"Do you think we can talk about what happened last week?" Elisa asked me, about five minutes after driving away from the studio toward a barbeque joint just under an hour out of town that wanted some footage for an upcoming marketing campaign.
It's been almost a week since the last time we were on the road together, when I came to you all looking for clarity and advice. The vast majority of you said something along the lines of "Just talk to her," which is obvious, and sounds really simple. Like I said, I'm on the road almost all the time. Today on our road trip was really the first time we've seen each other since then.
"Yeah," I said, swallowing. "I've been hoping we could find a chance to talk." That isn't exactly a lie. I have wanted to talk to her about it, but I've had no clue how to bring it up.
Two days ago, when this assignment showed up in my email, I have to admit I was worried. That things would be weird. That she would say it was a mistake. Or, worse, that she would try to get out of working with me altogether. But we ended up in my car again this afternoon, not awkward at all!
"Would you mind if I just say all the things bouncing around in my head, first? Then we can talk?" she asked.
"It's been bouncing around in your head?" I was surprised. Excited.
"Yeah," she drew out. "That's part of the problem. Listen, it was probably a mistake asking you to —um— yeah. It was a decision made in the moment. But— and I see you looking disappointed over there. BUT, it's not one I regret," she finished up with a nervous quiver in her voice.
I glanced over at her, smiling like an idiot. She gave me a smirk, back.
"Right. Which is why you should listen to all of what I have to say before you get disappointed." She paused as we pulled up to a stoplight. I took the opportunity to take my eyes off the road and give her my full attention. She turned her entire body and looked at me. "Anyway, I don't think I have to tell you that I enjoyed it, you could probably tell that," she continued with a confessional smile. "But I'm going to, because I really, really enjoyed it and I need you to know that," she said slowly, staring into my eyes. "As I said, I've thought about it a lot. To the point of distraction. That's the problem, and that's what I want to talk about."
The light turned green several cars in front of us, and I was silent for a few moments as I resumed driving.
"So, you've been distracted?" I asked, with an amused smile, glancing at her in my periphery.
She blushed. "You haven't?" she demanded.
"Oh, a client had to remind me to take the lens cap off my camera on Monday. And it could have been much worse. I had my ISO set for shooting low light, which we weren't. I've thought about very little else," I confessed.
"Good," she said, smug.
"Good?"
"Yeah. I don't want to be the only one of the two of us thinking about it. It was really fucking hot, right?"
"Yeah," I returned. "Watching you writhe around in my seat, listening to you while I made you cum was really fucking hot." I think by this point I was horny enough to pull the car over and risk being late to do absolutely anything she asked of me.
"Writhe? Did I really?" she asked, more than a little embarrassed. "I honestly have a very selective memory of what happened. Mostly just —um— how it felt."
"Oh, you were very vocal about how it felt at the time," I added.
She blushed, again, putting her hands up to block her face. "Well, I'm glad I gave you a show that you enjoyed?" A silence fell between us before she added, "So what are we going to do about this?"
"What do you mean?" I asked. What could be done about it now?
"We can't pretend like it didn't happen," she said. "Or, we probably could. But, I don't want to pretend like it didn't happen..." trailing off, as she put herself out there.
I looked over at her, sincerity brushed across my face, "I assume you know I've been interested in you for a long time," I began.
"Oh?" she said. I could see her look down at her knees. "I didn't know that."
I laughed. "Really? Well, I guess I've put a lot of cards out there, then." I paused. "You really didn't know that?"
"It was obvious you were attracted to me," she said. "But I didn't know you'd ever considered anything..."
"You had a boyfriend," I said. "And I guess I did a better job of keeping it to myself than I thought."
"I don't think I can do that," she said, a little withdrawn. And this is where things went sideways.
"Look, Elisa, that's not what I'm saying. I don't expect anything from you," I tried to explain. "But, considering the topic, it's only fair that you know where I'm coming from."
"This conversation isn't going like I thought it would," she said. Then she got quiet.
In fact, we drove the rest of the way in silence. A nice, nothing but road noise, awkward silence. When we got to the restaurant, things went as planned. We were both our very professional selves, and we got the shoot done. Mostly interviews with the owners. I got some shots of them preparing the meat and putting it on the smoker. Elisa milled around listening for cool sounds in the kitchen and the smoke pit.
When we were done, we got my car packed up, stopped at a gas station, and headed back to town. There was silence, again, for about five minutes. Then Elisa started messing with my radio, making her way through satellite radio stations at about one every eight seconds, creating a disturbing juxtaposition of random sounds. It was starting to give me an intense headache when she suddenly turned it off.
"I freaked out earlier," she said after a moment of silence. It was another moment before she added, "I'm sorry."
I really thought I had blown it by being honest. But I was glad she was talking again. I smiled at her. "I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable."
"It's okay," she responded. "I'm glad I know. I don't want us to hurt each other. That's why I wanted to have the conversation. I honestly don't think I can handle that right now. But..."
I looked over at her, lit by the dashboard panel again. She reached behind her, pushing her breasts out in profile to me, and casually let down her hair. Watching her wavy hair fall over her shoulders and down her back turned me into putty. She turned in her seat, one leg pulled up into the seat, to face me.
"How long until we're back?" she asked.
I pressed the button on the dash screen to take me back to Ways. "Forty-three minutes," I responded.
"There was something else I was wrong about," she said. "I... I don't want it to just be the one time." I think maybe she was waiting for me to say something, but my mouth didn't work. "I understand if you don't want to do anything else."