Wilson Mooney, Almost Eighteen (12 page)

“
I don’t know if I can stay
on the couch,” he whispered tickling my neck. Chills chased rapid
down my spine. He was making it hard to justify my need to
wait.

“
I’ll wake you up early so
you can leave without being seen.” I wanted him to stay so bad I
could come up with any plan better than his excuses.

“
It’s not that. I don’t
know if I can stay on this couch with you in that bed.” He pressed
his lips to mine and tasted my desires that spoke louder than
words.

I felt his hands slide up my back and
pull me closer to him; my hands released the blanket and wrapped up
around his head. I felt my feet leave the ground as he kissed me
and carried me across the room. Like a feather, he set me tenderly
on the bed and pulled away. I didn’t want him to stop. All sense of
self preservation, moral values, and fears of the unknown
disappeared in the flash of his eyes. I wanted him forever. I
caught him around the neck and pulled him down on top of me. He was
comfortably heavy in all the right places. I pulled his shirt from
his pants and slid my hands up under across the skin on his back.
He was scorching hot. Urges stronger than any addiction rushed my
body. I tried to pull his shirt over his head. I wanted to see him.
The hair on his chest, the muscles forced under his tight skin, the
trail below his navel, I wanted to see all of it. He pulled away
from my lips and lifted his body off mine.

“
I think I better go to the
couch.” He bounced up off the bed. His shirt fell back over his
stomach. I didn’t argue, I was steaming and if I didn’t cool down,
I wasn’t going to be able to sleep. Odds were already stacked
against me that I wasn’t going to wake up early tomorrow to go
skiing. He grabbed the blanket from the floor and shook it out
before falling onto the enormous floral sofa. I lift my head from
the bed and watched him curl up, by himself, before I got up to
change into my pajamas.

“
Where are you
going?”

“
Get my PJ’s out of my bag
and change.”

“
You can change here. I’ll
close my eyes.” He adjusted his body under the blanket and squeezed
his eyes shut.

“
I want to brush my teeth
too. I’ll be right back.” I grabbed my stuff and snuck out the
door.

Before he missed me I was back. Fresh
breath, and comfortably dressed in my flannel PJ’s. Not the most
attractive outfit, but I really didn’t plan on sleeping in the same
room with him when I packed. I shut the door, ran and jumped onto
the bed. I turned to say goodnight and my heart dropped into my
stomach. He wasn’t on the sofa. His blanket was pushed towards the
end and his pillow was on the floor. He was gone. I felt a rush of
panic flood my mind. There had to be a logical explanation for him
not being here. I had to keep it together; I could do this. I slid
off the bed and sauntered to the door. Maybe he had to go to the
bathroom. Or he needed to get a drink. But what if Cindy saw him?
Or he got spooked and left. What if he decided I wasn’t worth it?
All the insecurities embedded in me by my mother flooded over
me.

I was only six years old when I woke
up at three-thirty in the morning, terrorized by a nightmare and my
mom was nowhere to be found. Seven hours later, at ten forty-five,
she stumbled into the apartment smelling of burnt cigarettes and
cheap booze. When I tried to tell her I was scared, she wouldn’t
listen; instead she lectured me about her long night and how
selfish I was for not letting her sleep.

The door swung open and Max was
carrying two glasses of water.

“
Nice PJ’s. I thought you
might be thirsty. Besides after you drink alcohol, you should
hydrate.” He pushed one of the waters at me.

Tears welled in my
eyes.
Damn it! I didn’t want to be one of
those girls.

“
What’s wrong? You okay?”
He held me, searching for answers.

“
Nothing. It’s just I guess
I’m not use to things like this.” I held the water glass up to
him.

“
A glass of water?” He
looked at me crazy, I smiled.

“
Yeah, that’s
it.”

“
Well, maybe you should get
used to it.” He pulled me closer and gave me a delicate kiss on my
forehead before he turned and went to the sofa. I crawled into
bed.

