Convenience and Compatibility (14 page)

“You don’t have to think about it Dean. Let’s
go to bed.”

Dean gives me a half smile. “Soon.” He
continues, “Hey sorry about not answering your call last
night.”

“No problem.” I’d forgotten all about last
night.

“I was having dinner with my parents, trying
to get a feel for their behavior with you tonight.”

“Oh?”

“I had no idea they were going to be such
assholes, or I never would have taken you there. I’m so sorry
Mallory.”

“It’s okay Dean.”

“We never have to go back. I told them that
this evening after you got in the car.”

“What did you say?”

“I told them that if they are rude to you it
makes me sad, but I will cut them out of my life.” Wow.

“And how did they take that?”

“My dad was mad and my mom was crying.”

“I’m sorry Dean… are you really sure it is
worth it?”

“Worth what?”

“Me, us?”

Dean smiles and pulls me onto his lap, “Oh
yes. Let’s go to bed.”

Dean swallows the rest of his drink and takes
my hand, leading me to the bedroom.

“I’m going to get the hospital smell off me.
Be right back.” I peck Dean on the lips and walk into the bathroom,
determined to turn on the shower by myself.

“Hmmm. Want some company?”

“Maybe, um, I mean no. I’m tired.”

“Okay, I’ll keep my hands to myself. I
promise.”

“Yea right Dean.”

Miraculously I get the shower to work and let
the water run over my body, releasing the tension in my shoulders.
Dean saunters in naked, totally confident with his body and I frown
at him playfully. He joins me in the shower but keeps his hands to
himself like he promised.

“This is my shower Mallory. I can do whatever
I want. Unless… you want it to be your shower also?”

I give him a look, why is he bringing this up
again?

“You’re sweet, but there’s another reason why
I won’t move in with you.”

He raises one eyebrow and it’s incredibly
sexy. Maybe I’m not too tired tonight.

“I don’t believe in living with someone
endlessly before you’re married. I would need more commitment than
that. I mean, I would be changing a big part of my life. I don’t
want to undervalue that decision.”

Dean looks incredulously at me and I wonder
if I’ve scared him off.

“I guess so. That’s a good point.”

“Come on. Let’s go to bed. I’m tired.”

We climb into bed naked and he snuggles up to
me as I stroke his wet hair. We lie quiet for awhile and I wonder
if Dean has fallen asleep. I roll over and he stirs, pulling me
back towards his chest and his penis against my back. I try to
forget my attraction to him and let myself over to sleep, his arms
around me.

I wake up to darkness
, but find that
it’s just past ten. I’m alone in the bed and Dean’s side is cold. I
open the curtains a bit – it looks like a beautiful day. Not
raining for a change. Dean has laid one of his T-shirts at the foot
of the bed and I slip it on before walking downstairs.

Dean is sitting on the sofa with his tablet
and a cup of coffee. He winks at me and points to the phone. I walk
into the kitchen and start making a cup of tea.

“Alright, sounds great. Let me know when it
gets to three.” I hear Dean walking into the kitchen and then his
arms are around me and he’s kissing my neck. “Good morning
beautiful. How did you sleep.”

“I slept well, and you?”

“Great.” Dean turns me around and I look up
at him. “I sleep great when you stay over.”

I smile and get on my tip toes, pecking him
on the lips.

“I was waiting for you to get up before I
made breakfast.”

“Such a gentleman.” I go back to making my
tea and Dean leans on the counter, watching me.

“Do you have any plans today?”

“Not anything concrete. I need a pedicure,
and I want to look at graduate schools and programs.”

“Oh yea? I didn’t know you wanted to go back
to school.”

“Yea, it’s a goal of mine. Also, and don’t be
mad, before I met you I was thinking of doing Nurses Without
Borders. My plan was to go sometime this fall.”

I look over at Dean sheepishly. He is looking
down at the counter, not saying anything.

“Oh… really? How long would you be gone?”

“I’m not sure, depends on how long I want to
be gone.”

“Well I hope you wouldn’t want to be gone
that long, or at all.” He looks up at me and tries to smile.

“If we are still together I doubt I
will.”

Dean pulls me close and puts his hand under
my chin so I have to look up at him. “Don’t you think we’ll still
be together?”

