Trivial Pursuits

Dear Readers,

Welcome back. I apologize for the wait, but I hope you find it worth it. Please feel free to leave feedback, good or bad. I always love hearing from you guys. And a big thanks to AlreadyTaken, for willingly putting up with my horrific writing and setting me straight.

Enjoy!

Titania

******

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

"I want a little sugar

In my bowl

I want a little sweetness

Down in my soul

I could stand some lovin'

Oh so bad

Feel so lonely and I feel so sad

I want a little steam

On my clothes

Maybe I could fix things up

So they'll go

Whatsa matter Daddy

Come on, save my soul

Drop a little sugar in my bowl

I ain't foolin'

Drop a little sugar in my bowl"

"I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl" Nina Simone

Despite the lateness of the hour they had at last gone to sleep, Denny was pulled awake just as the dark morning sky was turning gray by a gentle motion in the bed next to him. He instantly recognized the movement as Alessa's ritual as she surfaced from sleep. He cracked his bleary eyes open and saw only her head as her gently undulating body was snuggled deep in his blankets. Somehow, they had become separated through the night so he shifted nearer to bring her back into his arms. But as his arms wrapped around her, it wasn't her creamy skin he touched, rather the pajamas she had doffed before climbing into his bed. His brow was curious as he wondered when she had slid her clothing back on. And why.

It was gradual, her mind transitioning from sleep to slow-moving consciousness, but he felt it all the same because she stopped moving her feet against each other. He propped himself up on his elbow, his smiling face resting on his hand as he looked down at her, waiting for her to acknowledge his presence. Denny felt her ribcage expand with a deep breath, and then she was turning over toward him, her eyes slumberous, but tinged with cagy consideration. Her mouth was soft and almost pleasant.

"Morning," he greeted, his hand finding the bottom edge of her top, his fingertips sliding over the warm skin there.

Her smile was shy and small. She said nothing, waiting for him to make a move. Denny merely tugged the bottom of her shirt and lifted a dark eyebrow, a silent question coated in playful rebuke. Her mouth twisted as she fought a smile. She shrugged and looked away.

"I woke up cold," she lied. "I had to go to the bathroom and I was cold so I put them back on." She turned her blue eyes back to him, daring him to disagree. But Denny simply gave her a piercing, scrutinizing look, indicating he knew it wasn't the truth, but his choice to say nothing allowed him to hold the power.

"Hungry?" he asked. When she nodded, he offered breakfast. "What would you like?"

"Oatmeal?" she stated in a question, hoping he had it available.

Denny thought the choice a little boring, but decided to give her what she wanted. "How about eggs, too?" Again she nodded. "Okay, well, I'm going to make myself my grandma's monkey bread, and you have to at least try a bit, okay?"

She smiled at the funny name. "Monkey bread?"

"Yeah, pull-apart bread. You'll love it," he promised, placing a quick kiss on her closed mouth and then sliding naked from the bed. Seeing his bare backside, Alessa smiled and quickly turned her gaze away. But why should she? So her eyes slowly slid back to watch him reach down and pull his boxers back on. She watched the bunching and playing of muscles across his back and legs as he walked to the bathroom, disappearing inside. She could hear him relieve his bladder and then run water and brush his teeth. She laid there, the sounds of another's life washing surrealistically over her.

Denny left the room dressed in his pajama pants and t-shirt, headed for the kitchen, and when she could hear more sounds indicating he was busying himself with their breakfast, she emerged from the blankets and went to the bathroom herself. She stopped in front of the mirror, smiling at seeing her toothbrush laid out with toothpaste already applied. She quickly cleaned her teeth and washed her face. As she pulled her chaotic mess of brown locks up in a ponytail, she found herself studying her face, looking for any trace of a change, or trace of recognition. Who was the woman staring back who had said and done the things she had last night? She noticed she blushed and sighed with a roll of her eyes. She was hopeless.

Denny was in the middle of rolling small balls of dough into a sugar and cinnamon mixture before dropping them into a small bundt pan. The smile on her lips went unchecked as she was filled with a tender feeling the sight created. And then realizing she felt happy just in seeing him, she cleared her throat and asked if there was anything she could do.

