Tasteless (22 page)

“Oh, yeah,” Rye said, turning to his nightstand where his box of condoms sat right on top.  She unwrapped a condom, handing it to him before he promptly put it on.

“Let’s do this,” he declared, leaning in on top of her.  She wrinkled her nose a little before laughing.

“Wait, what do you think of what I’m wearing?”

“I like it,” he said as he pulled off her underwear.

“Hold on, stop,” Rye frowned.  “I want to take it a little slower today.”  She reached up behind his neck, pulling his face to hers.  “Kiss me,” she whispered.  Jeremy thought for a second before leaning in, kissing her deeply.  Rye sighed, happy that he complied.  She felt his hands run down the smooth silk of her slip, reaching under it again and tugging at her panties.  Rye relented, letting him break from their kiss to pull them off.  When he succeeded, she sat up, pushing him down on his back.

“What are you doing?” Jeremy asked.  She straddled him, biting her lips as she ran her fingernails down his chest.

“I want to try something different,” she said.  “You know, be in a little more control.”

“Do you know what you’re doing?” He raised his eyebrows.  Rye frowned, blinking back.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“You know,” Jeremy shrugged, propping himself up on his elbows.  “You’re not exactly the most experienced girl I’ve been with and I don’t know… about you being on top.”

“Are you serious?” Rye sat back.  “I thought guys loved girls on top.”

“I mean, yeah,” Jeremy said.  “Normally.”

“What’s not normal about me?”

“Nothing,” Jeremy shook his head.  “I just… you know, wanted to be on top.”

“Why?” Rye asked.

“I need to be up early tomorrow,” he said.  “So I don’t really want to lay back here and wait for you to get the rhythm right.  It’s bad enough when I’m on top.”  Rye’s mouth dropped open.  She scrambled to the side of the bed before jumping out and pulling on her robe.

“I’m sorry I’m so
bad
at this,” Rye spat, looking around the room for her underwear.

“I didn’t mean it like that,” Jeremy said.  “Stop, hey look.”  He got out of bed, grabbing her by the shoulders.  “I’m sorry.  That came out
very
wrong, I hear that now.  I know you’re kind of… new to all this, so it’s okay, it doesn’t have to be perfect.”

He took her hand, leading her back to bed.

“Why don’t we just lay here and talk a little?” he asked.  “I really love talking to you. And I really don’t want our first fight to be about this.”

“Fine,” Rye sighed, holding her pillow up between them.

“You know, I’m just a very direct guy,” Jeremy said.  “That works for me, you know? That’s how we got right into our relationship in the first place.”

“I guess.”

“Besides, sex isn’t the most important thing in the world,” Jeremy continued.  “That’s just something the non-intellectual population likes to perpetuate.  If we want to prove any sort of evolution with the way our brain functions, we should be able to control our sexual desires once in awhile.”  Rye thought about what he said, wondering if there was any truth to it.  She felt angry that even now that she was finally in a relationship with Jeremy, he remained just as sexually frustrating.

“But you like sex, don’t you?” Rye asked, truly confused.

“What guy doesn’t?” he laughed.  “I fucking love sex.”

“I just don’t feel like you feel that way when we do it…”

“Well,” Jeremy shrugged.  “Like I said, it’s not the most important thing.  And no relationship’s perfect, you know.  Most people don’t have the kind of sex you see on television.  Media’s been lying to you.  Sex is just a basic human function.”

~

It was 1am and Rye had yet to fall asleep.  Jeremy’s words had stuck with her in a way that made her feel terrible.  Everything he had said sounded so logical, and yet her brain didn’t want to accept it.  She had imagined great love before and all the amazing sex she was missing out on in her solitude in Dutchess Plains.  And now that she finally had someone to have that with, it seemed her dreams would have to be dashed.  Maybe she
was
being unrealistic, maybe her naïve notions of what good sex meant was a result of her general inexperience.

