And not just me and Stephen. Last night was truly an insane gamble, and I’m a little bit terrified that it’s going to bite me in the ass. I’d risked losing not just my best friend, but the love of my life. What if she decided last night had been so amazing that she’d rather be with him? Or what if she decides she wants nothing to do with either one of us?
The idea makes me feel vaguely ill. I don’t know what I’d do with myself if I lost Kristen.
But part of me can’t help but feel like maybe I’m only looking at the negative possibilities. What if this gamble pays off and I somehow manage to win the jackpot? What would the jackpot even be, some sort of weird…swingers situation? What future could I have with two people at once?
“Whoa!” I feel the spatula suddenly tugged from my hand, the pan from the other, “Baby, what the hell are you doing?”
I blink, returning back to the real world to see Kristen scraping the blackened hunk of charcoal that was once meant to be a pancake into the garbage can. “Sorry, guess I just spaced out a little,” I tell her sheepishly.
“Not awake yet, huh?” she teases, “Probably should have started with coffee before pancakes.”
“Probably,” I laugh.
“You okay? You’re up early for a Saturday.”
“Yeah, just woke up and decided to try and have breakfast ready for you for a change,” I tell her, “But apparently I’m just a hazard.”
She giggles. “Everyone messes up the first pancake,” she says reassuringly.
Even so, she takes over, ladling a new scoop of batter into the pan and watching it carefully, flipping it when the bubbles form and revealing a perfect, golden-brown surface.
“So how’d you sleep?” I ask her.
It feels like a lame question, all things considered, but I can’t seem to bring myself to just dive into all the craziness.
“Like a rock,” she laughs, “How about you?”
“About the same,” I nod.
“Yeah, last night wore me out pretty well,” she says with a shy smile.
“I’ll bet.”
“Was it…did it…” she fumbles over her words for a moment before sighing and looking me in the eyes, “Are we okay?”
“I think so. Are we?” I ask her, searching her face.
“I think so, too,” she nods.
“Good.”
A slightly awkward silence falls over us, and I immediately hate it. I grab her around the waist and pull her close to me. She yelps in surprise and looks up. “What are you-”
But before she can finish, I kiss her. I want to remind her of what the two of us share, no matter what happens next. I kiss the breath from her lungs, until she puts her hands on my chest and pushes me away lightly.
I look at her, puzzled, and she just giggles and turns to the pan, scooping out a finished pancake, then turning back to me. “Let’s try not to get distracted and burn more of them, yeah?”
“Fair enough,” I laugh, “So before you put more batter in that pan…” I take the spatula from her hand and kiss her again.
She wraps her arms around my neck and moans softly. As I’m kissing her, I can’t help myself, I run my hands along the curves of her beautiful body. She’s wearing nothing but one of my t-shirts and it hangs to her mid-thigh, leaving lots of her bare skin for me to enjoy. She moans again, leaning into my touch, and I grip her by the ass and hoist her up onto the counter.
The sound of a throat being cleared startles us apart and we both turn to look. Stephen is leaning in the doorway, shirtless and smirking. “Looks like I’m missing all the fun,” he says.
My pulse quickens. So we’re not the only ones who enjoyed last night, it seems. “We were just making breakfast,” I inform him.
Kristen nods, blushing and breathless. “Pancakes,” she whispers.
“Hmm…” Stephen walks over to us, looking at the counter where I’ve set out things like syrup, butter, a bowl of berries, and whipped cream to top pancakes.