"Wanna squeeze the orange juice? The juicer's in that bottom drawer over there and the oranges are in the fridge." She nodded, taking out the small appliance to press the juice out and sat it on the countertop. She felt her pulse race and her face flush hot when she realized she stood in the same space that she had sat the night before and allowed him to strip her of her shirt and apply cold cream to each breast before adoringly, erotically licking and sucking it off. She even felt her traitorous body grow wet and achy with the memory.

She huffed out a petulant breath before busying herself with her task. Together they accomplished their various tasks in a silence that was neither tense nor uncomfortable. When he slid the small pan of dough into the preheated oven, she began making the steel-cut oats. He surprised her with a warm kiss to her exposed neck. It was a walk-by kiss, given on his way to return the butter to the fridge, and when he turned back to her, he could see the small amount of uncertainty rise in her eyes.

With a serious expression, he took the three steps to her, reached out and pinched the loose material of her shirt and tugged her close until her toes overlaid his. He bent down to meet her eyes and stated quietly, "You're over thinking it." He then placed an innocent kiss on the tip of her nose before stating he was going for a quick shower while the food cooked.

Alessa was left slightly shaken, before she took a deep breath and decided she needed action to distract her from the problematic feelings, and so she went about to set the table. Though they had eaten very casually the night before on the couch with only a box of pizza and paper towels, she preferred to sit at the table as the decorum would help structure a slightly less intimate feeling.

And so it was that as Denny emerged from the hall wearing jeans and a shirt, his hair a tad damp, he found Alessa reaching over the table setting the last of the silverware in place. Her pony tail had fallen over a shoulder and the neck of her tank-top was gaping, hinting at curves and slopes and peach-colored skin. When she looked up at him, he felt a subtle contentment at finding her in his home, then was distracted by the fantasy of bending her over that table in the very position and taking her roughly from behind. He cleared his throat as he approached.

"Looks like you've been able to make yourself at home," he smiled.

"I hope you don't mind," she immediately defended.

"Not at all. Anything you want." And then the timer in the kitchen went off alerting them the bread and most likely the oatmeal were finished. While Denny whipped up the icing to make the pull-apart bread gooey, Alessa scrambled the eggs and added the bits of bacon she had cooked and chopped up. Altogether, the spread was very tasty looking as they sat down at the table.

Alessa ate some of her eggs before Denny lifted his plate of gooey bread to her. "Try it," he offered. But when she went to stab a piece with her fork, he pulled the plate away shaking his head. "No, you have to do it with your fingers.

Pull it apart,

that's why it called pull-apart."

"But it's so messy," she whined, looking at lump of interlocking clumps of sticky dough.

"Mm, but it's so good. Totally worth it."

With a raised eyebrow and a reluctant sigh, she pinched one piece of the bread, but as she pulled, discovered it wasn't coming alone. Denny smothered a chuckle as her delicate fingers attempted pick off just the one piece, and had to resort to holding the others around it. In the end, her thumb and index fingers of both hands were covered in icing and she held two pieces. She tentatively put the aromatic bread in her mouth and nearly moaned at the ridiculous pleasure of the sweet bread. She chewed enthusiastically the one and then the other piece. With them devoured, she then licked and sucked her fingers clean, relishing the sweetness coating her tongue. As she popped the last, now-cleaned digit from her mouth, she watched Denny smiling, spear his bread with the fork and eat it as she had initially attempted to do.

Alessa's mouth fell open. "Hey, I thought you said you're not supposed to eat it with a fork."

He smiled impishly. "What can I say? I wanted to watch you eat it with your fingers." He only chuckled when he saw her blush.

Alessa wondered why she felt like a feisty kitten. She looked back at him with a smile of her own. "Then, well played you. Though, I wonder if it's a special gift you have to turn everything, even eating breakfast, into something sexual," she mused.

He laughed at that. "Of course. My special talent is genetic. It comes from my Y chromosome. "

Alessa smiled, almost chuckling herself. "Of course, I should have known."

Though they talked lightly, their antics of the evening before weren't mentioned, thought Alessa waited anxiously for when he would bring it up. In the end, she had decided a preemptive strategy the best for warding off more than she could handle.