Jeremy was snoring now, much louder than she could ever expect for someone so thin.  She grabbed her robe again, walking out to the common space and shutting the bedroom door behind her.  Rye sighed, plopping down on the couch and switching on her phone.  She sort of wish she had some girlfriends to talk to.  This definitely seemed like one of those conversations that should be had with the girls.  But she realized her “girls” were really just Gemma and Zoe and they only came as bonuses to her friendship with Sam.

She switched on the kitchen light, pouring herself a glass of wine.

Just as she did, her phone vibrated in her hand.  A text.

(1) Text From Sam

Her heart stopped.  She felt as if she had somehow summoned him with her thoughts.  With a hand held to her chest, she swiped her phone open.

I miss you,
it read.

She felt herself let out a happy little laugh despite the fact that she was just a little bit angry with his lack of contact.  But she was relieved to finally hear from him and stopped to enjoy his words before she replied.  Before she could start a text back, he sent another one.

Is that you or him in the kitchen?

Rye gasped, pulling her robe closed as she looked out the closest window.  It was the one right behind her in the kitchenette, leading to the fire escape.  She opened up the window, peeking her head out to look for him.  Rye couldn’t see anything but the seemingly empty courtyard that separated her building from the one behind it.  It was dark and it had apparently been raining as evidenced by the wet leaves on the trees.

Suddenly, she saw some movement.  A tall figure quickly ascended the bottom ladder of the fire escape.  She gasped, even as she realized it was Sam scaling their fire escape, climbing all the way up to the fifth floor.

“What are you doing!” she hissed, worried he’d slip on the wet metal.  But he didn’t, and she quickly found herself face to face with him.

“I wanted to see you,” he said.

“This is crazy, you could have called me and asked me to meet for coffee like a normal person.”

“I wanted to see you
immediately,
” Sam smiled.  He heart was still racing from shock, but the familiar sight warmed her.

“How’d you know where I was?”

“I followed your cab home,” he said.  “Then I hoped you’d leave his place, but you didn’t… because you apparently live here now.”  He pointed at her robe and glass of wine.  “So.  Is that stick figure asleep?”

“If you’re talking about Jeremy, yes.”

“Who the hell else would I be talking about,” Sam asked.  “May I come in?”

“This isn’t
actually
my home so I can’t invite you in,” Rye said.  “Besides, even if it was, why should I? You forgot about me as soon as you left the diner.  Even after all your big declarations about how much you cared about me.”

“I know,” he said.  “I needed a little time to think.  I actually went home.”

“To Hawaii?” Rye could feel her interest piqued.  She knew he hadn’t gone home in a long time and she wanted to know how it went.  But she quickly suppressed her desire to ask more questions.  She didn’t want to fall back into a friendship she didn’t know if she could trust.

“Yes,” he replied.  “We can talk about it if you let me in.”

“How exactly do you think Jeremy would react if he knew you were here?”

“You said he was asleep,” Sam shrugged.  “But I guess we could keep talking like this since I’m technically not inside.”  Rye sighed, watching as he pretended to get comfortable on the fire escape.

“I’ll go out there,” Rye said.  “So I feel like less of a dick.”

“But you’re in your pajamas,” Sam laughed.  He pointed at her floral print robe.  “And they’re grown up pajamas now, I guess.”

“We’re not in a place where you can joke yet,” she said, crawling out onto the fire escape.  She felt the slight night chill of autumn on its way and cursed herself for not thinking the idea through.  She could feel the rainwater seeping in through her robe.

“So what place are we in then?” Sam asked, his smile dropping slightly.  She watched as his eyes traveled down her body before meeting her eyes again.  “I’ve missed you so much.”

“I’ve missed you too,” she admitted.  “And I wanted to apologize for the way I reacted when you told me about my family.  I didn’t realize how delusional I’d become.”

“So if you know it’s true now, why do you still seem mad at me?”

“Because at the end, you abandoned me too,” Rye said.  “My family was gone as soon as the deal fell through.  But I didn’t expect that would happen with you as well.”

