himself above me with his forearms. I wrap my legs around his torso and use his t-shirt to pull him closer to me. I can feel through his pants how much he wants to eliminate what little distance there is left between us. I reach down and lift his t-shirt over his head, and while he kisses my lips, my face, my neck, I trace the contours of his chest with my fingertips, running my hands over his broad back and tickling his sides until I can feel him smile against me. Before I know it my blouse and bra are on the floor and he's caressing my breasts with his hands and his lips, kissing, sucking, biting gently. He gasps as I reach down and grab his growing bulge in my hand, so I pull him up from my chest and begin rocking my hips against his. As we find our rhythm he begins to move faster and kiss me harder, and I think, I could finish him like this.

But Liam evidently has other plans because he unbuttons my jeans and pulls them and my undies down in one swift motion, tossing them onto the floor beside us. He positions himself between my legs, spreading my thighs with his knees, and all of a sudden his mouth is on me and I'm gasping because not only has it been a long time, but no one has ever done this before.

It's unbelievable.

I grasp blindly at the bed sheets, arching my back and trying in vain to keep myself from moaning. Meanwhile, Liam probes deeper and deeper, igniting parts of my body I didn't even know had nerve-endings. Heat rushes through my body, my heart pounds wildly, and my legs begin to quiver - I know I'm about to come.

Suddenly, Liam lifts himself up and brings his face to mine. He looks into my eyes for a moment that feels like a lifetime - and plunges his length as far as it will go into my body.

I'm so taken aback at first that my orgasm subsides, but as soon as he starts to move around inside me I feel it begin to build up again. I clutch his back and slowly slide my hands down, grabbing his ass and pushing him even deeper inside me. His breath quickens with his pace and I lift my hips to meet his with every thrust.

"I'm gonna come," Liam gasps. It's the first thing either of us have said since he kissed me.

I tell him it's okay, that I'm on the pill, and moments later he gives a great shudder, crying out my name while he fills me with his seed. He continues thrusting just long enough for me to come crashing down on the greatest orgasm I've ever had. Still inside me, he collapses on the bed, and the two of us lie there panting for a few minutes, too exhausted to even disentangle ourselves from each other.

"Why," he asks finally, "did we never do that in high school?"