Charlotte's Roommate

It was pitch black, but the fingernails trailing their way down my stomach could only be her. They way they lingered just slightly too long, willing me to push them further, was unmistakeable. I let out a moan as they continued their silent descent. When they reached my pubes I braced myself for her touch, but just before they could make contact...

My eyes opened and I was awake in my bed. It wasn't the first time I'd thought about her this week, but it was the first time she'd actually invaded my dreams. I hadn't been able to get our encounter out of my mind since my date with Charlotte the last weekend, which made me feel slightly guilty about having another date with her lined up for that evening.

That being said, I did really like being with Charlotte, weirdness aside. We'd been texting back and forth all week, planning our fourth date and building anticipation for our next encounter. Our last date had been the first time we'd had sex, and she had leveraged that to make a few offhand remarks about the possibilities of our next meetup. Of course, I kept to myself that the ferocity of my performance was down to me having been warmed up by her housemate moments prior. I cleared my head, ignored my erection, and got dressed for the day.

***

That evening, I waited for Charlotte outside the cinema. It was a Friday, so the streets were pretty busy with drunk partiers and people on nights out. When I spotted Charlotte after a few minutes of waiting, she shone through the crowd with a golden ray of that bubbly warmth I liked so much about her. She was wearing a big flowy yellow dress with white petals patterned across the design, her blonde hair bouncing over the shoulders. Her makeup was more vibrant than it had been last time, mascara framing her big doe eyes and pinkish-purple lipstick that adorned her perky smile beaming out at me.

'Hello handsome!' She chirped as she sidled on over to me and wrapped her arm around mine.

'Hello yourself! I like the dress.'

'Thanks! I spent all day flip-flopping between this and a darker one.

'I like the bright colours, it suits you.'

'Why thank you, fashion-man. Shall we go in?' She gestured to the entrance. She was definitely a bit more confident than she had been in the past. I attributed that to our having taken the next step in the relationship, perhaps it opened her up a bit.

We ended up watching one of the new drama-thriller type movies about a historical figure, and it was an alright film. Charlotte rested her head on my shoulder at one point, which was nice.

'Out of ten?' I asked as we left the screening.

'Ummm, I'd have to say seven. Or six. Yeah, six.'

'Six is pretty low!'

'I don't know, it was alright, but it had a lot of scenes that didn't really feel like they needed to be in there.'

'Yeah, I get what you mean. It probably wasn't the director's best.'

'Mmm... So what so you want to do now?' She probed.

'What do

you

want to do now?' I hadn't had anything planned for after the date, so I just bounced the question idly back.

'We could go to yours if you like? Since you got to see my house last time.'

'Ahh you can't come to mine, my landlord's redoing the kitchen so it's a mess right now. I've had to get takeway the past three days.'

'Sounds like a lame excuse to me,' she joked.

'It's not, I promise!' It was true, but I must have sounded too hasty because she let out a chuckle.

'Haha, Don't worry. I'll get suspicious if you have another excuse next time though!' She playfully outstretched a finger in my direction.

'Okay, okay, noted.' I smiled.

'So my place then?' It was the natural next thing to say, but it was only when she actually said it that all the memories of last week reentered my mind. Would Mia be there again? I felt a lot closer to Charlotte now than I had last week, so the rogue element of Mia felt a lot more like a danger to our relationship. Even setting aside the possibility of something similar happening, she already had enough dirt on me to make for an atom bomb of a reveal if she decided to let slip what we'd done. And it was

we

; Our first meeting in the bathroom had carried at least some plausible deniability, but she had made sure to shatter that soon after. I had allowed it, all but

begged

for it, and there was no denying that fact now without outright lying. I remembered her bare breasts pushed out towards me, and Mia's promise: '

next time

'

That being said, maybe she wouldn't even be there. Maybe I was overthinking, and besides, if she was going to tell Charlotte then I'm sure she would have before now. Anyway, it's not like we had anywhere else to go.

'Sounds good.' And off we went.

***

'I'll fix you a drink' Charlotte announced, making a beeline for the kitchen while I took off my shoes.

'Oooh, yes please.' I got the impression that she needed a bit of liquid courage to push from her mind the unspoken expectations that the idea of bringing a date home carries. If I was being honest, I could probably do with some too.

