SpongeBob panties were washing in the same confined space, possibly grinding up against each other in their efforts to get clean.
I excused myself abruptly and locked myself in my personal bathroom, the only one we didn't clean. I sat on the edge of the tub for a long time,
thinking.
I didn't want to feel so comfortable with Kyle. This wasn't something that was going to go beyond this house. I didn't want to feel...let down when
it was over. I wanted to feel relieved, to say a good riddance.
"Are you okay?" He asked softly through the door.
I opened the door to step out but he was standing there, looking concerned. I didn't want him to look concerned. It made my heart flutter.
Fuck.
"I'm fine," I tried to smile, but failed. I couldn't meet his eyes.
"Em," he sighed my name and I almost died because it sounded similar to when he sighed my name while we were getting it on.
"This feels a little weird," I admitted. "I hated you yesterday and now my panties are tangled up with your boxers in the wash."
"That sounds sexy," he grinned.
I slapped his arm. "I'm serious!"
"Why don't we just go watch the second
Transformers
and chil ? I wil sit in the man-chair and you can sit on the couch."
I liked that idea. I fol owed him to the family room. He took my dad's chair and I stretched out on the couch. When the movie was over, I got the
clothes from the dryer and folded them at the kitchen table while Kyle started dinner. He was making us BLTs.
"This is starting to feel a little weird again." I sighed, folding his boxers.
"I know," he said softly. "But what else should we expect? We're literal y trapped here together, and alone. Things have to get done, right? I
think it just feels more...domesticated because it's just us."
"And we slept together." I said a little too loud.
"Yeah," he glanced wearily at me. "If it weren't for that..."
I was about to say more, but my cel buzzed in my pocket. "Ick," I said when I saw who was cal ing. I did not feel like having a conversation with
my mother.
"Emmy! Are you okay?" It was my dad, thankful y, but I could hear my mom's twang in the background.
"Yeah, dad. What's up?"
"We tried cal ing the house countless times. It just rings, and you weren't answering your cel ."
"Hold on. Let me check the phone, dad. I've been here al night and day." Kyle handed me the house phone off of the counter. When I turned it
on, I only heard static and no dial tone. "The land line is dead."
It took me a minute longer to explain to him that I wasn't ignoring their cal s to my cel . I had found it between two cushions on the couch while
watching the movie. Then he asked me how much snow I had, how I was holding up, and expressed deep regret that I was alone in such a bad
storm. He went on about it so long (with my mom in the background yel ing about how I wouldn't have this problem if I were married) that I was
tempted to tel him Kyle was here. Kil ing two birds with one stone, I could have also told my mom that I got laid and pacify her also.
"Dad, I'm thirty years old. I have traveled the world by myself. I can handle a snow storm. Seriously."
My dad, unlike my mom, did not enjoy pestering me. With a sigh, he told me to be careful and stay prepared for an emergency. My mom got
back on the phone, and I thunked my head against the fridge.
"This is ridiculous," she said. "You need a husband."
"I don't need a husband."
"Maybe it's your hair. Men don't like ugly hair styles."
"My hair isn't ugly," I sighed.
"Maybe it's the way you dress. Maybe you need to show some cleavage."
"Trust me, mom, I'm not going to find a decent guy by showing my cleavage."
Kyle grinned and looked at my chest. I punched him.
"Listen, I'm hanging up now," I said.
"You never want to talk to me!"
"Because I don't like you very much."
"You're a horrible child."
"Yep. The bad seed. Bye, Mom."
I ended the cal and sighed in relief.
"You've got a great relationship with your mom." Kyle laughed.
"When I'm in the same room with her, I want to cause her physical harm," I admitted.
He nodded appreciatively. His mom was a trip, too, but for different reasons. My mom talked too much and said whatever she thought, good or
bad. Kyle's mom was cold and calculating. I had met her a number of times. She was always polite to me, but stand offish. I thought maybe she
thought she was somehow better than me, but I saw that she treated Kyle the same way.