“
Max?”

“
Yeah?”

“
Will you sleep next to
me?” My hands tingled and my feet went cold. He looked so inviting.
I wanted his arms around me and his body against me.

“
I thought you’d never ask.
Yes, please.” He flipped his blanket off, hopped over me and
crawled into bed behind me. I felt his hand slide up my thigh
across my hip and tuck around my waist. His face planted into the
curve of my neck and the space between our bodies lessened. I could
get real used to this.

Chapter Nine:

“
Wilson, get up! We gotta
go,” Cindy yelled and pounded on my door.

Good thing the door was locked. Last
thing I needed was Cindy jumping to all these crazy conclusions
about Max and me.

She kept on pounding and yelling,
“Come on, let me in.” I would have thought she was still bent out
of shape about me telling her off last night.

“
Okay hold on,” I yelled
back. Hopefully I was loud enough to shut her up.

I turned to look at Max and noticed he
wasn’t there. I pushed my hand around the sheets. His side of the
bed was still warm. I popped up and looked around the room. He was
sitting on the sofa frantically tying his shoes.

“
What are you doing?” I
whispered.

“
I can’t take the chance of
her finding me with you,” he whispered. He snuck his belt and his
jacket from the sofa.

“
Who are you talking to?”
Cindy hit the door again and Max jumped behind the arm of the sofa.
He was like a spooked cat that found a dead snake. He was so
worried about her, it almost ruined my morning.

“
Nobody, I am trying to get
dressed. I’ll meet you downstairs. Give me five minutes okay?” I
walked over to the door and waited to hear what she would grumble
under her breath.

“
Fine, but hurry up. I want
to get there before the Vaughn’s. They are so last season.” I
listened for her footsteps to disappear down the hall.

“
That was a close call.” I
turned and he was right in front of me.

“
Yeah, it was. What are we
going to do?”

“
About what?”

“
About getting out of here
without being seen?” his voice strained.

“
I don’t know. That jump
you did over the arm of the sofa was pretty impressive. Maybe
you’ll have to climb out the window?” I teased him. I am so glad I
did, because he grabbed me around my thighs, hoisted me up on his
shoulder and tossed me on the bed.

I totally screamed loud when he let go
of me. He stood there his finger across his pursed lips. I couldn’t
stop laughing. Next thing I knew he was lying on top of me. His
legs straddled mine and his hand cupped across my mouth.

“
Shhhhh. You don’t want
Cindy back up here, do you?” His eyes blazed wicked and I liked
it.

I shook my head; he was still covering
my mouth.

“
I’m going to let go, don’t
laugh.” He pulled his hand from my mouth. “Don’t laugh,” he
teased.

I didn’t know how I was going to keep
my feelings for him secret. He looks at me and I melt. How was I
going to keep that from Cindy? How was I ever going sit in another
room with him and not totally broadcast how I felt? How were we
supposed to act when people were around? Couldn’t I just stay in
this room with him forever? I could just live in his eyes all day;
breathe in his scent for the rest of my life. I loved that
idea.

“
Hello? Where are you?” He
rested his forehead on mine.

“
Right here, with you.” He
lowered his mouth to mine teasing me barely touching his lips to
mine.
So, not fair
. Then he kissed me and I didn’t care about the sounds we
made. He was on top of me and I wasn’t able to get up. I could feel
him wanting more than we had time for. He pulled his lips from mine
and trailed down my neck to my collarbone. I leaned my head back
and I wanted him to go further.

“
Aaahhh, I can’t—wait.
You’re so impossible to resist,” he sighed. “I gotta wait. I gotta
wait,” he chanted reminding himself of his self-imposed limits. I
guess they were my limits too. At the rate we were going, they were
going to be impossible to keep much longer. He crawled back off me.
I lay there for a minute to regroup the butterflies that decided to
fly south. Bring them back to the cage in my gut.

