The trip to the beach house was very short, and I noticed there was already a car in the driveway. “It’s AJ,” he said, a smile in his voice. “How do you know?” I asked. He parked the car. “He came yesterday to get things up and running.” We gathered all our things up, and walked into the house. “Hey, get down here!” he shouted, his voice echoing off the walls. A few seconds later a frantic stomping was heard upstairs, and we looked up to see AJ running down to greet us… well, Brian, that is. “Hey man!” he cried, giving Brian a brotherly hug. He looked over Brian’s shoulder at me, then whispered something in his ear. “Yeah, Elizabeth, this is AJ, AJ, Liz,” he said, introducing us. AJ shook my hand, then held onto it and cocked his head. “I swear I’ve seen you before,” he said. “Uh, yeah. She’s the jumper,” Brian said, grinning at me. “Jerk,” I said, embarrassed by the name he’d given me. AJ looked me over and smiled. “Sweet,” he said to no one in particular. “She’s gonna be our helper around here. I saved her from her oh-so-mundane job in Atlanta, didn’t I?” Brian asked me. I nodded and smiled at Brian, then glanced back at AJ, who was checking out my ass from the side. When he looked up to see Brian and I watching him, he straightened. “Ok… well, I’m gonna show Liz to her room, then, and AJ, why don’t you make us some drinks?” Brian asked, grinning ferociously at AJ. AJ just pouted, put out by his task, apparently, but left us to make the drinks.
My room was beautiful. No, that was probably an
understatement. It was gorgeous. High ceilings, a fan above the bed… the
bed. King sized, white cotton sheets
and a navy blue comforter, all for me.
It was like a dream. Brian
lugged my suitcase in through the door, and I ran to help him. “Put it on the bed,” I grunted, struggling
with the handle. On three we both threw
our weight into it, and went crashing onto the bed, which just happened to be
extra springy. I bounced up, the
suitcase bounced back off, and Brian hurtled into me. “We just keep ‘bumping’ into each other, don’t we?” he said from
above, that cute grin on his face. This
position was making my heart race, I was so close to him. I went to push him off, but when I put my
hand on his chest, all hell broke.
His heart was going just as
fast as mine, and I could feel it beneath the button-down he wore. I looked into his eyes and saw something
there. I don’t know what, but it was
something, and it was more than the empty eyes I’d been seeing the past few
days. “Brian,” I whispered, swallowing
hard. “You know what you’re
doing?” He ran his fingers down my
cheek. “Yeah. I’m going to kiss you, if you’ll let me,” he whispered back. His head descended, and my heart was
freaking out at the proximity. “I
can’t, Brian,” I said quickly. His eyes
opened and his eyebrows knotted together.
“Why not?” he asked, a look of rejection on his face. I sat up slowly, reaching for the fallen
bag. “Because… I don’t know. I want to, don’t get me wrong, but it just..
it doesn’t seem right to me… because of your divorce,” I finished in a low
voice so as not to let AJ hear. Brian
ran a hand through his hair and yawned sleepily. “I feel kinda dumb, but… you’re right. I’m sorry about that, by the way.” I smiled and hit him with a pillow from the bed. “Oh no, don’t be.”