The first time she
asked, he'd had a legitimate reason to back out. 'Nuh-uh,' he said, inwardly
thankful for his hard-as-nails boss. 'I have a huge presentation the day after, don't even -' 'Get you started?' she'd
said dryly, and he'd blushed hard. Okay, so he spent inordinate hours
complaining about work. That still didn't deter him from using it as an excuse
to not join her. Rolling her eyes, she'd flounced off to her own drawing board.
The second time it
happened, he was attacking her and she - happily for him - was enjoying it very much indeed. The moment came (ahem) when he was nuzzling her smooth
inner thigh. Breathlessly, she gasped out her request, meeting his astonished
eyes with her own, low-lidded and dark with lust. He didn't say a word - didn't
have to, not when he bent his head in a sudden moment of inspiration and she
was blazing home with no memory afterward of her question.
Then again, she'd
always had that annoying habit of springing something on him when he was at his
most vulnerable. So it came to this - a week after that particularly
pleasurable night, when he was sprawled out on the sofa in his boxers having
just downed a plate and a half of lasagne, and completely at peace with a copy
of Jurassic Park, he didn't look up
till a loud thump shocked him into doing just that.
'What?' he barked,
snappy because he was startled. She didn't give a damn though (Never did, he thought wryly). Instead
she grinned at him happily and mouthed what she wanted. 'Come on, I've been
asking you forever and you always refuse!'
He gulped and promptly
rolled off the sofa. 'I - er, can't. Not tonight, anyway,' he said. 'Why not?'
she asked, annoyed. 'Because, uh...I have to finish this. Yeah, can't keep it
too long here, heh,' he said, his voice sounding irritatingly jaunty even to
himself. She raised an eyebrow. 'You borrowed it from me,' she said, pointing at the book. 'And in case you haven't
noticed, I'm not a librarian - unless you want me to be.' The last part was
drawn out in a whisper and his throat went dry for an entirely different
reason.
'Okay, fine!' he said,
sitting up. 'I just don't want to, all right!' He glared at her; she was
unfazed. Instead she frowned and plopped down next to him.
'Funnily enough, I'd
figured that out myself. Why, though?' He sighed, she could be so incredibly stupid sometimes. 'It's because that thing -' and he pointed at the offending
object '-is not for grown men! Or for
grown ANYBODY!'
Her frown deepened.
'It's just a one-time thing! I have to put up with your stupid ABBA records every time we go on a long road
trip -' He gasped angrily. 'You said you liked those!'
'Well, I do and I'm not
lying,' she said exasperatedly. 'I'm just wondering why you can't do the same
thing for me!'
He threw his hands up
in despair. 'It represents an ideal world where ironically stereotypes still
persist! And - come on - it's so childish.'
She was foaming at the
mouth now. 'Did you think of all those words by yourself?' she asked
sarcastically. 'For your information, this
one doesn't have any of that. And - no, listen to me!' she shouted as he opened
his mouth to retaliate. 'You're such a hypocrite! What do you want from me? One
moment you're saying you're glad I'm some wacky 500-Shades-of-Summer girl, dressed in sweats, blowing raspberrys at
Taylor Swift, and screaming inappropriate shit at the top of my voice, and the
next moment you want me to put my hair up and talk about the existential crisis
that pervades our race while watching Night
and Fog. Yes, I loved that too, that's not the point!' she screamed when he
got to his feet.
Then her eyes grew big.
'Why am I - just me, all of me - not enough?' He stopped, gaping.
This was NOT how things were supposed to go. How did this discussion end up being
about her?
She was still looking
at him dolefully. Her eyes grew bigger; they were starting to become
suspiciously shiny, too. 'Do you have to
categorize everything you do or like? I guess - I just,' here she laughed sadly
, and his heart contracted even more. 'I just miss the days we could cut
ourselves some slack, have a laugh without analyzing every bit of what we do
together.'
He sighed and bent his
head. She was right, of course. He just wished he wasn't so upset about it - he
hated feeling guilty when he'd started
out all righteous. She was good at giving him the most vicious reality checks.
He finally looked up to
smile at her. 'All right,' he said.
'Just - next time, don't guilt trip me into watching Mulan with you again. Just ask me once, I'll do it.'
The joy that lit her
face was brilliant. 'Yay! And I just got the DVD player working again too. I've
never missed watching Mulan each year, ever since I was
three,' she babbled excitedly as he snuggled up next to her. He grinned; she
really did want to share something she loved so much with him. And although it made
him all the more ashamed of himself, he couldn't help but feel a little
honoured, too. He - well, he loved
her, he thought, ducking his head and blushing to himself.
It was an hour and a half
before he could pick his jaw off the floor. 'This. Movie. Is. The. BEST,' he
said, a tingling down his spine signalling the same. He'd had it before, when
he first watched Trainspotting. 'It
was so great, especially the part where she-' he said, turning to her before
stopping short. She was curled up tightly around his back...and asleep.
Well,
that was just great, he grumbled in his head, wiggling so
that his nose was level with her throat,
and he could breathe her in. I'll make
her regret this thoroughly; tomorrow I'm going to download every Disney
princess movie and force her to watch them with me, and then we'll move to
stuff I like - the whole American Pie series, and all the worst Sacha Baron
Cohen ones, and then -
He was asleep within
seconds.
