I met him at a house party on a random Saturday night two weeks ago.
Being invited by a good friend of mine, my plan was to go hang out with friends, have a couple of drinks, and maybe hook up with a random stranger for some much needed stress relief ahead of my exams. And for the first hour or so, that's exactly what happened. But...then I met him.
What started off as nice conversation under a gorgeous night sky with friends and a perfectly made gin and tonic, turned into an intense staring contest, then quickly escalated to a battle for control. Twenty questions style. While I'd like to think I at least put up a good fight, in the end, I couldn't resist the proverbial red string pulling both of us together.
We then proceeded to spend the next twelve or so hours together, experiencing a total sexual high I was certain I'd never experience again. The next day, he kindly drove me home after a long leisurely Sunday morning of "getting to know each other" underneath an incredibly cozy, grey and white striped duvet. The relatively long ride was spent chatting about any topic that came to mind, then made promises to call each other over intimate kisses and hungry bites to the lips.
Then I didn't hear from him. At all. Not even a text.
So you can see how it would be a bit of a shock when, at dinner with my visiting mother and sister, I walked back from the bathroom to find him standing at the restaurant entrance, casually shaking hands with three guys around his age. The faint sound of his sultry laugh and his beautiful smile had me standing dead in my tracks, admiring the put-together but casual look of an untucked light blue oxford shirt with the sleeves rolled up, dark wash jeans and polished dark brown boots.
My mind spun with how fast it was trying to process all the feelings running through it at that moment. Anger, frustration, hurt, passion, lust...love?
The crashing waves of emotions made my heart race as I clenched my hands at my sides, watching the three guys he was with leave the restaurant. My breath quickened as he turned to face me, and all the memories from that night drowned any comprehensible thought left in my brain. His eyes widened when I brushed past him, pushing open the restaurant's heavy dark wood door and stepped out into the mild spring air.
I walked around the side of the all red brick Italian restaurant, trying desperately to control my emotions, even though the heat of his stare skimming over my back made me feel deliciously naked. 'No, not now. Remember the past two weeks'.
I stopped in the small alleyway between the restaurant's beautiful outdoor patio and a tall, glass office building. Taking a deep breath to try and calm myself, I stared off into the distance; incredibly angry, but feeling ridiculous for leaving, wondering why I did any of it at all.
It might've been the need for some air and to find a quiet place to gather my thoughts. It might've been to force myself to get away from him, just to resist the greater urge to be as close to him as possible. Or maybe I wasn't thinking at all, and it was the first instinct my body latched onto that wasn't just hauling off and punching him.
His footsteps were barely heard over the noisy rush hour traffic, and it had me jump a little when I felt his hand lightly turning me around to kiss me. Slow and soft, but with so much passion that it made my eyes water with the pent-up frustration I've been harboring for the past two weeks. The warmth of his hand sliding over my skin-tight, white velvet dress scorched me as his fingers caressed the back of my neck, making me shiver with excitement. The contrasting, tantalizing sensations only added to the frustration boiling deep inside me.
My hands slid up his chest, and I shoved him away from me, smacking him hard across the face. After seeing the shocked look on his face, I wondered for a split second if the smack stung him just as much as it did my hand. Then I remembered how much my heart ached for him the past two weeks, and suddenly my hand didn't feel as bad.
"Two weeks," I shouted. "Two fucking weeks since that party."
"Can I explain..."
"What's there to explain? You obviously didn't feel the same way I did after that night."
"You honestly can say that after the way I just fucking kissed you?"
"I believed it when you said you would call after you drove me home in the morning, and we spent...I don't know...a good ten minutes in your car making out. And look where we are now."
"Oh come on," he said, scoffing. "I..."
"You know," I said, never feeling so upset with someone before. "I probably wouldn't have minded if it was just one night. If we both drank way too much, found somewhere quiet, and you screwed my brains out until we were both happy and satisfied. Then we'd wake up, agree that it was just one night, and pretend like nothing ever happened between us. I would've been just fine with that. But it wasn't just that. Was it?"
He stood there staring at me, waiting for me to speak with a look of indignation on his face. Good. He deserved it.
"We got to know each other the next morning. We spoke about our lives, our families, our likes and dislikes, aspirations and fantasies," I choked out in an unsteady voice. "When you teased me with kisses as I rattled off all the things that turned me on. Then the incredible sex afterwards. I'd never felt so loved from anyone I'd ever been with before, let alone a person I'd just met less than twenty-four hours before. It was slow and beautiful; completely opposite to the intense, rough sex we had during the party..."
"What about you? I haven't heard from you in two weeks."
"Because you said you would fucking call!"
"And I can explain why I didn't," he sighed. "But I'm not the only one who's guilty here. You easily could've called, but you left it up to me."
The calm but firm tone in his voice had me flinch, stepping slightly backwards. It made me even more frustrated that it wasn't because I wasn't afraid. "I wanted to call..."
"Don't pull that 'I wanted to call you, but I didn't know if you liked me that way' bullshit, I know you're not like that." His piercing eyes stared down into mine as he waited for my answer. "Why didn't you call?"