That 90's Gap in-Between

"As much as I love seeing you on a Friday night sweetie, you can't fool me, you're avoiding him," Bree said as she scrolled through the movies on Netflix.

As Bree and Harlee sat in the low lit living room streaming movies from the chrome cast. The weeks had fallen by the wayside around them. At this point most nights they hardly saw one another. Which for them was fine. It was a place to lay their heads and shower. They were modest about the things they had in their apartment. It was affordable and it was close. With basic cable and a small selection of DVD's they only spent money on keeping the lights on rather than what the watched on the television. The apartment was 1153 square feet with the most of the space being in the kitchen area. The two bedroom apartment had a shared jack and jill bathroom and no real bedroom spaces.

Their apartment was dressed appropriately for two college coeds. The living room had two small rectangular windows. The cheap pale yellow sheer curtains, they hand hung up freshman year, hung just under the window's ledge.

Scattered around the room were empty tequila bottles filled with different colored grains of sand as flower pot decorations. All the walls were painted the same washed out gray color with the exception of the single accent wall that was a pale yellow tint that appeared green in certain lighting. The walls were mostly bare, with the exception of the 4 ceiling to floor mirrors that hung on the back wall of the tiny dining area.

The living room was essential for two girls on their own. The plush sectional couch sat directly in the middle of the room. A large brown lamp hung over the couch creating light in the poorly designed living room, as there were no overhead lighting in any part of the gathering areas. The sectional was on the smaller side it sat 3 comfortably without occupying the chaise. It had 4 gray patch-stitched brown throw pillows and 3 large back cushions. The frame was a dark brown faux leather with gray pillow soft cushions.

Just a few short steps away was the dining area. There sat a bar-like eatery table with 3 backless wooden cushioned stools. The tables rectangular shape usually housed a mixture of clean on one end and dirty set of clothes on the other. Along with the two square windows touching daylight into the apartment social area was a large sliding glass door that leads out to a small tattered cement 4x4 patio. The patio littered with leftover pollen from spring and the ambered leaves that had fallen in the fall air. It was fairly empty besides the old footprints and the small the cannabis plant shaped ashtray that was left in the farthest corner filled with used Black n Mild and rolling paper buds. The view was the polar opposite from the spectacular view at Alex's place that overlooked the city. The complex buildings were poorly positioned behind the Walmart distribution center.

The apartment opening into the kitchen, arguably a horrible design flaw. Slightly off to the right of a brief walk in opened up to a full yet oversized kitchen. Once Inside the updated, all black appliances and amaretto washed brown cabinets that stowed mismatched Walmart cookware and better than plastic cutlery. There were no cookbooks on the counters or smell of fresh baked cookies roaring from the kitchen. There was no sense of order among each piece of accessories on the counters and the bowls from yesterday's breakfast still sat in the sink half clean. Yet it had discrete woman's touches throughout every room. Fake pink and purple orchids resided on a nearby windowsill, a set of matching oven mitts hung above the stove. Each window had its one clean and delicate curtains dressing them. Fashionable throw pillows and trashy periodic table of shots on the central wall was led to by a cozy rug laying on the carpet. It wasn't much and it was obviously ridiculously over priced but it was their home. The home they shared the last three years as roommates.

"Am I not allowed to spend a Friday night at home with my best friend and drink beer and talk about how much we miss old Wayne?!" Harlee said, stuffing her feet under Bree, playing nice.

"Harlee! I'm not stupid. You haven't spent a Friday night here in weeks. What happened?" Bree said.

"Nothing happened... Not really anyway. I just didn't want to see him tonight."

"If ya ass ain't on shark week then you must be up to something else. So when you decide to tell me the truth, then you can sit on the couch" Bree said pushing Harlee's legs off the couch. "

"He... He just wants to take me out to some art show and I really don't want to go okay. There's nothing wrong here." She lied.

"So, what I'm hearing is you being boring as fuck and won't let cho boo take you out?!" Bree said eyeing up at her from her phone.

