A short tale of romance for Valentine’s Day. (No time for preliminary shenanigans today—I’ve got a hot date to get ready for!).
Once again, I must thank the dealer,
, for supplying another great prompt. You can check out his story here.Love you all for reading!
Enjoy,
c.d.
boundaries
Jayden was never going to be a math whiz but tonight his brain was afire with arithmetic. Adding and subtracting the signs, searching for a missing integer he might need to complete the equation. It was heavy stuff to be sure, but Jayden did his level best to affect a suave, nonchalant demeanour in a desperate gamble to cover up his divided focus. He doubted Melanie was fooled but he felt compelled to put on a brave face anyway.
His mental math went something like this: they liked each other, a lot (this was no superficial fling but the real deal) + they were on their fifth date and their connection was growing stronger with every passing minute + the way she was looking at him tonight felt… different… as if a playful curiosity danced behind those pale blue eyes (and he hoped it meant what he thought it meant) + and (this was the most significant factor) they had laughed more tonight than ever before. Riotous, uninhibited laughter. A shared energy that sizzled like lightning in the air between them.
His instincts were screaming at him to go for it.
The wrecking ball in his stomach, however, suggested otherwise.
Jayden felt himself caught between desire and fear, horrified by the potential for embarrassment, disaster even—the sheer vulnerability alone caused his balls to tighten like the knot in his stomach. And his terror only deepened when words began tumbling out of his mouth and onto eager ears.
“I was hoping, or rather I was wondering… c-can I kiss you, Melanie?” he asked, hoping he sounded cooler and more confident than he knew he did.
In response, Melanie’s lips hitched up in a wide grin and she tucked voluminous waves of dark hair behind her ear. Then she leaned in, grabbed both sides of his face with her warm, slender hands, and planted a fat, wet kiss right on his lips. Which was followed by several more… and also several more again after that. In other words, their red lips and eager tongues made the most enthusiastic of acquaintances.
Eventually, she pulled her face away from his but she left her hands loosely clasped around his neck, maintaining a connection which she wasn’t ready to relinquish quite yet. Melanie’s cheeks, like Jayden’s, were flushed, and there was something in her eyes—something new—that Jayden hadn’t seen before. A hunger perhaps. The air between them was hot with their breath. And still electric, too. They basked in it. The kind of blissful moment that makes your soul ache because it knows you can never return. An eternal moment that never seems to last long enough.
“Wow,” he said.
Which was stupid. But they both laughed anyway. The exhilaration of their connection had made them drunk. And each longed for another hearty draught.
When their laughter subsided, Melanie asked Jayden what had taken him so long.
He thought about it for a second but could only shrug. He truly didn’t know. Or maybe he couldn’t remember. Regardless, none of that seemed to matter very much now that they had finally crossed the boundary.
in the mood for more short fiction?
A nice change of subject matter for this story👏🏻