“I do.” It’s hard to mask my lie with Dean’s
face so close to mine and I hope he doesn’t notice.

Dean smiles and leans down to kiss me. He
puts his hands up under my T-shirt and grabs my ass until his phone
starts ringing and he pulls away, “Shit.”

I giggle at the timing and finish making my
tea. I join Dean to where he has moved on the sofa. He strokes my
leg with his free hand while talking about numbers. He gets off the
phone and turns to me.

“Why don’t you blow off your plans for today,
and just hang out in sweats with me?”

“I didn’t pack any sweats.” I tease.

“You could just wear this all day or be
naked.”

My stomach growls. “Maybe. How about some
breakfast first? I’ll make it.”

Dean follows me to the kitchen and pulls some
pans out.

I frown, “I thought I was making you
breakfast.”

“I’m just helping you a little. How about
oatmeal?”

I nod and Dean pulls out everything I need,
then takes a seat at the bar with his coffee and tablet, his phone
nearby.

I start the water boiling and look in his
fridge for fruit. I expected the fridge to be bare, but it is
filled to the brim with fruit, vegetables, cold cuts, steak,
cheese, champagne, wine – it’s like a mini market. “Looks like
someone went to the store.”

“I like to have options. I also hoped you
would spend some time here with me and we could fuck and nosh the
next couple of days.”

“So is that your plan for our day?”

“Maybe.”

That sounds exhausting, but not half bad.
“Yea, okay. Let’s have a fuck marathon.”

“A Fuck-a-thon.” Dean laughs, typing into his
tablet.

“I could make T-shirts to commemorate the
occasion.” I tease.

Dean laughs so hard he starts choking on his
coffee.

“Are you okay?”

“Yea, you’re hilarious Mallory. But really, I
want to know more about you. I mean, I think I know how to make you
come pretty well, but I don’t know your favorite color.”

I nod, “It’s yellow, what’s yours?”

“Gray.”

I look around his house, and notice all the
gray: rug, sofa, appliances on the counter. “I can see that. What
do you do with the mixer? Do you cook, or bake?”

“Neither. I never really learned how to cook.
I need to take a class or something.”

“Oh, please do. How about French food? Or
Italian?”

“Whatever you want baby.”

I place a bowl of oatmeal in front of Dean
and sit next to him on the bar, grabbing one for myself.

“Thank you. What’s in here?” Dean looks at
the oatmeal like there’s a dead rat in it.

“Apples, bananas, honey, nuts, oatmeal and
milk. It’s good for you – eat it. You’ll need your energy if you
want to be a participant of the Fuck-a-thon.”

He takes a bite, “Pretty good.”

“Thank you.” I say smugly and start
eating.

We eat our oatmeal while Dean stays busy on
his tablet and phone. At one point I lean over to see spreadsheets,
then graphs, back to spreadsheets. I don’t know how he does it. I
finish my oatmeal and lay on the couch, putting my feet up and
getting comfortable. Dean is still on the phone when he walks into
the living room and pulls a small paper bag off one of the floating
shelves. He hands it to me with a wink.

I open the bag and see a new iPad, still in
the box. I look up at Dean and he’s ignoring me, still sitting at
the counter, hunched over his tablet and on the phone. I open it up
and look around me for a plug-in. Dean comes behind me and taps at
the table behind the sofa. It’s a power strip, cleverly hidden in
the finish of the table. I look up and smile, plug in the tablet,
and blow Dean a kiss. He catches my kiss and pretends to put it
down his pants. I’m so shocked I guffaw, and hold my hand to my
mouth, trying to stifle my laugh while he’s on the phone.

Dean gets off the phone and sits down on the
other end of the couch. He picks up my legs and places my feet on
his chest – mirroring my position. “I’m almost done baby. Sorry
work is taking so long today.”

“Dean, work as long as you like. I have this
new iPad that I can look at while you’re working. Thank you.”

“You are welcome.” Dean looks up and smiles.
“Alright, that’s it for a while.” He puts his electronics on the
coffee table and starts rubbing my feet. “What do you want to do
for dinner?”

“I don’t know. Let’s have dinner at
home.”

