Page 66 of Desperate Haste
“Hello there, beautiful,” he hums in my ear.
“Hey there. You seem happy today,” I can’t help but comment. He sets me down gently but I keep my arms around his neck.
“Do I not usually seem happy when I’m around you?” He squints down at me.
“No, you do. It’s just…these last few weeks have been hard on you. You’ve seemed a little…worn down, I guess.”
“Well I’m not worn down now, now am I?” he teases, pushing me back into my entryway and kicking the door shut behind him. His lips are on mine before I know what’s happening and he has me pinned against the wall. I willingly let him push his tongue into my mouth, excited by his change in demeanor. He looks at me with a grin after he pulls away, allowing us both to catch our breaths.
“Did something happen today?” I question, eyeing him skeptically.
“Why does something have to happen for me to be excited to see my girl?” His arms are pressed into the wall behind me as he drops his lips to my neck. A wave of energy shoots down my spine and warms my insides as he gently nibbles on the soft spot behind my ear.
I bring my hands to his chest and push him away only because if I don’t, I’ll lose all sense of self-control. It has been a minute since we have been intimate which I’m fine with but having him on me now reminds me of how badly I’m missing his touch.
“I amnot‘your girl,’” I say with a playful eye roll.
“Let me get on my knees for you and then try to tell me that you aren’t,” he offers, flicking his eyes between mine and my mouth. His hand slips under the dress I have on and quickly slides down my panties to cup my ass. As badly as I want him to, I stop him and pull the hand into my own.
“How about we just hangout for a little bit first?”
Dragging him towards the couch, he kicks off his shoes as we go and we find our spots next to one another. He sits down first and spreads his arms out wide as an invitation for me to settle in next to him which I take.
“Are you sure nothing happened before you came over?” I question again, so thoroughly stunned by the one eighty in both his attitude and energy levels since the last time I saw him.
“Yes, little fox, nothing happened. Why can’t you believe that I’m just happy to see you? Maybe it’s because you and Alice were right and I just needed a day to relax, ya ever think about that?” His fingers are woven into my hair as he finds a piece to play with. I’m tucked under his arm and pause for a moment, feeling like somethings off that he just isn’t telling me, but push the small seed of doubt out of my mind and turn my head to look at him.
“Okay, if you say so. I’m happy you’re so happy.” I push my lips together and he leans down to bring his lips to meet them. “And to make me happy, we’re going to watch my show.”
“Nooo,” he groans, dropping his head behind him before we both break into a fit of laughter.
And for a moment, I find hope that he’s coming out of the daze he’s been in and things are finally starting to get back to normal.
* * *
Several hours passand the Saturday afternoon turns to evening. We had successfully binged four hours of reality TV with minimal groaning from Malcolm but only because whenever he whined too loud about how everyone was dumb or that it was all for the camera, I would turn around and kiss him until he stopped. This was just the day we needed together.
“I’m getting kind of hungry, you want to order something?” I ask, pushing up from where I’m laying on his chest.
“Sure, you want me to go grab us some food from the bar?” His eyes go wide as the perfect excuse to go and check on things comes up.
“No.No bar, no talk about work. Alice promised to call if anything happened and she hasn’t. You still have a few hours left of your ‘no work’ day and I won’t let you ruin it.” I point a finger at him as I stand from the couch and cross the room, heading for the bathroom. He stays where he is on the couch and rolls his eyes before pulling his phone out of his pocket and scrolling through some messages. When I return to the living room a few minutes later, a pounding comes from my front door.
“Did you order crazy fast delivery while I was in the bathroom?” I joke, looking at him then over my shoulder towards my door.
“No,” he replies apprehensively. When the pounding gets louder, he gets up from the couch and comes to stand next to me. “What in the hell?”
“Open up, Ophelia, I know you’re in there,” a voice booms out from the other side of the door and I feel my whole body tense up. It’s a voice I haven’t heard in years and one I can’t believe I’m hearing now. He sounds drunk which isn’t a surprise knowing how he is. I take a few steps towards the door when Malcolm wraps a strong hand around my arm to stop me.
“You’re not answering that.”
“He won’t leave if I don’t.”
“You know who it is?”
More sounds of his fist hitting the wood ring out across my condo and I flinch instinctively—the memory of his fists coming down hard on my body comes back without pause.
“Yes, I know who it is. It’ll be fine, just let me get him to calm down and go away.” I press up onto my toes and kiss his cheek before pulling my shoulders back and taking a breath.
