Chapter 10

Quin Playlist: ‘Save tonight’ – Eagle-eye Cherry

I’ve been at Lista’s since 4.15pm. It’s now 7.30pm. We’ve gotten through the work session and now I’m sipping an old fashioned that Lista made me whilst helping her build furniture. We briefly discovered our shared interest of The Holiday , so we’ve now put it on in the background. She didn’t even make fun of me for being a fan of a great romance film. I genuinely don’t think I’d rather be doing anything else. Her apartment is great; It’s comfortable, warm and the kind of place I imagined she’d have. It’s minimal and decluttered, but cosy, with a mixture of natural dark woods, dark furniture, beige walls and pops of burnt orange. The fairy lights and candles add such a calming atmosphere, and Edith is nestled between a set of soft pillows and a fluffy throw on the sofa. It feels like a home. I could quite happily see myself here with her often. I’m pulled out of my thoughts when she gently places the hammer down on the unfinished chest of drawers whilst she readjusts her position. “What are you thinking about?” a gentle voice asks me.

I regain control of my mind and come back to reality. “Sorry” I say softly, snapping out of my thoughts. “I’m just content. I was appreciating your apartment. It’s homely. Thanks for having me”.

“Thank you. That means a lot. I thought I’d be burdening you with having to work here, so I’m pleased to hear that. It’s been a pleasure having you” she says as she sips her old fashioned. We’ve ordered food and kept the drinks coming. I’m not drunk or even tipsy, but I’m feeling relaxed and slightly merry. My mind is looser than usual and I’m appreciating Lista even more than I do normally. It's dangerous territory. I’m still trying to remain professional, but this evening feels out of the professional boundaries and my body has a mind of its own.

Just in the nick of time, as I go to lean forward towards Lista, disaster saves me from doing something I may have regret.

“Fuck. Shit!” accidently leaves my mouth when the hammer Lista just placed on the table slips off and onto my hand, shattering the glass I was drinking from. The shards of glass fly between us both and my first concern is her. Lista leans toward me. “Fuck Quin, I’m so sorry. that was my fault. I’m so sorry” she says panicking. “Lista, are you hurt? Do you have glass on you” I say as I lightly graze her arms with my right hand.

We’re both covered in Whiskey and there are small shards of glass in her right arm and on her legs. I’ve got some in my left hand and on my trousers, alongside a cut in my palm. We both stand. She helps me get up from the floor and we walk towards the bathroom.

“I’m fine Quin, just a few shards. I’m so sorry”. She rests her hand gently on the one I’ve cut.

“There’s blood on your shirt Quin. Let’s start removing the shards and then get your hand bandaged up. As if you’ve got another hand injury after just healing from your last injury” she says as she stands close to me, removing the shards of glass bit by bit from my hand and wrist, shaking her head and looking worried.

“Lista I’m ok. It’s not your fault. The hammer just slipped”. She doesn’t respond, and just continues nursing my hand.

“Hold put” she says suddenly. She runs to the kitchen, reaches into the cupboard, grabs the first aid box and runs back into me. She opens up the box, standing close to me again and cleans the cut on my palm gently, before wrapping a small bandage around my hand tightly. She seems to know exactly what she’s doing. “You seem well practised at this” I say curiously, trying to lighten the mood. She smiles and raises her eyebrows. “It’s a good job isn’t it? After the accident, I wanted to ensure I could learn lifesaving skills. So I’ve had extensive first aid training and keep up to date with it each year where I can. It sure comes in handy. Now, without sounding weird Quin, you need to take your clothes off”. Heat crawls up my body and my eyes widen. “Is this also part of the first aid training?” I ask, jokingly.

She laughs and shakes her head at me.

“I’ll have to take mine off too once I’ve taken the glass out. We’ll need to give everything a good shake outside and bag yours up. We’re both covered in shards. It’s not safe. Plus, we’ll end up getting them all over the floor if we continue walking around in these clothes, and I don’t want to put kitty Edith in danger too”.

I’m still not sure what to say so I just go with what comes to mind.

“Lista, I don’t have anything else to wear, and I’m pretty sure being in just my boxers in your house isn’t going to make either of us feel too comfortable”. I probably shouldn’t have said that.

She blushes deeply, smiling and looking anywhere but at me. “Let me remove the glass from myself and I’ll see what I can find” she says whilst examining her arm. I move across to her and start helping her remove the tiny pieces of glass sticking out of her skin. It aggravates me to know that her perfect fucking skin is injured.

“I’m not sure if you’ve noticed but I’m quite a lot bigger than you in clothes size” I say, trying to lighten the mood.

She looks up. I’ve managed to make her smile. Our eyes meet and we look at each other for a few seconds before she responds. The tension between us is nothing I’ve felt before. It’s distracting.

