The bed was narrow and Ashe had to crowd Katherine in order for them to both fit. But he didn’t mind being close to her, he didn’t mind feeling the weight of her, the flesh of her, against the side of him. She snuggled against his chest, with her head on his bare heart. He liked it. He loved it. And he was ashamed of it at the same time. He had come to her house in order to confront her, to show her how betrayed that he had felt. He had failed that mission, to once again find himself in bed with her.
He could see the top of her head and spent several minutes admiring her shiny, red hair. It looked almost like flowing fire. Taking his hand, Ashe brushed the top of her hair with his palm, almost fearful that the fire might actually burn him. As if Katherine hadn’t burned him enough, already. It felt good to burn, Ashe admitted to himself.
While they laid there in quiet, he wondered how his heart sounded in Katherine’s ear. Was it a gentle thump? Or did it sound like it felt, a fast and solid drumming, from a mixture of nerves and excitement.
“This isn’t your house,” Ashe told her, as he stared at the white waves of the ceiling’s plaster. He could hear rain pouring against the roof.
“Isn’t it?” she replied in a subtle, still sexy voice.
Glancing around him, he pointed out that “There aren’t any recent pictures of you in the house…none that I saw. They are pictures when you were young. A teenager…maybe. With other pictures are of an older couple. You don’t even sleep in the master bedroom, but it the smaller room to the side of the master bedroom. You live with your parents. This is their house? And this is your old bedroom…from when you were a kid?”
“Guilty,” she said. “But that was an easy deduction.”
He nodded. “Guilty.”
“I ran into a little debt,” Katherine admitted. “Had to move back home.”
“Make a bad job choice?” Ashe asked.
“A long line of them,” she replied. “I don’t put too much thought into my new adventure and then it tends to blow up and obliterate my cash supply.” She looked up at Ashe. “You are proof of that. I’m a bit spontaneous and flaky…if you haven’t noticed by now.” A group of her fingers began to play with his bellybutton.
“I would never call you…flaky,” he said. “Crazy. Maybe.”
She playfully hit his stomach and he pretended like it hurt. The room became silent again, with nothing but rain and slow breathing to fill the void.
What was he doing?
“You don’t want to be here,” Katherine stated.
“I shouldn’t be here,” Ashe corrected.
“And yet you are,” she said.
“And yet,” he agreed.
“Do you want to be?” she asked.
He nodded.
His phone erupted to rip apart the building emotions. Ashe quickly slipped from beneath Katherine’s naked form and dove for his lying slacks. Reaching into his pocket, he found and answered the blaring cell phone.
“Hello?”
“Are you wearing pants?” inquired the voice on the other end.
“Sure,” Ashe replied.
“I have some news for you about that powder,” Ginger said. Ashe was suddenly alert and aware. “Can you meet me at April’s Corner Café?”
“Yes,” Ashe blurted. “Give me thirty?”
“That will work, my man,” Ginger replied. “I’m bringing a friend. I hope you don’t mind. He has some news for you too.”
“Oscar?”
“No, sir,” Ginger assured. “You will see.”
He reluctantly agreed. Why would Ginger bring another person into it?
“See you in thirty minutes,” Ashe told him.
“Not unless I see you first,” Ginger replied and then hung up without anything further.
“I have to run,” Ashe said, turning back to Katherine’s form. “Something important has come up.”
“Scott?”
“Yep.”
Katherine nodded.
Once dressed, Ashe chose to kiss her goodbye. The kiss was long and bothersome and he almost crawled back in bed. By he fought the urge and managed to escape the house.