"I don't know what else you have planned for this weekend, but I would really like to spend a few hours, maybe this morning to work on some of the stuff I brought from the office. I have a few deadlines Monday," she explained, hoping she could buy herself some time.

Denny had no objections, even stating he had some work of his own that he should probably address at some time, and so after they had cleaned the kitchen together, Denny went to his office, leaving her to shower and start on her own work.

Four hours into her work, Alessa's phone chirped as she sat at the dining room table placed near the floor-to-ceiling windows. It was a surprisingly sunny fall day in the Bay, and for one moment she had been staring out at the beautiful view. Denny had finished his work and was sitting in his favorite chair by the window catching up on his newspaper. He looked up to see her check the message and then text an answer. His eyes had fallen back to the page when not a minute later her phone rang. He listened quietly to the conversation, picking up instantly that she must have been talking with her sister.

He smiled at the evident joy in her voice as she chatted, an ease that he seldom heard. And then he noted the change, a hushing, a cagey pausing and explaining. She was clearly answering questions about what she was doing. And with whom. It made him realize she hadn't really told anyone about him, though he had already told his parents he was dating someone special. He also realized that she more than likely hadn't even told any friends or co-workers as that wasn't her style. To her, this was all a secret, as though she were entering into a hidden, scandalous world. He wasn't quite certain why that hit his gut wrong.

But when he heard Alessa promise Cadence she could meet him...eventually, he did smile and was sufficiently distracted from his thoughts. After several minutes, she said her goodbyes and ended the call. From his view point, he could watch her over his e-reader. He wasn't disappointed when her downcast eyes, which had been focused on her work, shifted up to look at him.

She displayed everything he ever wanted to see, if even for a moment.

"Guess you heard that, huh?" she asked recovering, knowing it was pointless to pretend she hadn't just promised he could meet her sister.

He lifted his eyebrows and smiled. She let out a breath of silly relief. "Well, I guess it couldn't be avoided."

Denny waited for her to say more, but when she didn't his thoughts turned to his stomach. He stood up and walked to her, sitting down in his spot. "How about a break? Lunch?"

"Okay, I'm pretty much finished here, anyway. At least, all the urgent stuff out of the way," she said, inadvertently admitting she had continued on working when it wasn't necessary. "What did you have in mind?"

"There's a great little Thai place about a ten minute walk from here. Interested in trying it?"

Her expression instantly changed. "A restaurant? You mean, go out?"

His brow drew down curiously. "Well, yeah, you don't want to go out?"

She shifted uncomfortably in her chair, her lips bitten between her lips as if she were attempting to keep a secret quiet. "I think I might get more work done if-"

"You just said you were pretty much finished," he countered.

She stumbled for a response. "Yes, well, I was thinking that maybe I should reread this proposal," she said lamely.

"Huh-uh, your time is mine now," he denied, smiling. But still she looked uncomfortable. He narrowed his eyes. "Why do I get the feeling you're trying to avoid leaving this place with me? I'm assuming it's not because you want to stay."

Alessa forced herself to answer, despite the discomfort. "It's just that I don't know how I feel about being in public...with you," she admitted reluctantly, uncertainly.

Denny frowned as he attempted to understand her meaning. He wondered if appearing in public simply forced the fact that they were an item, though he considered it coupled with her earlier words to her sister and her insistence at the office that it remain a secret. In the end, not quite knowing what to make of it, he decided to shrug it off with a cheeky smile.

"Well, you do know that the only time a couple stays in all weekend is when they're busy in bed. So, if you'd rather we just-"

"I never said that!" she exclaimed, blushing and fighting a smile. "Fine," she huffed in mock-reluctance, "we can go out for lunch."

"Thank you. And to show you I can compromise, we'll order dinner in. How's that sound?"

She nodded once. "Deal."

In the end, because it was a perfect day despite the slight autumn chill, the two walked to a park after they ate. After accidentally stumbling upon a living space of transients in the trees, they began a heated conversation about extrinsic and intrinsic factors of homelessness, various philosophies pertaining to it, and what, if anything should be done from a community or governmental standpoint.

