“Wednesday? Next week?” He rubbed the back of his neck.
“Yeah. I’ll let you know how it goes.”
He took a step closer until we were toe-to-toe. “Next week is Hell week for the pledges before initiation. We have a lot of shit going on at the house and you know I have a little brother this year.”
“Oh, it’s fine. I totally understand.” I stared at the dated carpet at my feet. Of course he had other plans. I couldn’t expect him to be my knight in shining armor forever.
He cupped my chin in his hand and forced my eyes to meet his. “But I’m pretty sure I can swing a trip out. Especially for you.” He then kissed my forehead and released my chin before taking my hand and interlacing our fingers. ”Now let’s go back to your place and bake sit and watch Harry Potter.”
“Are you serious?” I raised an eyebrow.
He pulled me forward and I walked with him, hand in hand, through the tunnel to the parking garage.
“Serious as Hell, Red. You’ve been through enough shit today and nothing makes a day better than baked goods and Harry Potter.”
John stood over my oven, stirring a melting pot of chocolate. “You have to get it just the right temperature or the whole thing is ruined.”
“Where did you even learn to cook?” I asked, my mouth practically watering over his creation: a caramel cookie dough cheesecake with chocolate topping.
A smile crossed his full lips and made the urge to kiss him even greater. “My dad was actually a Sous chef, and then he moved to Illinois for my mom’s work and ended up getting a union job instead of doing the chef thing. He still loved to cook so instead of doing it as a job he just taught me and my brother and sister the tricks of the trade.”
He stopped stirring and turned off the burner before he lifted the pot and slowly poured it over the cheesecake.
“You have to be one of the most interesting people that I’ve ever met. Why doesn’t everyone see this side of you?” I tried to resist dipping my finger in the hot chocolate.
He furrowed his brow. “What do you mean? That I don’t tell the world I’m a computer programming chef and they just think I’m some dumbass frat boy?”
“I-I-I didn’t say I thought you were that.”
He shook his head, dishing the last of the chocolate onto the cheesecake. “Yeah, but I know you thought it the minute you saw me and that’s why I wanted to prove you wrong. Call me crazy, Red, but I didn’t want you to think that of me.”
John set the pan down and then locked his eyes on mine. “The moment I saw you at the party, I don’t know, something clicked. I’d seen you before at the coffee shop and you always seemed too busy to even notice me as more than a customer. Then I found you out of your element at the Halloween party and had to take my chance. I had to get to know the girl that makes my coffee and takes notes by hand.”
He took my palm and brushed his lips against it. “Now come on. Let’s get the first Harry Potter started while this cools down.”
Two pieces of cheesecake and three Harry Potter movies later, I was a slug passed out on my couch. I didn’t even realize that I fell asleep until John moved beneath me. His arm draped over the back of the couch and his feet were propped up on the coffee table. He stretched his arms over his head and let out a big groan, his muscles popping as he moved.
“Sorry for passing out on you. Been a long day. What time is it?” I asked, yawning and glancing at the clock over the stove. “Wow, it’s already ten. Do you need to be somewhere?”
“Nowhere but here and don’t worry about falling asleep. You’ve kind of had a lot going on.” He pulled my feet onto his lap, cradling my heel in his hands and massaging it. A soaring ream of pleasure sailed all the way from the corners of my feet and up to my lips, a low moan escaping them.
“You like that?”
I bit my bottom lip, embarrassed at my reaction, but didn’t want him to stop. I was afraid to say anything for fear that I’d just moan again.
John grinned, his fingers working their magic on my heels and then up to my toes, kneading in between each one. I’d never been much of a foot person or thought that one could get turned on by a foot massage, but oh my God did his hands feel good. I closed my eyes and sank deeper into the couch, trying not to collapse into a pile of goo all over him. No matter where his hands touched it had a direct line between my legs.
“Do you want to get that?” John stopped his rubbing.
“What?” My eyes popped open and John motioned to the coffee table.
I didn’t even hear my phone and when I looked over, my sister’s big, blonde face smiled back at me. My mom must have told her what was going on. I really should have called her. Shit.
“Yeah. I guess I should.” I slid my feet down to the ground and unlocked my phone, sliding it to my ear. “Hey,Val.”
“My baby sister has to go to the doctor for cancer and I have to find out from our eccentric mother? Way to break it to a girl.”
My sister and I didn’t talk too much on the phone. We texted each other a few times a week, but only about which celebrity was sleeping with who. Valerie moved to Chicago after she graduated college to live out her fantasy of being the curvy Carrie Bradshaw. That was around the same time as Mom and Dad’s divorce so she left me at home with Mom for the summer while she went off on shopping sprees on Michigan Ave or whatever else she did for her PR job.
“Sorry, dude, I should have texted you.” I glanced up and saw John staring at me with his eyebrows raised. “My sister,” I mouthed. He nodded.
“Well, how do you think I feel when mom calls me crying that her baby is going to the doctor for cancer? It’s crazy! Are you okay, though? Are you going to have chemo? Is it breast cancer? Do I need to rally and wear pink?”
“No. I went to Student Health Services for an exam and they found cancer cells on my cervix. The doctor said that it happens to a lot of women. They did a biopsy today and I go back on Wednesday to talk to her about the results.”
The fewer words the better. The reason I usually texted Valerie was because she liked to hear herself talk, a lot. I didn’t want John to sit and listen to me talk to my loud-mouthed sister.
“You’d better call me when you get them. I don’t want to have to hear it from Mom and whatever way she finds to overdramatize it.” She let out a crackling breath that was like static on the phone. “But seriously are you okay, do you need me to come in town this weekend?”
“No, it’s fine. I have a friend over now and he was able to take me to the doctor and hang out with me while I complain about everything.”
“He? A boy, Melanie?”
Shit. I shouldn’t have said anything about him.
“Um, yeah, my friend John.”
I guess he was considered a friend. I didn’t really know what else to call him. I glanced in his direction and saw that his eyes may have been facing the TV, but the smile on his face told me that he was listening to the conversation.
“Girls aren’t just friends with boys unless they’re gay. At least us Wilder girls aren’t. Do you have a new boyfriend that you’ve been keeping from me as well? Oh my God! I don’t get a text in a few days and now you have lady part cancer and a boyfriend!”
“Valerie! He’s not my boyfriend!” I screeched and then realized that John did hear everything and his eyes shifted from the TV to me.
“Sorry,” I mouthed to him again.
“Want me to talk to her?” His voice was low and sultry.
“Was that him talking? Oh God he sounds hot. Is he hot?” Valerie asked.
I rolled my eyes and pushed the phone receiver away from my mouth. “John, my sister wants to know if you’re hot, and no you may not talk to her.”