Dean raises an eyebrow at me. “Home sounds
great.” He looks down at my feet and tries to ask me innocently,
“So, um… when do I get to meet your family?” It’s cute how nervous
he is.

“I don’t know. They don’t usually meet my
boyfriends, they ask too many questions.”

“Did they meet your last boyfriend,
what’s-his-name… Greg?”

Oh shit, he has me on this. “Yes.”

Dean raises his eyebrows at me. “I see.”

Oh where is this going. I feel uncomfortable
talking about Greg.

“Remind me why you broke up?”

I still feel loyal to Greg and don’t want to
say anything bad about him. I still have feelings for him and
realize that I probably always will – he was my first love. I try
to be vague with Dean. “I don’t think he’s an alcoholic, he just
drank too much for my liking. But he smoked pot religiously, and I
questioned his ethical integrity.”

“Oh, is that all?” Dean exaggerates. He is
teasing me now.

I throw it back to him. “What about you. Why
did you and Amanda break up?”

“She cheated on me.” Oh. “Three times.”
Ohhh.

“Why didn’t you break up with her the first
time… or the second?”

“At first she lied to me, then begged me to
forgive her. I was in love with her, so I did. It’s crazy the
things you do for love sometimes. She was my first, and I was
young…”

Dean doesn’t finish his thought; he doesn’t
have to, I can relate. I decide to change the subject. “So, how are
we going to handle your parents? Do you think they will come
around?”

“I think so.”

“That’s good. It’s important to me.”

“Really? Why?” Dean asks.

“It’s just so much nicer when you get along
with the parents.”

“Were you close with Greg’s parents?”

Oops, I’ve said too much. I don’t want to
hurt Dean’s feelings so I choose my words carefully, trying to say
as little as possible. “A little.”

“I’m sorry my parents suck. I don’t want to
make excuses for them, but I am their only son. They think they
will lose me again.”

“Why?”

“Because you will take me from them.”

“But can’t we share you?”

Dean shrugs his shoulders and I drop the
subject.

“You give great foot massages… in addition to
other things.” I say.

“Why thank you. Remind me what day you have
to be back to work?”

I frown. I don’t want to think of work right
now. “Saturday.”

“I wish we had the weekend together
again.”

“Me too.”

“When do you work next week?”

“Thursday through Saturday.”

Dean frowns. “You need to quit your job.”

“Some days I think the same thing.” I joke,
but I’m afraid Dean is serious.

“Do you think we are moving too fast
Mallory?”

Whoa, where is this coming from? I’m honest
with him. “Yes… but I don’t care.”

“It feels really right, don’t you think?”

“I do.”

Dean stops rubbing my feet, “You’ve
absolutely bewitched me.”

“I’m glad you think so.”

Dean’s phone rings and he takes the call. I
pick up the iPad from the table and start researching graduate
programs. I find one that catches my attention at the UW, but I’m
longing for adventure and want to get a little farther from home.
Maybe New England? Somewhere close to New York City, but with
better traffic than Seattle. I find a program that interests me in
central Connecticut. I get up and grab a notepad I saw in a kitchen
drawer while I was making breakfast and resume my spot on the sofa
to make notes.

Dean and I continue like this until
mid-afternoon. It feels good being this comfortable with him that
we don’t have to entertain each other. I like him better for
it.

The market closes and Dean gets up and
stretches. I watch him as he walks into the kitchen, making coffee.
He is the epitome of sexiness in sweats and a T-shirt. I’m
imagining walking into the kitchen and attacking him; pulling his
pants down and putting his dick in my mouth, bending over the
counter and letting him take me from behind. Ohhh.

I’m interrupted by my day dreaming by Dean. I
realize he is looking at me funny; did he say something to me?
“What?”

“I said, can I make you some tea?”

“Yes please.”

“Where were you just now?”

“Nowhere.” I look down, feeling my face flush
with embarrassment.

“You’re a horrible liar Mallory.” Dean is
laughing and I choose to ignore his comment. I know he would
acquiesce to my advances, but I’d rather wait until we finish our
conversation from last night before we are intimate again. I’m just
going to keep this to myself.

Dean hands me my tea and sits next to me on
the sofa.

“You know,” he begins, sheepishly, and I know
by the look on his face that he’s going to say something that I
won’t like. “We need to talk about last night.”