All characters are at least 18 years old.
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I opened my eyes and looked down to see Drew tonguing my nipple, lapping at the rivulets of milk coming out. With a groan, his lips closed around it, and I gasped when he sucked.
"Couldn't even wait until I woke up," I teased breathily, and he pulled away with a sheepish grin.
"Sorry. It's just... you were kinda making a mess." He pointed to a small wet spot on the sheets, and I shook my head in playful admonishment.
"You could've woken me up," I pointed out. "Or used the pump." I sat up and leaned against the headboard, beckoning for him to resume drinking.
"Yeah, but where's the fun in that," he laughed, leaning down toward my breasts.
"You like mommy's tits?" I lilted, and he straightened with a thoughtful frown. "What's wrong?"
"Technically you don't have tits, mom. You have boobs."
I blinked blankly. "What's the difference?"
He sat up and settled next to me. "Well, boobs are big, tits are small. Just look at the words themselves. Boob. All round letters, upper- or lowercase. Tit. Straight lines, not much substance. The *sound* of the words feel different too. Even the word 'boob' feels smooth and round. Meanwhile, 'tit' really sounds like a little dot, staccato. Like a flatter girl's beestings."
"Drew! Don't call them beestings! It's not like those girls want to be that flat," I lectured.
Drew shrugged. "Not saying they're bad, but the word is descriptive. Anyway, have I told you my bird nomenclature theory?"
I was sure I'd have remembered him bringing up something like that, so I shook my head. He turned and snatched his phone off the nightstand, tapping away until he showed me a picture of an avian. It looked like an aquatic bird, shaped vaguely like a duck, including the webbed feet. Which brought us to its most distinctive feature: its feet were baby blue. I squinted at the photo, bewildered.
"That's a blue-footed booby," Drew explained. "About the size of a duck, as far as I can tell. Now compare that..." He took the phone back, tapped some more, then handed it to me. "...to the long-tailed tit."
I squealed a little when I saw the picture. It was probably the most adorable little bird I'd ever seen. Just like the booby, it was true to its name in that its tail looked about as long as its whole body. It was a fluffy little thing, its downy feathers adding to its cuteness. Even its beak was but a speck on its face.
"If you look at this photo," Drew said, paging through search results, "you can see it's small enough to sit on your thumb. Cute and tiny."
"And you think that our colloquial terms for breasts originated from these two birds," I giggled.
He shrugged again. "It's a heck of a coincidence that there are birds named the same way. And it also supports my argument: boobies are bigger than tits."
I couldn't help but laugh, and Drew grinned. I'd missed this. Drew was always going off on some long-winded rant or theory. Once, he explained how the numerical system and etymology in English was actually closer to German than English's French and Latin roots. He always knew a little bit of everything, and whatever impassioned him was what held his focus. Hearing his outlandish theory about breasts, as bizarre as it was... It felt like, after months of distant and withdrawn behavior, I finally had my son back.
--
I saw him in the lobby of my office building and froze. Aside from all the superficial changes like clothing, facial hair, and such, he looked very much the same as all those years ago. Just... more *tired*. I don't know why that word managed to beat "older" to the tip of my tongue, but there it was.
He spotted me and I cursed under my breath. I tried to focus on making it to the elevators, but I could see him headed toward me out of the corner of my eye. And when a six-foot-eight Hungarian is bearing down on you, you can't miss it.
"Coco!" he called, and I stopped and sighed. I turned toward him as he took the last few steps to close the distance, towering over me. I plastered on a fake smile, sure I wasn't going to make it through this without losing my composure.
"Andras," I said mildly. His dark hair was disorderly as always, slightly longer than Drew's, combed into a style that drove high school girls wild. I knew that from personal experience.
"It's been a while," he said conversationally, like he didn't track down where I worked. Come to think of it, he'd found out where I'd moved to from home. I knew my parents were angry enough to never tell him where to find me, so he must've had his own sources. Or somebody in our childhood neighborhood gave the information up in a fit of gossipy excitement.
"Yes it has. What are you doing here?"
"Business." He'd answered quickly, I noticed. Thank God it seemed his charms didn't work on me anymore. I would have been damned to get caught up in him again. "I'm in investment." No he wasn't. There was no way he'd entered the same field as me. It was just the perfect excuse to be here.
"Speaking of which, I'm running late." I pointed to the elevators. "Maybe some other time?"
"Of course. Wanna catch coffee after work?" he suggested, and my stomach flipped. Was he going to wait here until I came out?
"I actually have plans with a friend," I stammered.
"Perfect! We can get acquainted." And just like that, he threw me off step with how bold he was. He really hadn't changed.
I was left grasping for straws, still desperate to remain cordial. "Sure," I heard myself say. *Damn it all, Coco! He hasn't changed, but neither have you.* He was shameless enough to exploit how nice I was, and I was getting sick at the thought of history somehow repeating itself. "Anyway."
In a daze, I simply left him behind and made my way up to the office. I'd almost made it to my desk when I saw Leon looking at me, gesturing to go to his room. Dropping my purse at my desk, I headed in and closed the door behind me.
"We just had a visitor," Leon began as I sat. "He introduced himself as Josh Narai and said he needed an analyst." He nodded toward me indicatively, and I clenched my teeth. "Of course, the company isn't the walk-in client kind of outfit, so I asked him for details. He gave me his card, and that's when I saw."
Leon slid a business card toward me. All it had on it was the name "Andras Narai" along with a phone number. Suspiciously spartan.