"My mom..." Kyle started, staring down at his plate. "My mom was awesome when I was real y young. She was fun, funny, and so loving, so ful
of life." He picked at his lettuce. "Over night, it felt like, she changed. She's manic depressive."
"Oh," I said quietly. What I thought was coldness and indifference was real y just numbness. The kind of numbness a person can get from some
anti-depressants and anti-psychotic meds.
"She was doing real y wel , but sometimes it gets bad."
"I'm real y sorry," I said, and actual y put my hand on his. He flipped his hand and laced his fingers through mine.
I stared at our hands. He stared at me. I wanted to let go, but couldn't make myself do it.
"Emmy," he said my name in a way that made my stomach flip, but before he could continue, his cel rang.
It wasn't the first time it rang since he had been here, but he only answered maybe half of the time, and they were always business cal s. But this
one was different. He looked from the phone to me, me to the phone, and back to me. He let go of my hand and raced out of the room to take the
cal .
I heard bits and pieces of the conversation. It was Jess Venner, the elephant in the room, Kyle's girlfriend.
Jessyca Venner was the elephant in my head, too. Every time I would come close to thinking about her, my mind conveniently walked around
her, as if she wasn't there. Except for the one mention of her the previous night, we always managed to skip around her. Discussing your current
girlfriend while lying in bed with your employee just didn't seem like much fun. Now that the focus was on her, I felt real y weird, and I didn't like it.
I careful y told Kyle I wanted to get a little more work done in the office. It didn't take much convincing because he seemed like he needed the
space, too.
I never claimed to be a saint, but that doesn't excuse my behavior. Jessyca was a world class stuck up bitch, but that didn't make it okay for me
to sleep with her boyfriend. Furthermore, sleeping with my boss wasn't going to make our jobs any easier. It was going to be awkward for a while.
It was three hours later when Kyle came to get me. He told me he had found and prepared everything we would need to dig us out in the
morning. He had even shoveled the front steps and part of the walkway. I was relieved to have him here to do al of that "man" stuff for me and said
as much.
"We should get to sleep," he said softly and the words hung in the air. Natural y, when we were having sex we slept in the same bed. Now either
of us knew what to do without the sex.
"I wil be up in a few minutes," I said, trying to appear busy.
He stood in the doorway for a long, silent moment and I could feel his eyes on me. When I didn't look up, he went away.
I waited almost a half hour before going upstairs. I was leaving the decision up to him. Since he went upstairs ahead of me, he surely would
make the decision of where to sleep. If he chose to sleep in another room, I would be okay with that, but if he chose to sleep in my bed, I couldn't
even think about what that implied.
The lights were off in my room when I walked in, but I could vaguely see Kyle's form in my bed. My emotions ranged from relief to nervousness.
Instead of questioning it any more, I pul ed back the blankets and slid into bed and into his open and waiting arms.
We were silent for a long time. My head rested on his chest and I listened to his racing heart.
"Why is your heart beating so fast?" I whispered.
"I don't know. I guess it's because of you."
I could have left it at that, but I didn't.
"Kyle," I said a few minutes later.
"Hmm."
"I had a good weekend but..." I patted his arm. "When you go home tomorrow, it's over."
He took so long to respond, I thought he had fal en asleep.
"I know," he sighed. "But I don't want it to be."
We didn't need to say anymore. We both knew why it couldn't continue. He was my boss and he had a serious girlfriend. I didn't let my mind
wander to the what-ifs, but I was feeling a little woozy thinking about how we got to this point. A little more than seventy-two hours ago I strongly
disliked him, and thought he was truly an asshole who needed a beat down. So quickly my perspective changed, I wondered if I was just a big
sucker, but it didn't matter. What's done is done and it was just a weekend fling. We were both obviously lonely and bored and nothing more.