“ Obviously I’m not going to give you my clothes, you big dummy” she says whilst giving my chest a little tap “I think I have some spare tucked away from when Reed came over to help me decorate. Long story, but I bought everyone clothes to paint in so they wouldn’t get their clothes messy. Reed left his here. Luckily . Also, you don’t need to help me Quin. You can just relax your hand. I won’t be long”. She’s so adamant about me not helping, but she’s not winning this.

“Lista, I’m making sure you’re ok. You were also covered in glass, and I’d rather stand here and help you, than risk you being injured”. We stand in silence until each shard is removed from her. We walk into her room, and she slowly starts unbuttoning my shirt. Not at all how I imagined this evening to go. And if I did imagine this scenario, it would not be because I was covered in glass.

“I’m sorry. This is so weird, but your hand is hurt, and you need this shirt off”, she says apologetically. She’s stood so close to me; I can feel the warmth of her breath on the skin of my abdomen. She gently pulls my shirt open and then peels it off of me, slowly.

She has to lean closer and reach up to get my shirt off, over my shoulders and down my arms, since our height and builds are so different. I can see that she’s trying not to look at my body, but her eyes trace the tattoos on my right arm. I can feel heat rushing through my body with her this close.

“Holy shit Quin, I know Edward said you had bruised and broken ribs, but I didn’t realise how bruised your abdomen would be” she says as she gently runs her slightly calloused fingers across my bruises. It’s heavenly.

“How do you feel now? It looks so sore” she says.

I take her hand that’s on my bare abdomen and gently graze my thumb over it. “I’m ok now Lista”. Blood rushes through my veins and I’m so tempted to pull her into me. The tension is sweet, but when we both realise that we’ve been silent for a while, touching each other, we snap out of it. She looks down and then back up to me, running her fingers across my arms to feel for glass. “Do you feel any shards on your skin or are you ok?” she asks me.

“No all good” I say, although wishing there was some way to prolong this moment between us. She grabs some clothes from inside the bottom drawer and passes them to me. “If you turn around, we can both get changed. Then we can sort our glass covered clothes if that’s ok?”. Turning around and removing my trousers, knowing she’s undressing behind me is immense. I really did not expect this evening to end up like this. “That’s fine Lista. As long as you feel comfortable with me being in the room”. She looks at me reassuringly.

“I trust you Quin”.

The trousers she has given me fit ok. They’re men’s dark grey jogging bottoms. They’re a little on the small side, which I gathered, since Reed is slimmer than I am, but it’s better than my clothes being full of glass. I’m a little worried the trousers are a quite... figure hugging in the dick region, but there’s not much I can do right now. The T-shirt is plain black and again, it’s snug. I don’t usually wear tight clothing, so this is a first. It definitely leaves nothing to the imagination. Like seriously , nothing.

“Ouch. shit”. I hear her mutter under her breath.

“Are you ok?” I ask, concerned. Still making sure to keep my eyes away from her.

“Yeah, I think some of the glass came off my shirt whilst I took it off. I can feel a sore spot on my upper back and on my collar bone”.

“Do you need me to take a look?” I say hesitantly.

“Erm, if you could, please” she says. I can feel her blushing from here. I turn to see her lifting her top and exposing her back. She has the most incredible tattoo down her spine, from the base of her neck, going past the waistband of her joggers that hug her waist. I assume it reaches the bottom of her back. There are whisps of ink peering from around her ribs. I can just see them slightly. I want to kiss them. Shit, I can’t be thinking like this. She trusts me, and I’m her friend before anything else. But fuck, she’s insanely beautiful. Her body is a powerhouse. An hourglass with scars and stretch marks that paint her history on her skin. It’s breathtaking.

I touch her upper back delicately with my fingertips, brushing away loose strands of hair. She winces when I lightly graze over the sore area where a shard of glass has stuck in her skin. I pick it out and place it in the bin to the side.

“I’ve taken out that piece. Feel any better? Let me check for others”. She nods in reply. I smooth the edge of my finger over the surface of her back. She shivers as I move across a sensitive part, goosebumps raising over her skin, under my fingers. Both of our breathing gets deeper. “Your back is all good” I say, as I unroll her top, covering her back up.

I move around to face her. The front of her top is low cut and held up, over her shoulders by thin spaghetti straps, exposing her chest and neck.

“Let me check your collarbone” I say, gently, worried I might scare her off. She stretches up slightly to close the distance between us, as I bend down. She gathers her hair and moves it over to one shoulder, allowing me to see her skin clearly. I lean my head towards her right side, but the light is blocked. “I see the clothes fit you… just about” she says, biting her lower lip and letting out a brief low laugh as she tilts her head down, giggling into her chest. I laugh through my smile and pinch at her arm. “Stop distracting me, Miss Harper” I say. Without even thinking, I place my hands on her waist and move her with me until she’s under the light. I sit on the bed so I’m closer to her in height, and my head is able to line up better to her neck and collarbone. I look up at her and our eyes meet.