Harlee didn't respond verbally, instead, she folded her arms and rolled her eyes. She hated how much Bree knew her. In fact, Bree was the only person who knew her inside and out. She was the best working relationship she knew. Bree knew all of her tells. Harlee could try her damnedest and Bree would sniff out her lying from a mile away. Truth be told she could do the same about her.

It bothered Harlee talking about her feelings to anyone and Bree knew that. However, that never stopped her from prying.

"Har, you really have to let this man take you out, though. The dudes at school might sure as hell not want to do shit with or for you but hell at least Alex is trying." Bree said rationally, turning to face her.

"Bree, he's just not... I don't know it's hard to explain." She said as she shook her head losing the words rushing in her head.

"Well try and we can figure it out together," Bree said compassionately.

Harlee took a deep breath and she thought she was going to word vomit all her pent up feelings right then and there, but instead she leaned back into the couch cushions and just collected herself before she started to talk.

"What if this ends up horribly? Who's to say me allowing myself to feel something emotional for him will play out in my favor. I mean... after all, what do I really know about him besides the way his dick feels inside me. The way he makes me feel just clouds my mind. And now he's our photography teacher." Stopping briefly to put her hand in the air to stop Bree from interrupting.

"Aah, and before you fix your lips to say how fucking awesome it is to be fucking your teacher, it's really weird as fuck if you think about it." Harlee rambled on without taking breaths between words.

"I like him I really do, but when people start looking at us as a couple it becomes real, and I don't want to add that extra nonsense on my plate right now. I have gone the last four years keeping my head out of the clouds and focused on the books. I don't even fuckin around like that anymore. I am trying to get out of here and head back to the C."

"...but have you told him that?" Bree said.

"I kinda don't give him the chance to talk about it." She said, lowering her head to her knees as she pulled them up to her chest.

"If we talk about it, it becomes a thing and a shit storm is bound to follow." She added.

"Boo, you have bigger issues than just talking to him. You can't keep fucking him if you never actually give him a chance to talk about his wants or needs. He ain't like these niggas at school, he actually has shit going for him. Hell, at least he got a career and a dream, what 22 you know has that?"

"He's not 22," Harlee argued.

"I know he's not and neither are we, but let's be honest. We are not going to be in our twenties for the next 10 years, so if a man is man enough to take you out on a real fucking date, and I am not talking about to a free game or a "chill" session, then you at least owe it to yourself to see where the fuck this goes." Bree said.

"But what if this..." She stopped.

"Fuck a what if. You and I know that this shit is dead. Once we graduate the men we slept with will be behind us. Hell, ya mama met yo daddy back in college and they were married for like eva." Bree said.

Harlee knew she had a point. If it wasn't for her mom dying in the car accident when she was twelve they probably would still be married. Harlee didn't want to make the relationship she had with Alex real because that would mean she would have to give up on her freedom. She didn't trust herself with happiness; somehow someone would always find a way to ruin it for her. She knew that she really did like Alex, he was everything that she could have asked for.

"I guess I can at least let him take me out in Atlanta. Just take it slow."

"You can. Just don't let your need for go slow leave you at the finish line." Bree said as she reached out to hug her.

"I won't," Harlee said, accepting the hug and putting her head into Bree's chest.

Harlee called Alex over the weekend to apologize for her disappearing act she played on him. Bree was right she had to let the chips fall where they may and consider a life with a man in it. After some serious convincing over a few beers, she finally allowed herself to accept what they were casually dating. No strings no attachments just taking it slow playing it by ear, Harlee was all too thrilled to get her way. That unscrewed the tension in the air and she allowed herself to enjoy the charade they played. Alex was corny photography teacher who seduced the sexy undergrad. It lit a match that burned their desires.

Alex wasn't one hundred percent sold on the causal idea but he figured it was the best way to keep her happy. She needed him to take things slow, just until he was no longer her teacher, was what she continued to promise. He was not going to force her to make any harsh decisions while she needed to focus on her studies. Alex knew he had until finals in December to keep their relationship completely under wraps out of respect to her wishes. He learned quickly that it was so much easier said than done. There had been a few days he found himself eyeing her in her form fitting dangerously low cut knitted sweaters or her ass bouncing up and down during her walk up the short steps to her seat. Many times she would intentionally wear short skirts to class and sit with her legs open to distract him while he talked about the importance of still photography. The weather in Georgia made it easier for her to play tricks with his mind with her clothing choices.