I followed her to the kitchen to find two glasses already poured, and Charlotte leaning into the fridge looking for something to rustle us up for dinner. She was murmuring to herself and gesticulating into the fridge, making a mental map of possible two-person meals from what little it looked like there was to pick from. She plucked out a pack of salmon and an opened bag of fresh pasta.

'This one's a Charlotte classic,' she assured me, and set to work.

We drank while she cooked, and felt ourselves relaxing back into each others company. It wasn't awkward between us but it was still early enough that a good conversation wasn't a sure thing, so it felt nice to get back into the swing we'd had last week. The alcohol was definitely helping loosen us up, too.

Eventually dinner was served, and she approached my chair playing mock-waiter: 'would sir care for some pepper?'

'Why, I would be glad for it madam.' She leant over me and I caught a breeze of her perfume. She always did smell lovely, I had to commend her for that. I noticed for the first time a delicate freckle on her neck as she focussed on my food, before realising I shouldn't stare. I thanked her for the pepper and she sat down opposite me at the kitchen table.

'Salmon pasta? Surely you haven't let the fair lady cook for you, Joseph?' I heard her before I saw her, but the fact that I'd already been bracing myself only seemed to fluster me more. I suppose bracing yourself only works if it points you in the direction of a plan.

I felt Mia plonk herself down on the chair next to me. Turning to look at her, I was immediately struck by her outfit. The last time I'd seen her she'd cancelled her night's plans last minute, so had been all dressed up in her finest figure-hugging garments. Tonight she was in the opposite, just a hoodie and leggings, but somehow it only seemed to accentuate her figure more. Perhaps it was the fact that the image of her bare tits was seared into my mind, but every gentle slope and curve of her hoodie around her generous bosom only made it more tantalising to imagine what was underneath. Not to mention her leggings, which beautifully shaped her ass in a way last week's skirt couldn't have dreamt of. Between the two halves of her outfit lay a tantalisingly thin strip of waist.

My thoughts clouded with the remembered sensation of my fingers sinking into her ass, getting oh-so-close to touching the prize between them before she'd pushed me away. I cleared my mind and turned my attention to Mia's face, her eyes fixed on mine, waiting for my reply. I was somewhat surprised to see she was also wearing glasses; the dark acetate frames and curved glass magnified her gaze to become somehow even more piercing.

She got no reply from me, as Charlotte was the first to speak, swallowing down a mouthful of pasta. 'It's our house, I'm not gonna make him root around for a meal in someone else's fridge like some daytime TV game show.' I laughed - she was actually quite funny - which pulled me out of my haze and reminded me who I was here for. I'd already felt immensely guilty about last week's antics, and I wanted my focus to be solely on the woman I was dating.

'You're so good to him.' She turned to Charlotte. 'Almost as good as he is to you...' She drew those words out. At first I felt myself tense up - I recognised her playful tone and assumed she was making some not-so-vague allusion to our encounter - but upon seeing Charlotte's eyes widen with purpose at Mia I realised the tone wasn't directed at me.

'Mia!' Charlotte hissed like she was telling a dog to heel. She was probably used to these antics, far more than I was anyway. I had to be honest though, as Mia's prop in this interaction I felt somewhat intrigued.

I probed in Charlotte's direction: 'what does she mean?' Mia took it upon herself to answer.

'I've just heard good things is all. About you and your...' she searched for the right word '...prowess.' At that, Charlotte, who had been physically wincing, shut her eyes and let out a long groan.

I wasn't quite sure what to do with the ball that had been thrown my way. The dynamic between the three of us was already approaching the limits of my navigational skills, and this wasn't making things any easier.

'My... prowess?' I had a vague sense of what they were getting at, but opted to return the phrase to avoid having to actively engage myself in whatever was going on. At the very least, it did feel like a compliment. Mia continued:

'Well, I don't mean to tell tales out of school-' Charlotte's eyes remained shut. '-but the word around town is you're quite the catch.'

'Am I, now?' I indulged this strange new direction.

'Well, that's what I've heard anyway...'

Charlotte piped up, addressing me. 'She's like the gestapo, I can't keep anything from her once she's set her mind to it. The walls have ears, you know.' She was exaggerating, I imagine, but I didn't doubt that Mia could be extremely pressing when she wanted to know something. 'Literally, in this case.'

