“I think she’s ready for us, don’t you?” Jack begins, squinting intensely through the glass as she finishes her walk and opens the door to the great room.
“Actually… I wanted to talk to you about that,” I start, keeping my voice balanced.
Thumbing the control panel for the elliptical, I turn it off and position myself on the squat rack instead. I don’t plan on doing any, but it’s a nice barricade while I get ready to say what I want to say next.
“Chance, don’t start,” Jack cuts me off.
Ignoring him, I just take another deep breath.
“Look, she fits right in, don’t you think?” I ask. “We have it pretty good, right?”
“It could be better,” he mutters. “A lot better, I bet.”
“Sure, of course,” I agree strategically. “But maybe we should give it like six months? Make sure that this is a long-term thing? There are a lot of moving parts here.”
Jack slows his rowing dramatically, coming to a stop and turning his head over his shoulder to glare at me.
“You have got to be fucking kidding me!”
I edge back inside the squat rack a little bit. I did not expect him to love this idea. But she is just a little too good to risk.
“If we fuck this up, it could be really uncomfortable for all of us,” I shrug, wiping the back of my neck with a towel.
“If we don’t fuck her up, we could also lose her,” he points out.
“I guess that is one way of putting it.”
Jack stands out of the rowing machine, stomping over to the free weights and beginning some curls. He really has impressive biceps. He started those in middle school and I never bothered to catch up. Doesn’t matter. I can still kick his ass.
“Chance, all I am saying is that we already talked about this. She already talked about it too.”
“I just think we should wait a little while,” I shrug. “Is that so unreasonable? Just get into a real zone together? Really solid?”
“And, what? Just tease her for a few months? Does that seem like something you would enjoy?”
I shake my head. “I don’t know what you mean.”
He curls the weights another four times before answering me.
“If you were dating some girl and she just arbitrarily decided that you should wait another couple months, would that appeal to you? Or would you think that was kind of an obnoxious control freak thing to do? Especially if she told you she was ready? Seems
good to go? And she wanted to fuck you?”
“This is not the same thing.”
“No, it’s not the same thing. It’s double the same thing.”
“Wow, you just never get tired of pointing that out, do you?” I sigh.
“I never get tired of it. Not even a little bit,” he answers immediately. “And I’m not getting tired of her either. But I am getting ready to fuck her. You can come with me, or not. This isn’t middle school, Chance. We don’t have to play games!”
“I’m not playing games either,” I mumble under my breath.
There’s a soft tapping at the door and Chelsea leans in, her hair swinging from her ponytail. I can see her nipples are hard and ready already. They point out from under that white crop top.
“Oh, hey, guys. Mind if I come in?”
I shoot Jack a look of warning. I want to talk about this later.