5 Missed calls from Father.
PRUDENCE
“Why are you fidgeting?” Nate asks with a frown, his arms crossed over his large chest. “Her planeliterallyjust landed. Give her time to get out of it and get her bags.”
“I know,” I answer, trying to focus on anything other than him.
I’m not proud about the way I fled. I jumped in a cab after our short yoga session, and made sure to book Ubers before he could ring our doorbell to take me to work for the rest of the week. If it wasn’t for Jack’s trap, I would have kept avoiding being alone with him.
I know, the list of people I want to avoid is getting longer. Two names. Well, no, three. I don’t particularly want to end up in the same room as Meredith again. A whole three people. An ex lover, his wife, and my brother’s best friend who had a hard-on that lasted way too long for comfort. I wonder if he had any blood left in his brain at the end of the night. Because,of course,no one found me a non-human chair in the three hours we stayed there. Which resulted in me sitting on Nate’s lap for what felt like a week, feeling him twitch and tense under me every time I moved. Surrounded by his warmth and smell. And of course, my heart got all excited when he murmured soft praises in my ear during that weird episode at the precinct gym. Wecan’thave that.
Am I acting like a child for avoiding the problem? Definitely. Am I ready to talk about any of that and the vivid dreams that followed? Hm… No. Definitely not. I’ll look like a tomato. Wedon’twant that.
“Where the hell is your brother? He was supposed to meet us here with—”
“Not coming,” I sigh, rolling my eyes. “I think he’s taking the opportunity of us being away to spend time with Ikram.” I clear my throat awkwardly when I feel his eyes on me. I still won’t look directly at him.
“Spend time with Ikram… As in—”
“They are both interested in each other,” I shrug, frowning at the arrival board. “I think I’ve managed to convince Jack to give it a shot. We’ll probably know if someone else replaces Ikram on Monday, since it would be—”
“Unethical,” he interrupts. “Yeah.”
He seems annoyed. Does he have a problem with Jack and Ikram potentially dating?
“Is… Is this a problem?” I ask, eyes locked on the lines moving up with each new flight landing.
“It’s not.”
“Why the snappy tone, then?”
“Are we really not going to talk about it?” He groans, and I can’t help but look at him then. Worry? Hurt? Anger? Why can’t I read him?
I see his jaw twitch once. Twice, before he exhales roughly through his nose, shaking his head slowly. “Look, I’m not sure why you’re mad at me. You’ve been weird since Friday night and then you just proceeded to avoid me after a few days, so I’ll assume it’s about what happened at Tipsy’s. I tried to control it, but it’s difficult, alright? I’m probably more embarrassed than you are, so please, can we just let it go and move on?”
Alright. So he knows why I’ve been avoiding him. Or part of it at least… He doesn’t know about my mind getting all kind of fucked up because of it. Because of that whole night, his hands on me during yoga, his words…
Between him telling me how beautiful and perfect he thinks I am, getting all close at the bar and on the mat, making me sit on his lap and those noises and groans every time I moved? My sexual storytelling brain was blinking like a Christmas tree. And speaking of trees.
Fuck, no thinking abouttrees…
I mean, I shouldn’t have been fantasizing about it. That definitely felt like it could hurt.
Or not, if used skillfully…
I’m more embarrassed about all those fantasies—either I was asleep or awake—than the actual incidents. I mean, the amount of time I spent in my own head, even at work, is embarrassing.
“Prue, come on…” he says, taking a side step towards me, stopping when his bicep touches my shoulder and nudges me slightly. “It was an automatic response. Trust me, if I could have stopped it, I would have,” he mutters, and the roughness of his voice makes my lower stomach flutter and thighs clench.
“You’re right, I’m so—ouch! What was that for?” I swat at his hand, pinching my waist with a frown.
“No apologies,” he grins playfully, lowering his head to mine and my breath itches from his closeness. God, his eyes are so blue, it’s unsettling… “Let’s just agree to move on. We were starting to get along, I don’t want us to take a step back.”
I scoff. “Easy for you to say,” I mutter under my breath.
“What?”
“Nothing. Where’s Nuri? She should have been here by now,” I say, focusing back on the arrival board and ignoring the narrowing of his eyes.
