She’d spent years- he saw that now- trying to get him to see her as a woman. As someone other than a bratty little sister. She’d done crazy things. Really crazy things. Well, maybe not done, but she’d said crazy things.
Was it the worst kind of irony that when he finally realized that all the weird sensations going on inside of him weren’t going to go away where she was concerned, that he actually might like her, she seemed to want to friend zone his ass so hard that his dick would probably get so old it would wither and drop right off before it ever got near her?
Yes. Yes, that was irony at its best. Karma. Payback. Whatever. He was getting a big heaping taste of his own medicine, even though he hadn’t meant to be completely oblivious or cruel, and he wasn’t sure he liked it. Okay, he fucking hated it. Not that he could concentrate on anything when his mom was so sick, but now that she appeared to be on the mend…
It felt like he was coming back to life. Slowly. Surely. Like there would be a life to come back to. He wanted Alix to be a part of it. He just wasn’t sure that was on her agenda any longer.
Cancer taught him hard lessons, the most valuable being that tomorrow might not be a thing. For anyone. Even people who are perfectly healthy. He got used to seeing the future as a big question mark. He’d treasured every single minute he could with his mom, banking them all away in case one day, there weren’t any more days to make them.
He didn’t want to wreck what he and Alix had going. He didn’t want her to go back to hating him, but he also knew that if he didn’t take a risk that she still felt the same way she obviously had for years, he was probably never going to find out. He didn’t want to wait until it was too late. He’d rather she punched him straight in the face when he tried to make a move, flip him off, throw him out, make him grovel, than letting ambivalence kill whatever feeling she might have left and time they might be granted.
He sauntered through the open bathroom door. The place was nice. It had been remodeled a couple of years ago and had a double vanity with fancy lights overhead, a freestanding tub, the claw foot thing minus the claws and feet, and a glassed-in shower. The bathroom was done in shades of white and more white. Not his taste. It didn’t match the rest of the house either, given that it was a mid-century style bungalow, though not the really fancy, true MCM kind since it had been renovated over the years and watered down in a half assed, bare bones left kind of way, and the rest of the décor was casual and comfy.
A thousand images ran through Ross’s mind when he spotted Alix, bent over that tub, her fucking skinny jeans so tight that they didn’t just cup her ass, they defined it completely, her hair hanging down so far, a dark curtain that nearly skimmed the water’s surface, her plain yellow tank top riding up to expose just the barest hint of her smooth, pale back.
He tried not to think about stripping her naked and banging her ten ways to Sunday in that tub. About fucking her so hard that water sloshed over the side and flooded the floor. He glanced around desperately, trying to deflate the painful erection punching against his fly. Yeah. That was a no go. He got a big visual of the glass shower and imagined Alix’s perfect, small, perky tits pressed up against the fogged surface right before he bent her over from behind.
His eyes swept to the vanity, but it was huge, with two sinks, and he imagined propping her up on there, spreading her legs, and feasting.
Think horrible thought. Gross thoughts. Chance in that tub with one of his girlfriends. Alix’s parents christening the new bathroom…
That did it. He suddenly felt like he was going to hurl.
Alix glanced up from the bath as she shut the tap off and nearly jumped out of her skin. She slammed a hand over her chest and gasped for breath. “Holy turd balls, Ross. You scared the shit out of me!”
He glanced around. “I see steaming water and I can smell that weird dog smell, but I don’t see or smell any shit.”
She knocked her fists together and flipped him a double bird at the end of it. “Har, har, har. Don’t sneak up on me again.”
“Or what? You’ll castrate me?”
She stuck her tongue out at him. Clearly their maturity was still at an all-time high, but it felt good to just let go for the first time in months.