"Yes, but to criminalize it only opens the door for the government to dictate so much more. I mean, this state is already in a near-choke hold by all the rules and regulations for housing, all in the efforts of making individual homes as well as neighborhoods

safe

, but there is no law that will ever make

living

danger-proof. All it has done is make it harder and harder for people to build, own or maintain their properties because of the inane regulations and costly permits required," Alessa argued passionately.

"Slow down there, Sweetheart," Denny chuckled taking her hand into his to bring it up to his lips for a quick kiss, "I never said criminalize, only ordinances that would prohibit certain forms of behavior that facilitate the homeless lifestyle. You shouldn't be allowed to set up camp in the middle of a public park. It's unsafe, not only for passers-by, but for the individual living there."

Alessa was looking down at their joined hands as they continued walking down. She gave it a tentative tug, but he didn't seem to notice as he held fast to her hand. "Yes, but it's not the government's job to decide what is and is not safe for you and secondly, and perhaps more importantly, they shouldn't have the power to dictate that you only behave in a healthy manner. That's an individual's right and responsibility. It can't be forced or demanded."

Denny wasn't oblivious to her tugging on his hand or the similarity in their discussion with her own situation. As they were passing between two trees that crowded the path, he pulled her to the side to lean her against one, startling her from their unexpected change in course. He smiled down at her and cupped her cheek.

"Can we agree that people who are homeless are probably unhappy, and that at the very least we should think of them occasionally and do what we can to help? In whatever form we feel is right?"

All thought of argument melted instantly. So quickly the breath was gone from her, his warm hand on her cooled cheek, the humor and intimacy of his twinkling eyes. She hoped he would kiss her, and as her eyes dropped to his smiling lips, she murmured, "Yes, that seems fair."

"Good," he said a moment before he granted her unspoken wish and placed his warm and wet lips over hers. Alessa's stomach flipped as he slowly kissed her, only his parting lips moving over hers, encouraging her to return his sweet movement. And then the slightest flick of his tongue, inviting hers to come out and return the gentle caress. And then the kiss was done, a last peck on the corner of her mouth and then one at her temple.

He resumed holding her hand as they continued down the path before heading back to his apartment. Throwing his keys in the small granite bowl, he slipped off his jacket and then took hers. The silence had suddenly become awkward as she stood idly in the hallway looking out into the large living space. Feeling a sudden rush of fatigue, Denny had a dazzling idea.

He slipped an arm around her waist and suggested they go out onto the deck. "Want something to drink?" he offered, guiding her to the large, built-for-two lounging wicker deck chair that was extended out for a recumbent position. There was a large, mattress-like cushion with a few throws and pillows. It looked too inviting, Alessa thought, and decided to be wary of it.

"Here, sit and I'll be back with some drinks."

"And what are we going to do...here?" she asked as she sat slowly.

"Sleep, of course," he stated cheerily before turning and walking away.

Alessa looked around suspiciously, for the first time taking in the long row of Bamboo that screened the majority of the space from the office building on that side and two lemon trees at the other. The sun was warm, and although the breeze was cool, it wasn't at all unpleasant. And while a frightened little part of her was reticent to move from the guarded sitting position, she decided there was nothing wrong with making herself comfortable on the comfy piece of furniture. Kicking off her shoes she turned to lounge back, but after a minute of feeling something was off, she looked about her and determined she was on the wrong side.

Denny came out just as she was scooching over to the other side. He smiled as he handed her a glass and took a sip of his own before setting it on the side table.

"What is this?" she asked sniffing it cautiously.

"Just an apple cider and pumpkin fizz," he stated, watching her lift the cool drink tentatively to her lips.

"Not bad," she commented, taking a deeper drink, and then looked for a place to set it. While she figured out what she was doing, Denny reached down to the foot of the bed and retrieved a plush throw, flicking it out to billow dramatically, before settling over them. Once covered, he turned to his side, resting up on his elbow.

"What?" she questioned, suddenly startled at his direct attention.

"Wanna cuddle?" he grinned, lifting his eyebrows suggestively.

His expression was so disarming and boyish, she couldn't restrain the abrupt laughter that escaped. "Cuddle, huh? I don't know," she admitted honestly, with a smile splitting her lips as she looked about them. She wondered if anyone could see them.