Unveiling The Sky (24 page)

“Do you require payment for her too, asshole?” Naomi asked as she reached over and smacked the back of his head. We all laughed as Derek tried to dodge Naomi’s tiny fists.

“Are you guys staying?” I asked. I must have sounded embarrassingly enthusiastic because Derek and Naomi started laughing at me. But I didn’t care, especially when Alara gave me a quick kiss on the cheek before nodding her head.
Totally fucking worth the embarrassment
.

…

The next few days were uneventful. I left a message with my father’s secretary, who told me she would get back to me with an appointment time.
Who the fuck has to make an appointment to see their own father?
That alone almost made me cancel. But then I thought about Sam’s warning and I knew I couldn’t avoid him any longer.

Alara and I continued texting while Derek continued to mock me, and I really didn’t give two shits from a hairy rat’s ass. When Friday finally came, I couldn’t wait for seven o’clock. I was like a kid on a car ride to Disneyland. And if our kitchen clock could talk it would have said,
Stop staring at me every ten minutes, time ain’t gonna move any faster, buddy
.

Normally I relished my days off, but today I would have given anything to have a lunch shift and be distracted for five hours. So with no work to occupy myself until Alara came over, I headed to the store early to pick up all the ingredients I’d need for dinner. As I stood by the checkout, I went through everything in my head one more time until I was sure I had everything for an Italian dinner. In one of the random conversations we had, she mentioned how much she loved pretty much any type of Italian food.
Was I trying to score some points? Absolutely. Was I ashamed? Not one damn bit.

By the time I got home and laid the groceries on the counter, Derek was just rolling out of bed and stumbling into the kitchen.

“Morning,” he mumbled.

“It’s almost two o’clock in the afternoon.”

He shrugged off my statement before yawning and waving his hand in the direction of the brown paper bags. “What’s all this?”

“I’m cooking dinner for Alara tonight. You still have to work, right? You won’t be around?”

“Yeah, which sucks because I have the mother of all hangovers and I’m on till one in the morning.” I nodded absentmindedly. “And you don’t even care…” He trailed off with a smirk and raised eyebrow.

“I’m just… I’m just nervous.”

He thought about making fun of me, I could see it in his eyes. But something in mine must have given away how truly nervous I was because he didn’t laugh or mock me. “What for?” he asked, with probably the most serious expression I’d ever seen on him.

“I don’t know what held her back before, but I just don’t want her to get caught up on it again.”

“And if she does?”

I shrugged. “I guess I’ll just have to wait like I did last time.” He nodded and gave me a huge smile before slapping me on the back and walking out of the room.

I didn’t start setting up until after Derek left. I didn’t need him to see any more of my ridiculousness—he already had plenty of ammo, and I didn’t think he would have been able to restrain himself from using it if he saw me putting out a table runner. And then there would have been the whole discussion on how I even knew what the hell a table runner was, so yeah… I waited until he left.
 

…

I was sitting on the couch nervously bouncing my legs when I heard two soft knocks echo through the apartment. Smiling, I jumped up and walked to the door. I didn’t even think about the fact that my quick response made it look like I was standing by the door waiting for her. That thought, along with any others, vanished as I pulled open the door and took her in from head to toe.

I never thought I’d be thankful for our inattentive management and their inability to change the half dozen light bulbs that had burnt out around our apartment. But right now I was extremely grateful. Instead of cringing at the usually blinding light and rushing her in the door, I stood there staring at her as the minimal lights provided a soft glow around her perfect appearance.
 

Her long blonde hair was down and curled in soft waves that were begging to be touched.
And speaking of things begging to be touched
… Her hair stopped just past her breasts, and my gaze was stuck there as my eyes devoured the skin around them. Her shoulders were bare and the top of her dress curved up around her breasts but dipped slightly between them, almost like the top of a heart. The material was tight like a second skin as it hugged and lifted her tits, almost like an offering. I subtly shifted as something else became tight, and I quickly looked down to the rest of her.

That really didn’t help much. The material that was tight at the top gave way and became flowy as it drifted down her stomach and stopped just above her knees. I had only seen her in a dress one other time, but it hadn’t felt right to ogle her because I knew that dress of Naomi’s made her uncomfortable. But this dress…
this
was made for her, and I could tell she was completely comfortable in it. So this time, I ogled. I ogled the crap out of her as I imagined her legs wrapped around my waist, her dress riding up to her waist as her flats fell to the floor.
 

I slowly made my way back to her face, noting how the dark blue color was a perfect contrast to her blonde hair and pale skin. I was almost scared to look at her face considering how dumbstruck her body had already made me, and when I got there I wasn’t surprised when my jaw dropped open. She kept her makeup light like usual, just darkened eyelashes and smooth skin with a light layer of lipstick. Alara looked like this all the time and she was always beautiful, but what absolutely floored me was the look she was giving me. Her smile was wide and bright as she enjoyed my undivided attention, and her eyes were just as hungry as they moved over my jeans and black T-shirt.

“You look really nice,” she said.

I shook my head as if to break a spell. “You look incredible, I mean you always look great. But…”

She laughed and touched her hair self-consciously. “It’s okay to say I look better than I usually do. I would hope so, I certainly tried a lot harder.”

“Well, you do. A word doesn’t exist for how pretty you look right now.” At that she blushed and looked down at her feet. I was still staring when her eyes lifted and met mine. With a small smile, she nodded behind me.
 

“So, can I come in?” she asked.

“Shit, shit… yeah.” I stepped back as she walked through, before I shut and locked the door behind her. “Okay, I promise I’m going to stop acting like a fifteen-year-old now.”

