~*~AJ~*~
Ah, everyone is on time. Even Kevin. Kevin is never on time, "Why are you here?"
He narrowed his eyes, "Am I no longer in the group?"
Brian caught on, "You’re never on time. And . . . I’m betting that you were not alone this morning."
"Or last night", Nick added.
"Or the night before", Howie laughed.
Kevin looked at me, "Your turn."
I shook my head, "No way. I promised myself to give you two a week before I started ragging on you. At least 3 days."
"Why thank you." Sarcasm I recognize.
Brian and Nick laughed, "I didn’t make this promise."
Howie was rubbing his hands together, "So you and Tracie are knocking boots?"
Kevin rolled his eyes, "Knocking boots? Do people actually use this phrase?"
"Fine, whatever you call it."
"Guys, this isn’t some girl I met at a party and hooked up with. Tracie has been my friend . . . our friend for a long time now. And it feels wrong to me to sit here and say, "Yeah, guys we fucked all night, whoa let me tell you the things that body can do!""
We all looked at him. He always talked, we all always talked. We knew the details about each others sex lives with a new woman or a one stand before we knew the girl’s name. But here sat Kevin, the one who loves to brag and be the center of attention, saying he wasn’t going to talk trash on Tracie. Time to test another theory, "You talked about Jessica."
"Jessica started as a casual thing that became more. Tracie has always been more. I’m not gonna sit here and make it less, make us less by making it all about sex. It’s never been about sex, and just because now we’re having sex it’s not all about sex. This isn’t some casual thing."
I liked that answer, "So you’re a couple?"
He thought about that and grinned, "We haven’t talked about that, but yeah. This is important to both of us. That we figure out how to do this. It’s hard, and it’s weird as hell to cross that friendship line. Freaks both of us out."
Nick was listening very closely, "What do you mean freaks you out? What freaks you out?"
I think that Kevin understood that Nick was legitimately asking for information for himself and not being an ass. Kevin was wringing his hands, "Like . . . Tracie and I sleep together all the time. No big deal. We wake up and start talking, fix breakfast . . . whatever. But Tracie and I do not wake up together naked." He laughed, "Until recently anyway. I had no idea what to say or do in the morning. I was freaking. What the hell had we done? Friends don’t do this, we’re friends. We’re used to being friends and doing friend things. We’re not used to doing lover things."
Nick asked again, "What did you do . . . in the morning?"
"Nothing. I couldn’t do anything. Tracie said we weren’t gonna talk about it until Sunday. We were just gonna enjoy it. That killed the weird and we got back to normal."
"So you didn’t know what to do and she did?"
"Yep. Then later when we were talking neither of us knew what to do, so we kept talking and came up with something. If that doesn’t work we’ll try something else."
Nick shook his head, "Pam and I can’t get that far. It stalls out."
I looked over, "Because you guys aren’t friends. They already know how to be friends, they’re doing the same things with different topics."
Brian punched Nick in the arm, "Words of wisdom from The Bone" and laughed. They all laughed. Except Kevin. He looked at me, nodded, and smiled.
~*~Kevin~*~
We got to work, but weren’t very productive. I couldn’t stop thinking about what AJ had said. He was right. Nick was distracted. I think he was doing the same as me. He and Pam weren’t friends, never had been. AJ was basking in the glory of being useful. Brian and Howie were reacting to the others of us not being into it.
We got frustrated. We picked at each other. We argued. I suggested that we call it a day about three. Howie mouthed off, "You just want to get to Tracie, and "not" fuck."
I blew, "Bullshit! No one is focused. No one. Three days ago you never would have said that shit. It wouldn’t have been an issue. It’s still not. Nothing has changed. Sleeping together doesn’t suddenly make us inseparable. That’s exactly what we don’t want. We don’t want to change us."
I walked out and went home. I cleaned. I organized. I fumed. I settled into the couch, turned on some music, and grabbed a beer. Tracie came in and I yelled, "I’m in the family room."
She came into the room and sat down next to me. I felt her fingers run through my hair and settle on my neck. I liked that. She looked at me, "You’ve been cleaning, what’s wrong?"
"How do you know that?"
"You clean when you’re stressed."
"No, how do you know I’ve been cleaning."
She sniffed the air, "I can smell it."
I laughed, "You’re good." I sighed, "No one was focused today. We all got bitchy. I snapped at Howie and left. I had suggested we stop and he said it was to get to you. You had nothing to do with it."
Her fingers were tickling my neck, not distracting me, but calming me, "I hope not."
"Tracie, that’s exactly what we talked about not wanting to happen. Two days in and he thinks it’s all about US, all about you."
She was smiling at me. "Sure. We have to figure out how to relate as lovers, and our friends have to figure out how to relate to us as lovers. Howie was trying to figure out the new rules."
I was pissed again, "There are no god damned new rules."
Her fingers were in my hair again, "Of course there are, baby. We’re using the word us, and it means something different. If we’re hanging out for the weekend one of them drops by they’ve got a 50/50 shot at us laughing and talking, or us having sex. That’s different."
I almost smiled, "Seventy five percent. It’s new."
She did smile and crawled into my lap, "See? The same things that we talk about freaking us out, are things our friends are gonna have to get used too. Us sneaking outside to kiss. I guess that anyway we slice it, some things have changed."
"I like you sitting in my lap."
She kissed me, "I do to. I’ve sat in your lap hundreds of times before. But three days ago your dick didn’t get hard when I did. And calling you Kevlyn now . . ."
"Makes me want to make you say it the way I really like hearing it." I kissed her. Not nearly as innocently as she kissed me. "You called me baby."
"Did I?"
"Yes, you did. I felt it."
"I’m so very sorry."
I laughed, "You’re making fun of me?"
"Definitely."
"Good, I don’t ever want to lose that." I brushed her hair over her shoulder, "I’m sorry. First day you come here after work and I’m freaking out."
"No worries. I’ll freak out later."
She buried her head against my neck. She smelled like suntan oil, Hawaiian Tropic, and her skin glistened. I ran my finger from her shoulder to her hand then laced my fingers with hers, "Do you always smell like this after work?"
"Sweaty?"
I kissed her neck feeling very turned on, "No, coconuty. Maybe mixed with sweat. But I like it. Tastes good too."
She turned around to straddle my lap, "Yes, always after work." She pulled my shirt over my head and I did the same. I lifted her bathing suit top over her breasts and squeezed them. I used my tongue to taste her nipples before sucking her. I love to suck her breasts. She loves it. That makes me love it. Her hands felt all over my shoulders and back, and into my hair. ‘God, Kevin. I like coming home to this. That feels so damn good."
"I can make it feel better." I felt her body shake and laughed.
"You gotta stop that. I don’t know how to react when you say that. It freaks me out."
I knew she was kidding about the stop part, but not the rest. I slid my hand inside the front of her pants then my finger inside her, "Trace, it feels like your body know just how to react. So wet, baby. I want inside you. You go ahead and freak out, I’ll be ok and take care of it all." I laid her down on the couch, and peeled off her shorts as she got rid of her top. I threw my shorts across the room. "I’ll make it all better."
Her fingernails raked down my chest and wrapped around my cock, "I need to find a way to get the upper hand and keep you from being in charge all the time. You’re killing me."
I slid inside her, "Trace, you have much more control over me than you think." I think maybe she had for a while. As my friend I wanted her to be proud of me. I need that. As my lover I want to please her. Me taking control of the sex is one way to do that, but she’s very much in control. I wonder what it would take for both of us to lose control?