Harlee loved the games they played, she got a thrill sleeping with one of her teachers, professor or not, the shit turned her on pretending to only see him two days out the week. She thrived off the looks she would give him and the texts she would send before walking into his class of how bad she needed his dick inside her pussy. It had been night after night weekend after weekend that she was sneaking into his bed. Alex was on fucking cloud nine. He never thought that this young ambitious undergrad would curb his wants and needs to badly. She was like heroin and he had to be weaned off the needle.

A few classes Harlee would pretend she didn't understand an assignment and use it as an excuse to linger around after. She would caress his dick while he would explain photos to her. She would brush up against him with her breast against his back and moan when they were out on assignments when no one was looking. The cat and mouse they would play gave them much more intense fucking when he got his hands on her.

Bree would joke about Harlee being the most incompetent beginner photographer on the planet. Clearly, she knew she was joking but Harlee really could give two fucks what it made her look like this was exciting, this was fun, this was the most liberating experience she ever had her entire college career.

It had been a fairly busy week for Harlee, Midterms, and final prep and applying for graduation has increased her stress level a little higher than normal, she knew as soon as she saw him what she needed to do to shake it out of her system. During the duration of the class, all she could think about was riding his face. Swaying back and forth like a swing as he eats her out like a happy meal. When he would walk over to his desk to grab material her mind started to picture him taking her from the back while the entire class cheered in awe. The entire room would be rooting for him to smack her ass and for her to deepthroat him while she juggled his balls like a clown. Her panties were drenched by all the freaky shit that kept playing over and over in her head. It wasn't until the bump into her shoulder she knew the class was even over.

Harlee cleared her throat and gathered her belongings jotting down a quick note onto a stick, the class began to exit the room. Each student two and by three turned their assignments in and left out the room. The ever so polite and cheesy Alex smiled at each one of them and thanked them giving them the same lame speech of encouragement "This picture better be good enough for me to sell to 'TMZ'. Harlee was the last one to standing in the room as she turned in her assignment she gave him a slight wink and a smile swaying her hips as she walked out.

Alex's eyes darted and glued themselves to her ass as she walked out. His dick instantly rose to the occasion and harden just watching her hips sway and her ass jiggle in her jeans. He would slide his tongue down the crack her ass if she asked him to. All he could think about the entire class was having her sprawled out on his desk feasting on her plentiful. So when Alex began to gather the assignments from the bin his face lit up when he looked at the sticky note attached to the picture she laid on his desk

'Meet me in 15 minutes, my place.'

He could feel his dick getting hard again, and he couldn't get out the room fast enough. Scrambling to grab his bag and assignment he was distracted enough by the thoughts of her pussy, he didn't notice the woman enter the room in her brand new pair Christian Louboutins

The woman positioned herself behind him and sat on an empty desk in the room before she began to speak.

"So how are things adjusting Mr. Hill," Vicki said, as she crossing her left over her right, dangling her pricey shoes over the cool white tile. "I haven't heard from you in a while everything okay?" She finished.

It had been a few weeks since Vicki had Alex in her bed. There were times that it was more of a routine for him to hit a low point and use her pussy as comfort. So when Harlee came back into his life he had no desire for her to rob his cradle. Vicki thrived for those moments he was charming young and good with his hands, since her divorce Alex made her feel young, sexy, and desirable, a nurse to a patient, if you will.

"Oh Hey! He said looking up from his bag. "I know I've been super busy finishing midterms and just shooting myself in general. I've been meaning to call you."

"Oh really?" She said seductively as she leaned over the desk giving him perfect view all the way down her soft cotton black wrap dress.

"Yeah, I have those photos you had asked me to look into. The ones from your daughter's recital that you thought you lost in the washer machine incident." He said, fishing through his brown leather satchel.