“I didn’t want you to convince me to come back,” he replied.  “I knew that I had made the right decision but I also knew you could be very persuasive.”

“If I were persuasive, more of my life would have gone my way.”

“Maybe it doesn’t work on everyone,” Sam said.  “But with me… I want to do anything that makes you happy.”  He looked away, running a thumb over his lower lip as he pretended to inspect the tree branch before him.

“I would have been happier if you had answered my calls,” Rye replied, placing a hand on his thigh.  She leaned into him a little, studying his face.  “I missed you so much, you know.  All I wanted was to talk to you.”

“I know,” he nodded.  “But it got complicated.  With me being unemployed again and having nowhere to go… with you dating Jeremy.”

“Oh, so you do know his name,” she teased.

“But you’d agree that he looks more like a praying mantis than he does a Jeremy, right?”

“Don’t be mean,” she laughed.

“Sorry,” he frowned.  “He’s just… such a dickwad.”

“Why don’t you like him?” Rye laughed.

“He just seems like kind of a tool,” Sam replied.  “All those guys at Taste Buddies think they’re hot shit because they can get into exclusive restaurants.  But they fucking work for a company called
Taste Buddies.
  How cool can you really be?”

“I don’t disagree,” Rye shrugged with a smile.

“So you really like him, huh?” Sam asked.  He stared at her, his hazel eyes holding the question to her.

“I do,” she said, though she wasn’t totally sure what it was she ever liked about him.  She broke her gaze from Sam, looking down at her lap to avoid giving herself away.

“And you guys clearly had some fun tonight,” he said.  Rye looked up to see him smirking before he pointed at the opening of her robe.  The edge of her lace halter was peeking out.

“Oh,” Rye blushed, pulling her robe shut and laughing.  “No, we didn’t get to that tonight.”

“I can’t believe you have sex with that thing,” Sam laughed.  “I mean, I can hardly believe you have sex at all.”  Rye quickly frowned.

“Why?” she asked.  “Why is it so hard to believe? Does everyone see me as some weird little virgin who never has sexual thoughts?”

“No,” Sam said, his face suddenly serious.  “Not at all.  I’m sure you do, it’s just that you never really express it.”  He reached over to turn his face to his.  “Hey, I’m really sorry.  I didn’t mean to… I don’t know.  I definitely didn’t mean to make you feel bad.  I guess I didn’t realize it was a sensitive topic…”

“No, it’s okay,” Rye shook her head, embarrassed.  “Forget it.”

“What is it?” Sam asked.  “I mean… I…” He hesitated as he looked for clues in her face.  “
Are
you a virgin?”

“No,” Rye laughed, wiping a tear that had formed in the corner of her eye.  “But I might as well be.  Jeremy made a comment tonight… about how obviously inexperienced I am.”

“Usually when a guy says that to a girl, it means he also has no idea what he’s doing,” Sam said.  “It also means he’s an asshole.”

“Oh no,” Rye waved her hand.  “I mean… you know.  He’s not wrong.”

“You have to know a thing or two if you picked this thing out,” Sam said, reaching to pull her robe open.  She gasped, giggling before hitting his hand and closing the robe again.

“Stop it,” Rye smiled.  “Let’s change the subject.”

“Why?” Sam asked.  “I like this subject.”

“There are a thousand other things that we could be and should be talking about since it’s been so long since we last spoke.”

“And I really can’t focus while wondering what the rest of that thing looks like under there,” Sam said.  Rye laughed, blushing at his interest.  It was what she had hoped to get from Jeremy.  She
did
want to show off how good she looked in it to someone who might appreciate it.  Rye pulled at the belt of her robe, parting the fabric to show him the slip.

“There you go,” Rye said.  “Now you don’t have to wonder.”

To her surprise, Sam looked away immediately.  He laughed, covering his eyes as he tipped his head back.

“Damn,” he exhaled.  “You could have given me some warning.”  Rye couldn’t tell if he actually liked what he saw, but she was amused by his reaction nonetheless.