'What do you mean?' I searched Charlotte's face. She looked like she was mulling something over, maybe with a hint of embarassment? Mia filled in the blank for me, leaning in closer from her chair. When had she sat down with us?

'She

means

I had already heard most of it through the wall.'

'Oh.'

'

Oh

.' She returned. I'd forgotten how loud we had been. At the time I was so addled with lust that I hadn't cared that she was probably listening in. To be honest, I was probably getting off on it a bit. Back in the real world, however, I could see that it probably hadn't been the best idea to egg her on like that.

'Well... sorry about that.' I couldn't think of anything else to say.

'No, no need to apologise,' She grinned. 'You guys gave quite the performance.'

Charlotte took a sharp breath in through her nose. 'Okay! I think we've crossed over into the realm of not-appropriate-for-dinner.' She clearly was also having difficulty navigating the whirlwind that is Mia, and she wasn't even in on half of it.

'Aww.' Mia looked genuinely disappointed, and curled her lip. 'But you were so talkative before.'

'Talkative?' I ventured.

'Right, that's enough out of you!' Charlotte dropped her cutlery and began physically pushing Mia out of the kitchen.

'I'm going, I'm going!' I watched her throw her hands up in surrender as she disappeared behind the door frame. She sung out to me from the living room. 'See you later, Joseph!'

Charlotte sighed as she crumpled back onto her chair. In spite of our very different experiences with Mia, we both seemed to share the same exhaustion with her. She took a moment, and looked up at me.

'Sorry. About her.'

'No, not at all,' I raised my eyebrows and shook my head. I continued with some hesitation. 'She's a fun character.'

'Isn't she just?' Charlotte returned her attention to the last bites of her pasta. Without looking up again, she asked: 'you don't... mind, do you? That I spoke about us, I mean?'

'I don't think so. I mean, it sounded like you had nice things to say.'

Charlotte blushed at that. 'I may have.' A pause. 'I mean, how could I not?'

I remembered her grinding her sex against my face, and how her orgasm seemed to leap from my tongue and tear through her entire body. I remembered how her eyes had squeezed shut and her mouth had frozen in a silent scream, and I mapped those features onto the face of the woman sat across from me. It was my turn to blush. This evening couldn't seem to land on any one tone.

'You flatter me!'

'Good. Good. Strawberries.'

'What?'

'I want strawberries. Strawberries and cream, for dessert. Do you?'

I paused to think.

'I do.' Her sudden shift made a bit more sense when I remembered she was on her third glass of wine. Come to think of it, so was I.

'In that case, I'll have to go procure us some strawberries, and some cream.' She stood up, the chair legs scraping against the floor behind her. She wasn't

drunk

, but her movements had the cadence of someone not entirely

un

-drunk.

'Where will we get them? It's quite late.' I followed her into the living room.

'

You

aren't getting them from anywhere,

I'm

getting them. I'm cooking for us - that includes meal prep, which includes shopping. I'm keeping you well fed tonight.' I was remembering burying my mouth in her crotch again.

'If you're sure!' I threw up my hands and fell back onto the sofa.

'I'm sure!' Her shoes already on, she turned to leave, stopped, and looked back for a moment with a mischievous smile on her face. 'Then maybe you can feed me after!' The wine

was

getting to her, it was fun seeing her break out of her shell as the night went on. It made me excited for what would come after dessert.

***

It took all of thirty seconds from the door shutting behind Charlotte for Mia's footsteps to start down the stairs. I hadn't entirely forgotten her, but the implications of being left alone in the house with her were only now making themselves clear. Before they could fully crystalise, her head poked around the door.

'Evening, stranger.' She grinned.

'Evening.' I nodded back.

'Where's Charlotte snuck off to?' She was carrying an empty cup into the kitchen.

'She's gone to get dessert things.'

'And left me all alone with a strange man in the house?' She looked back at me from the kitchen and batted her eyelashes like a pinup model dialling it up to eleven. 'Little vulnerable me? What was she thinking?'

'I'm sure she thought you could handle yourself.' I remarked, flatly. I didn't want to be outright rude, but I also knew I had to be quite firm. I didn't want a repeat of last week.