"Yeah they weren't too hard to retrieve, I just had to restore a few but for the most part, the data wasn't completely lost just took some elbow grease. " He said jokingly as he handed her a manila envelope.

"Oh. I thought you were looking for me for other reasons." She winked. Vicki recomposed herself and stood upright,

Vicki's demeanor changed slightly as Alex brushed past her to collect a few things off the tables in the room. His absent-minded activity around her was offsetting and his reaction was obviously uninterested. On normal occasions he would play her little games, make snide remarks, or join in her banter even if he wanted to or not, he liked her as a woman. She was beautiful and smart and very independent, if she wasn't a few years older than him he might have actually considered dating her.

She was a looker that was a given, she was just a privileged Stepford housewife that wasn't used to being traded in for an upgrade. Alex and her relationship had only happened because last Christmas after his father died and he ran out of the cheap stuff, he stumbled over to her house for the annual holiday party and ended up drinking the very expensive bourbon in her bedroom with her and one thing led to another and they woke up naked on her 40 foot while sheepskin rug naked and hungover.

After the alcohol stopped fueling them from fucking anger out with one another, it just became a thing to do for him. He needed his dick wet and she wanted to feel invincible. Their arrangement was never supposed to cause any issues or concerns they were two grown adults who had hit very low points in their lives and didn't have to suffer alone. Alex had his share of women in and out of his condo but when things didn't work out for whatever reason Vicki was there and it just became so easy to crawl into the ditch.

"Ha-ha no, just wanted you to have those. I know Kayla is your pride and joy." He said, laughing off her statement.

"Well..." As she stepped over to him again and began to whisper in his ear while she pulled on his tie. "Kayla is at her father's for the week, maybe you and I can crack open a vintage and have dinner at my place? Also meaning I crack out the good old take out menu." She said, sliding a moist final lick on his ear.

Old Alex would be down for her rendezvous, gets him out of his condo, gets him off and he receives a free meal and a fine wine he would never in a million years pay for himself. Old Alex wouldn't need a beat to think about it, he wasn't seeing anyone and he had no emotional ties to any one woman. But for this current situation, he stopped, he didn't look up or away from the stack of photos he was filing into his bag. The grains of sand in the hourglass had frozen in time. On one hand, he could take her up on this offer, carelessly fuck her youth back into her life and enjoy a night like a prince.

Taking photos from her amazing view of out by the manmade lake and have an empty connection with yet another woman. Or on the other, he could decline her offer for wine and fucking. He could choose Harlee; the woman he had no idea what was to come for either of them. He could go to her apartment listen to her laugh and hear her dare him to push farther into her while she searched oblivion for something to grasp onto, either way, the dice rolled being with her tasted better than freedom.

"You know what Vic... I'm good actually." He said with a smile. He said with happiness as he thought about Harlee.

"No... Are you sure??" she said puzzlingly, looking down at herself in uncertainty after throwing herself at him.

"Yeah... I'm good." He said with a sweet smile gathering his final things and exited the room.

Vicki stilled for a moment before she shifted herself back into an upright position. She couldn't control the feeling of guilt that was swimming vigorously in the pit of her stomach. Vicki took a moment to recount the conversation they just had. She didn't understand why it even mattered but all she could figure at that point was that he just walked out of the room, no goodbye, no promise of a rain check, just a 'Yeah I'm Good .'

This was new for her; over the last few years of knowing him, he never cut their chats down to slivers of seconds. Over the past few weeks, she would stop by his office and he would blow her off for a meeting or a gig off campus. All of their conversations had been like this one, short and uninterested. The last real conversation they held was when they had their lunch during the beginning of the year, he was distracted sure but not this uninterested.

Vicki couldn't place it, but something inside her said Alex was different. In the past few months, he was trapped inside the four walls of his bachelor pad screwing thirty-somethings and complaining about their lack of substance. Since after last New Year's he just seemed to exist he would go about his day full of procrastination, nothing would stop him from agreeing to a quick bone.