“I’m so sorry. I did that without thinking. I should’ve asked you to walk over to the light–.”

She interrupts me by placing a finger to my lips gently.

“It’s fine Quin. I’ve told you I trust you”. She moves her finger across my jaw and settles It back by her side. I place my bandaged hand at the nape of her neck to steady her whilst I check her collarbone thoroughly for any remnants of glass. As I search for any shards, I notice her breathing getting heavier. I brush away anything lingering on her skin and bring my head back up so that we’re face to face. My hand stays at the back of her neck. I can’t explain why. We look at each other for a short while in silence. Her eyes are telling me she’s still feeling guilty. She reaches my bandaged hand and pulls it from her neck and into her palms. She examines it before placing it against her chest as though she wants to heal me. Little does she know; she’s doing exactly that by just existing.

“I’m sorry you ended up injured… again. You’d have been fine if I’d never asked you to come here –.”

I stop her by doing as she did to me. I place my finger across her lips. She closes her eyes, almost leaning into my finger. I slowly move my finger from her lips and trail it across her jaw before cupping it.

“Like I said, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else”.

We stay that way for a short while. Both breathing deeply. It’s clear that she can feel the tension between us too. My palm cups her jaw as my large fingers graze her neck. Her eyes are glowing. They’re like two planets filling a dull space with energy, light and pure beauty and I want them closer to me. I want her as close to me as possible, but I’m not sure if she wants me too. I lift my other hand and brush it against hers, before gently resting it on the dip of her waist. She quietly whimpers as my hand makes contact with her. Neither of us say a word.

She steps even closer to me, closing the small gap that separates us. We both lean towards one another; my hand still cupping her jaw, guiding her face towards mine. She places her hand against my neck and uses her fingers to draw circles on my skin as our foreheads and noses meet. We breathe each other in gently, both trembling slightly. As our lips begin to meet, we both smile. I’m so ready to have her lips on mine again, but more this time. Deeper and harder. We make contact briefly. It’s soothing, sweet and it’s like I can feel the fireworks again from the last time. Our grips tighten on each other and her hips inch closer between my legs as the clothing around my dick tightens.

But the doorbell rings and startles us both, pulling us out of our trance. Just. Why? We both raise our heads, so our eyes meet, before we let out a hushed laugh, lightly resting our foreheads together again before Lista peels herself away from me. As she walks away, she looks over her shoulder at me, smiling. Her eyes glistening. “You look good in those tight clothes” she says, looking me up and down .

Whilst she’s heading to the door, I let my erection and my body in general calm down. It takes everything in me to not run and grab her again, but I resist. I’d rather whatever it is between us, be on Lista’s terms. When I’ve composed myself, I walk out of her room and stand against the kitchen doorway. She’s deposited the pizzas on the kitchen surface and is now sifting through the cupboards getting cleaning supplies. I can just picture myself lifting her up onto the kitchen surface, standing between her legs and kissing her from head to toe.

She turns to me and looks down. Her face filled with an embarrassed but joyful smile. “I kind of forgot that I needed to clean the living room, so I’m going to do that now before I get distracted again” she says as she bites her lip and playfully smiles my way.

We both clear up the broken glass and whiskey from the living room, shake off our clothes in the apartments back garden and finish off building the drawers whilst sharing another drink and eating our pizza. We continue to flirt but steer clear of discussing what happened between us earlier. I order a taxi eventually and she follows me to the door to see me out. She leans against the wall closest to the door.

“Here’s your clothes. I’ve popped them in a bag so that the taxi is safe from any left-over glass. I genuinely am so sorry about that Quin. But thank you for such a great evening and for helping me out. It’s been fun. I needed it after yesterday” she says. My phone pings. It’s the taxi letting me know it’s around the corner.

“Thanks for a great evening Lista. It’s been a blast” I say, when a newfound confidence flows through me. I realise I can’t just leave it where we ended earlier before we were interrupted.

I move into the space between us and wrap my arm around her waist, placing my other on the wall behind her as I lean forward and press my lips to hers. She grabs my face gently and runs her fingers through my hair. Fuck , this is even better than the first time I kissed her. I don’t want it to end, but I know I can’t let it go any further right now. I’ll have to relive this to ease the growing bulge in my pants when I’m home.

We regrettably pull our lips apart, but our foreheads are still touching. She gives me one last peck before our bodies separate and I walk out of her door and into my taxi.

On the drive home all I can think about is how my body feels when it’s pressed up against hers. How right the world feels when I’m with her. How balance is somehow restored.