That thought was actual y comforting, and I fel asleep easily.
We woke up before the sun came up, showered (separately) and ate a quick breakfast of eggs, toast, and coffee. Kyle dressed in some warm
clothes of my brother's again and I had found a pair of boots that fit him.
"I don't think I've ever seen so much snow in my whole life." I said when we stepped outside for the first time.
"Probably not," Kyle handed me a shovel.
It took us longer than expected to finish outside. I thought having the snow blower made things faster, but real y al it did was save Kyle from
kil ing his back shoveling. After we got inside and got out of our wet clothes, I made us some hot chocolate to take some of the chil out of our
bones.
"I haven't had hot chocolate in years," Kyle smiled at the mug I gave him. He happily poked at the large marshmal ow I added.
"You've been deprived."
"I have. Thank you." He grinned at me. "The chili smel s awesome." He glanced toward the counter where the crock pot was. I had started it as
soon as I woke up.
Kyle cocked his head and looked at me kind of funny.
"What?" I tugged on my shirt, trying to cover my legs a little. We had literal y stripped out of our wet pants, socks, and footwear in the foyer. We
were standing in the kitchen in just our shirts and underwear.
"Nothing." He looked away, and before I could press him further, he started talking about work. We ended up in the office for over an hour.
Even though we were on a different level of understanding now, office talk always turned Kyle into a dick again. I knew he didn't necessarily
mean it, but it was hard for him to stop. I didn't comment on it. Why should I? I knew, that he knew, that I knew he was a dick when it came to work.
We ate chili in the middle of the afternoon and while Kyle got ready to go, I packed him some chili to take home. He stood in the foyer, hesitant
to go, talking about anything and everything. I final y had to cut him off.
"You should go. We stil don't know how bad the roads are and it would be better for you to go in daylight."
Hesitantly, he nodded in agreement.
"I wil see you at work tomorrow," I said, opening the door for him.
"Sure." He walked out of the door and didn't look back.
It's been three weeks since the weekend I was snowed in with Kyle. The first couple of days back to work were more awkward than I think either
of us expected. On that first day while I was standing next to him at the copy machine, he whispered that I smel ed real y good. I had whispered a
thank you, but whispering in a corner with him made me feel funny and I walked away before al of my copies were even finished.
Since I was always last to leave, I found myself alone with him at the end of the night more than once. In the past, neither of us felt the need to fil
the silence with useless conversation, but those first couple of nights we both did it. It stopped being awkward when one night as we were fil ing the
silence, Jess stepped off of the elevator. Although we were already a few feet apart, we both backed up and quickly went our separate ways.
It was another Monday morning, and Kyle was being a dick. He was so wound up, he snapped at anyone and everyone, including me. His bad
attitude was putting the entire office on edge, starting a chain reaction of short tempers, making everyone's work suffer. Most of the time I was able
to calm the staff, lighten up the mood with rewarding comments about their work, or by offering some kind of incentive for good work done despite
their asshole boss.
Today, however, nothing I said worked. People rol ed their eyes or huffed out irritated sighs when I tried to smooth things over. I suppose I
couldn't blame them, even with my new insight into the man he was outside of work, my own patience was wearing thin.
I sat at my desk, staring at his office door, and thinking. I had to do something before the whole damn work week went to hel . I absent mindedly
played with a few strands of hair, when a memory flashed in my mind. During our last romp, Kyle kept burying his face in my hair.
"Your hair always smel s so good," he had whispered.
Later, I asked him "Are you in the habit of smel ing my hair when I'm not paying attention?" I had asked as a joke, not prepared for his response.
He smiled sheepishly. "Maybe I am..."
I couldn't respond, didn't know what to say to that. I was maybe a little freaked out by such a stalker-like thing, but at the same time, my heart
sped up with pleasure.
"Shit," I said at my desk. I jumped up and walked over to Kyle's office door, running my fingers through my hair as I went. As an afterthought, I