When there was no response I turned around and laughed at the face she was making, the same one I was making a minute ago. Fortunately it didn’t take her as long to snap out of it. She quickly closed her mouth and turned toward me. “Wow, this looks amazing,” she said as she gestured toward the table. In addition to the food, there were flowers and candles set up on the food runner, as well as a bottle of wine in a bucket of ice. I even had my phone out ready to play music. It was—

“Perfect,” she whispered like she could read my mind. I blew out a relieved breath as she continued. “Thank you.”

“It’s no big deal.” I shrugged and looked at the table. “You deserve it, I think you’re—”

I didn’t get a chance to finish as her soft hand wound around my neck and she brought my lips down to hers. My hands immediately went to her waist as I steadied her; the fabric felt smooth as I bunched it in my hands. Alara confidently licked my lips before plunging her tongue inside, causing both of us to moan when our tongues made contact. My hands were still fisting the material of her dress as I pushed them into her lower back and brought her body flush against mine. Her hands smoothed down my stomach until they rested above my waistband, and with excruciatingly slow movements she traced the top of my jeans around my hips until they met in the back. I jolted and pressed my body more firmly into hers at the skin-to-skin contact caused by her hands settling underneath my shirt. She slowly kneaded my lower back as we continued kissing like our lives depended on it. Abruptly she pulled back, and my hands fell away until they lay limp at my sides. Apart from our heavy pants, there was no sound for several minutes until Alara cleared her throat and spoke.

“That was supposed to be a quick thank you kiss, not an assault on your mouth.” Her neck and face were red as she ducked her head.

Smiling, I stepped forward to kiss her forehead and wrap my arms around her. “Please feel free to assault my mouth anytime you want. I’m also not opposed to you assaulting other body parts as well, just saying.”

Her light laughter floated through the apartment as her arms came around me and she laid her head on my chest. “I’ll take that into consideration.”

Ten minutes later we were sitting across from each other at Gabe and Derek’s kitchen table. I was still blown away that he did all this. When he first opened the door and looked at me, I knew I was doomed. I don’t like to need, want, or depend on things; I’ve found that expecting less also means hurting less. But the way he looked at me… I’d want that forever.

I took a bite of my garlic bread and looked at Gabe. “This is really good. Did you cook a lot growing up?”

He shook his head and finished swallowing before speaking. “Not really. My mom taught us a few things, some staples that she thought Sam and I had to learn, but other than that she always wanted to be the one cooking and taking care of us.”

“What about your dad? Where was he? I know you said he wasn’t around much…” I trailed off.

Gabe gave me a sad smile as he wiped his mouth and leaned back in his chair. “No, he wasn’t. He was always gone for work, but even when he wasn’t gone he never had much interest in us. My parents were only casually seeing each other when my mom got pregnant with me. I guess my grandparents had disliked my father instantly; they wanted their daughter with a ‘nice Jewish boy,’ as Mom put it. But she was never like that—she always wanted to be with someone she loved.” Gabe let out an exaggerated, humorless laugh. “But she also thought it was her duty to at least try to give me a normal family, so she married him when I was a baby. When I was younger his business had just started taking off so he was gone a lot, and by the time Sam was born he just wanted to reap all the benefits of his early success. He only really started becoming present in my life when I got to high school and he wanted me to work for him.” His eyes seemed far away as he looked over my shoulder. “I always hated the way he treated my mom, but when he started paying attention to me I was so happy I didn’t even think about it. I just started going along with everything and eventually I convinced myself I wanted all that.”
 

Gabe’s voice was laced with an unbearable amount of pain as he continued. “At the end, when it got really bad, my mom told me that she was sorry she didn’t try harder. Sorry she didn’t walk away from him and find someone who would have loved us like we deserved, not just when it suited his business.” He cleared his throat as he brought his eyes back to me. “I hated myself when she told me that. I hated that he was able to make me forget and I hated that it took losing her for me to see that.”

I reached across the table and took his hand in mind. “None of that was your fault.” He opened his mouth to protest, but I squeezed his hand and shook my head. “It wasn’t. It’s natural to want to please your parents, even if one of them is a complete asshat.” At that, he smiled and squeezed back before nodding.

“Okay, this really isn’t how I imagined this going. Isn’t the heavy stuff usually reserved for like the fifth or sixth date?”

I smiled and leaned back. “This doesn’t really feel like a first date, so I say anything goes.”

“Anything, huh?” He wiggled his eyebrows as he leaned forward and purposefully, hungrily ran his gaze over my breasts.

“Within reason.”

He smiled as we began digging into our food again. The track turned over as one of my favorite songs, “Poison & Wine,” began playing. My foot was tapping out a rhythm under the table, and I smiled when I looked over and saw Gabe’s fingers lightly tapping out the beat as well. A few minutes of comfortable silence passed before Gabe spoke.

“How do you know Derek and Naomi?”

“Naomi and I have gone to school together since second grade. But I think we were always more like sisters than friends.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because when we first met we absolutely hated each other.” I smiled, remembering the “fight” that had fueled our friendship. “She had just transferred and it was game day at school. We were playing Monopoly and we both wanted to be the banker. Names were called, pieces were thrown, and I think it even went as far as hair being pulled.”

He laughed before picking up his glass of wine. “I believe there is an unspoken rule that at least three fights must occur for the game of Monopoly to be considered played.”

“That sounds about right. Anyways, the teacher calmly explained that neither of us would be allowed to play and that we each had to sit in a corner and watch while we learned our lesson. We spent the entire hour glaring at each other. The teacher tried to get us to talk afterwards, but we refused and it went on like that for weeks.”