Tae Me Home with You

Author's Note: Parts 5 and 6 won't contain any steamy bits, but we'll be caught up to chapters 7 and 8 soon, which are both steamy.

Regarding this chapter: I hope you'll forgive our lost kitten for her actions at the start. I'm sure she'll come around eventually.

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Joy took her time walking to the pharmacy, and an even longer time browsing the aisles before she worked up the nerve to go to the counter and get what she needed.

She picked up regular birth control pills as well.

After all, if she was impulsive enough to go home with someone once, she might be stupid enough to do it again.

By the time she got home, the cafe was closed. She let herself through with her keys, took her meds, and went to sleep.

~~~

The cafe was full of the usual morning activity when Joy came down the stairs. A line of suits waited for Kashvi to take their orders at the counter. A raucous group of elderly men sat at their usual table telling the same jokes they always did.

Cam was tamping coffee for the espresso machine.

"He brought you a letter. And he said he would leave you alone." He pulled an envelope from his apron pocket.

"He came back?" Joy stretched her fingers from her baggy sleeve to take it from him.

She read it twice.

"Any harm..." she mumbled the words to herself.

"What does it say?"

Joy stared off into space for a long moment, trying to process. It was like working out a code. As far as she could tell, he was saying she should have said "red light" to stop him. That he wouldn't be berating her if she had.

She already knew he hadn't wanted to take her virginity. He must think she'd tricked him into it on purpose.

The espresso machine dribbled black liquid. Cam was already setting up the next one.

"He was mad at me. Because I was-- I wasn't what he expected."

Cam scoffed.

"No. He's right. And he should leave me alone."

"Well, nobody should be mad at you, anyway."

"Maybe you don't know me well enough."

"Hah. Whatever you say."

~~~

For nearly two weeks, Joy obsessed about the letter. In the hours between classes and sleep, she couldn't think about anything else.

She was obsessing, she realised, because something didn't feel right. If he'd wanted never to see her again, why had he come back? Didn't people have one night stands all the time?

Did he just need her to explicitly forgive him for having sex with her?

"I've already told you. It was perfect."

She was cross-legged on top of her blankets, staring at his writing again.

I regret any harm I've caused you, and I hope I can earn your forgiveness.

I don't expect to find anyone like you again in my life.

Red Light will always make me stop and listen.

"Anyone like you," she mouthed the words quietly to herself, and they came out in a whisper.

Did he mean he'd never met another virgin?

She thought back to his apartment. How she'd started to imagine his habits and his life before she left. It was obvious he lived alone. Maybe he didn't meet many women at all.

"Red Light will always make me stop and listen."

He had honour. She'd been able to feel it in him immediately, but she hadn't known what to call it before.

He was someone who meant things the way he said them.

So why was this letter so confusing?

"anyone like you... Red light will always..."

If he met another virgin, he thought she'd probably tell him to stop.

He thought anyone else would have told him to stop. And told him the right way.

"Ah. Red light."

She finally understood.

He'd told her the right way to stop him. He'd have expected her to stop him, if he'd known. But he'd never expected her to be a virgin. She knew all that, but she hadn't realised what it might mean to him.

He wasn't mad at her. Not really.

"You think you're a monster."

~~~

It was late, but she might just catch the last bus if she hurried.

It was also unexpectedly chilly. Autumn had appeared out of nowhere, and the wind carried what felt like frost along its edges, biting at Joy's ears until she tightened the strings of her hoodie. She should have dressed better, but she couldn't go back now.

She'd just have to keep moving.

She heard an engine and looked ahead of her towards the corner, where she'd turn right to get to the bus stop. And there it was-- her bus.

It didn't even slow down. It just breezed through the intersection, lit up inside with empty seats.

"No," Joyce ran up the hill. "Wait! Please!"

But when she reached the corner, its taillights were already out of sight.

The stoplight overhead changed to red.

If only it had done so thirty seconds ago, she'd be on her way back to him.

The bus would have stopped and listened.