I had to get up; get ready
to go skiing. I had to leave Max all day so I can put long skinny
planks on my feet, sticks in my hands and slide down a hill covered
in cement hard freezing snow. It’s not like I had anything better
to do. I
so
did
not want to go. The only thing I looked forward to was trying to
find time and sneak away with Max.

I dragged myself off the bed and
rummaged through my bag. I found a pair of fashionably ripped up
jeans and a long sleeve scoop neck t-shirt. Perfect; today, it had
to be about the outfit I wore, not the functionality of
it.

“
I’m going to change and go
downstairs. I’ll keep Cindy busy while you find your way out,” I
told him, not because I wanted him to leave; I needed to remind
myself that I didn’t want Cindy to know anything about Max and
me.

“
Thanks.” He grabbed my
hand, pulled me into a hug and kissed my forehead.

“
You’re welcome. I’ll text
you when we get to the ski lodge.”

“
Bye.” He pecked me on the
lips. Good self-control. Not too long, lingering on the lips. I
left and glanced back for a split second while I shut the
door.

That was so hard. I took a deep breath
and tried to shake off the disappointment that crept into my mind.
I didn’t want to leave him, I didn’t want to ski, and I didn’t want
to hang with Cindy for the day knowing that Max was going to be
near but unobtainable.

“
There you are! How you
feeling?” Nick caught me coming down the stairs.

“
I’m fine. A little tired.
How about you? You were pretty wasted last night.” I twisted the
jeans I was carrying into a ball, adjusting them from one hand to
the other. I had to keep busy and look interested.

“
My head is throbbing, but
other than that, I’m up.” He rubbed his head, messing up his
hair.

“
I guess that’s the best
you can ask for. I’d better find Cindy, she’s already pissed that I
wasn’t up earlier. See you later.” I started down the
stairs.

“
Oh hey Wilson, don’t worry
about the thing with Max Goldstein.” He started back up the
stairs.

What? Wait, what the hell
was that? What did he mean, thing with Max.
My heart dropped clear down to my toes.
What does he know about us?
I turned
back to him.

“
Max?” I played it as naïve
as I could. I had to cover any trace of anything between Max and
me.

“
Come on Wilson, I know
what’s going on between you guys.”

“
What’s going on? There’s
nothing going on.” I pushed the words hard. I needed make him
believe nothing was going on.

“
I heard you last night.
But look, I talked to Cindy this morning and everything is cool.
She understands.” He stepped down a couple of stairs to be eye
level with me.

It’s over. That’s it, we
are so caught. Max’s career is over. He’ll have to resign from
Wesley. I won’t see him anymore and since I caused him to lose his
job, he’ll hate me. I don’t think I can handle him hating
me.
Every feeling I felt last night was
tainted with guilt and my memory of us together last night was
totally ruined.
I just can’t let that
happen.

“
Nothing happened. It would
be her word against mine because nothing happened.” Desperate words
flew from my mouth, trying to find a way to convince Nick to
believe me. My hands wrapped tight in the clothes I was holding. I
felt the edges of my ears burn red. My stomach twisted and I could
feel the urge to get sick bubble to the back of my
throat.

“
I heard different. I guess
you ripped Cindy another hole and she just stood there, shocked.”
He acted out what he thought she would look like. “I would’ve paid
money to see that.” He started to laugh. I was totally
confused.

“
What are you talking
about?” I shifted my weight across to my other leg and felt the
fuzz of confusion cloud my head.

“
The fight you and Cindy
got into last night? About Goldstein—because he happened to show up
to a jailbait drinking fest. Why? What are you talking about?” He
cocked his head, waiting for an answer.

“
Oh yeah. Okay, that’s what
I thought you were talking about. I got a little confused. I guess
I drank more than I thought last night. It takes a little time for
words to catch up to my brain.” Relief splashed my body. I dodged a
pretty big bullet.
Thank you God or
whoever is watching over me.
I turned to
continue down the stairs.