'She'd probably be right.'I watched her reach both arms up to a particularly high shelf, her hoodie riding up and exposing her midriff to about bellybutton height. She then arched all the way forward, scouring the fridge for something. The fabric of her leggings stretched around her ass, the colour of the material warping to accomodate its generous proportions. She spun around to meet my gaze for a moment, and then filled her cup with some fruit juice she'd pulled from the fridge.

She strode over with a renewed energy and sat down beside me. She swivelled her legs onto the sofa and tucked her knees up into her chest, resting her drink-holding arm on them. I'm not sure how I would have looked to her, but comfortable was probably not it. She sized me up for a brief moment before speaking.

'The only place open at this time is like fifteen minutes away, so she'll probably be gone a while.' She was speaking uncharacteristically softly. Still with purpose, but with less edge. 'You know, in case you wanted to watch TV or something.'

'I'm okay, thanks, I've got my phone.' I waggled it around in my hand to illustrate, not sure how else to punctuate my sentence.

'Suit yourself.' Eyes locked on me, she brought the cup to her lips and took a small sip. She wasn't uncomfortably close, but close enough that I could make out the smell of her drink. Some kind of berry flavour.

For a moment the room was very silent. Just me scrolling aimlessly through my phone, hoping Mia might lose interest and walk away.

'You seem tense.'

'Do I?' I was trying to keep engagament to a minimum.

'Yes. Tense. Why are you tense?' She was adopting an air of petulent curiosity, the way a child might ask a stranger about their missing leg.

'I'm fine.'

'I don't make you

uncomfortable

, do I?'

'Not at all.'

'Oh good!' Her face lit up, and she shuffled up next to me. She had been angled towards me, but was now sitting next to me, so had to turn her head towards me to maintain her gaze. 'You had me worried there Joseph.'

'Oh?'

'Yeah, you know. I wouldn't want things to be awkward between us. We got on so well last time, but when I came to say hello earlier you could barely speak to me. It made me

very sad

.' She was pouting again. I tried to keep my focus off her lips.

'Charlotte can't ever find out about that. I really like how things are going with her, and she's so sweet. I feel like a piece of shit even saying this, but you can't tell her about it.'

'Tell her about it? Why would I go and do something like that, when it might spoil what we have?' She was talking like we were our own little team, and it made me feel that little bit more gross about myself.

'We don't

have

anything. It can't happen again. It's not going to.' It was a struggle to put up such a definite boundary when I could still picture her mouth around me, but I had managed it.

'You didn't like it?' She was looking up at me with big wide eyes, her eyebrows turned upwards, and all of a sudden the distance between us felt very small. Our arms were touching, skin-to-skin, and I could see her nostrils expand and contract with each breath. How was she making me feel guilty for

not

flirting with her?

'I mean... it's not so much that I didn't like it-'

'Did you, then?' She cut me off. I'd stopped avoiding her gaze. We were locked onto each other now, negotiating the silences and space between us together. 'Together' is the wrong word. This didn't feel collaborative.

The question hung in the air as we watched each other. What would be the point in lying? After an age, I spoke.

'Yes.' Her lips curled upwards and her gaze softened slightly. She was obviously happy to have dragged that admission out of me.

'Good,' She beamed up at me. 'I liked it too.'

'Um... thank you.'

'Have you thought about me this week?'

'I mean, yeah, every now and then.'

'No, but I mean, have you

thought

about me. You know...' I felt a scratching and looked down to see her idly massaging the seam of my trouser leg between her thumb and forefinger. I did know, but I was reluctant. I still felt like I was successfully resisting, in a way. Of course, successful resisting would be getting up and walking away, but I was still a little woozy from the alcohol and even woozier from whatever spell Mia was casting, so my sense of 'the right thing' was a little skewed.

Mia must have gotten tired of waiting, because she piped up again: 'I mean, last time we met you had a little trouble controlling your body, and that was just from walking in on me the way you did. What with everything else that happened that night, I would hate to think of you struggling like that again because of me.'

I was certain she did not hate to think of that.

'I've kept it under control.'

'Oh you

have

, have you? You've kept it

under control

?' She repeated my words back at me, savouring their potential. She took another pointed sip.

'Yeah, I kept it under control.'