I had never been awakened by a kiss before. But to wake up with Ash's lips to mine was like the continuation of the dream I had, and I didn't realize that he was actually trying to wake me up until I heard him put a coffee cup down on the nightstand. Had I slept through the alarm? I was met by two impossibly blue eyes and a radiant smile.

"Wakey-wakey," Ash said, sitting on the edge of the bed. "I made you coffee."

Dazed I sat up in bed and he held out the steaming cup for me and I took it with a grateful smile. Ash was already dressed, and his hair looked newly showered. I found myself thinking that it should be illegal to look that good this early in the morning, but I still let myself enjoy the view.

"Thanks," I said, beaming at him. "You didn't need–,"

"It was literally the only thing I could do," he interrupted, giving me a reproachful look. "You don't have jack shit at home, no breakfast food whatsoever. How can you even live like this? You gotta eat, don't you?"

Embarrassed I took a sip of the coffee. The food situation at my house I had never thought about, I ate at work and that had worked out just fine until now. But if I were to have someone else living with me, I had to step up my game and make some adjustments. Like buying actual food to put in the fridge.

"I usually eat at work," I explained. "Didn't expect to have company. Had I known I would have fixed us something to eat. Sorry."

Ash rolled his eyes and grinned, then looked at his phone.

"Gotta go, but please take it easy and finish your coffee. Swing by the cafeteria later and I'll hook you up with an extra nice sandwich, ok?"

Surprised I nodded and he got up.

"Tonight I really need to finish packing, so if you get a text from me that I wanna come over, just say no."

"You can be very persuasive, you know," I smiled, and he eyed me briefly and then threw himself at me, barely giving me time to put away my coffee.

He pulled the blanket up to my chin and wrapped me like a burrito under him. I tried to free myself from the soft prison of the blanket but it was in vain. He smiled and kissed the tip of my nose and removed a strand of hair that had fallen over my eyes.

"I know, but try," he said. "See you later."

He got to his feet again and exited the bedroom. I didn't manage to free myself from the blanket until I heard the door shut close and I sighed. If I had any breakfast food in the house, he had probably made me breakfast in bed. That just made my insides all gooey. I ambled out into the bathroom to shower, removing the unavoidable stickiness from last night and when I looked at the mirror there was a note sticking to it.

"You don't need a mirror, you look damn fine just the way you are, kitten.

Tiny fireworks went off in my chest and I re-read the note several times. He wrote that for me. Just like that, he had thought of me and written a note. It was hard to even fathom that it actually was me the note was intended to, but I carefully removed it from the mirror and went back to the bedroom. I put it down in one of the drawers of my desk. Whatever happened to us I would still have that note to read, to experience the feeling again. And when I returned to the bathroom, I made up my mind.

Why should I not ask him if he wanted to crash here for a while? Should I let my need to sometimes want to be alone dictate how I lived my life? I had to take my chances sometime and right now seemed like a damn good moment to do just that. What did I stand to lose?

The decision to ask Ash made it hard to concentrate at work. I wanted to do something special when I asked him. I didn't know why, but somehow I wanted to surprise him. He was always the one surprising me and something in me wanted to see his face when he was on the receiving end of a surprise for once. So instead of working I sat there imagining different scenarios in which to ask him. To ask him out to dinner was too ordinary. I didn't want it to be ordinary, I wanted it to be something that only he and I would like. Something unique.

When the idea hit me, I blushed so much I had to put my hands over my face. Jesus Christ, it was embarrassing in a purely objective way, but I just knew Ash would like it. The big question was if I had the guts to actually pull through with it. I turned off the company wifi on my phone to keep it from making any traces and made a quick search. After weeding through the child approved stuff, I was left with only one store. A store I had never even imagined I would visit. A sex shop. My hands were sweaty as I scrolled through the various items for sale and swallowed hard. I could do this. No matter how nervous I was. The shop was only a couple of blocks away from the office so I could easily walk there after work, making sure no-one saw me.

"Browsing porn on work hours?"

In a panic I flipped the phone, screen down on the desk and looked up. Chris stood there grinning.

"What? No, I just got a text," I said and smiled at him.

"Hey, screw work now, let's get some lunch," he said and nodded towards the elevators.

I nodded back and made sure to lock my phone as I put it in my pocket. If Chris saw what I was looking at I would never hear the end of it. Now I would just take the rest of the day to gather enough courage to actually enter that damn shop.

As the afternoon came, I was so jumpy I had a hard time sitting still in my cubicle. I had gotten an angry text from my sister in which she accused me of being the pampered little brother. Apparently, our mother had decided that me and Ash would have the little guest cabin at the docks instead of her and her boyfriend Daniel. But I just silently thanked my mother for that gift, as I had planned to ask Ash when we got to the lake house. Had we been stuck in my old room in the big house I would have had to restrain Ash somehow, and now I didn't need to. The guest cabin was far away enough from the big house that nobody would bother us.

I glanced at my phone as I walked the street to see what number the shop was located at, and I looked behind my back several times to make sure no-one was following me. The window display was rather non-descript if you didn't count the mannequins with lingerie. It may as well be a shop for sexy underwear, but the name said otherwise. Sin Station. Quickly I grabbed the handle and stepped inside. The scene had me baffled. Row after row with lingerie, leather, dildos, whips, and stuff I didn't even know what it was. Crestfallen I stood in the middle of the floor looking stupid, until a girl in my own age walked up to me and asked if I needed any help.

"Uhm, well I..." I stuttered. "I'm looking for some kind of... cat outfit. You know, ears and stuff."

"Sure," she smiled in a friendly manner and waved to me to follow her. "We have several different outfits to choose from, depending on what you're after."

What was I after? I didn't even know I was after something special. I just wanted to surprise Ash. She walked up to a stand displaying cat ears in different shapes and colors, with matching tails. You could have the ears as a diadem or put them in your hair with clips. I looked at the tails. How the hell did you fasten those? Hesitantly I inspected a diadem with lightly colored cat ears. I had blond hair, so maybe these were the right fit for me. At the same moment I realized the absurdity in my reasoning, was there even a right fit for cat ears? But I kept them anyway.

"How do you fasten the tail?" I said and nervously ran my fingers across the soft fur.

She gave me an amused look and held up the other end of the tail, where a rubber plug was attached.

"I'll let you guess," she smiled and made a gesture with the plug. "They come in different sizes, depending on taste, of course."

Holy mother of hell, why do I even ask these things?

"Oh, I see," I mumbled and tried not to show how flustered I got. "Well, thanks for your help, but I think I got it for now."

She left me alone at the stand and I glared at the tails. So, different sizes. How the hell should I know what size I should have? After agonizing a bit, I went for one that looked like it was in the middle-range of the scale and grabbed a bottle of lube on my way to the checkout. I plopped the items down on the counter and tried to look as if I was in a hurry.

"Nice that you went for the stimulating lube," the girl chirped. "That's one of our best-sellers."

I just nodded and snatched the bag and hurried out onto the street. A couple of blocks further down the road, her comment finally reached my brain. What kind of lube had I bought? But it didn't matter, I had done it and I felt immensely proud of myself. This was leaps and bounds beyond my old safety zone and I had pulled it off. I wasn't as innocent as people thought I was.