They made it back to Elliot’s without any more incidents, she relaxed and stripped his hoodie off as he put his clothes away.

“Well that was an adventure,” she said.

“Are you alright though? I mean with them hearing us?” he asked.

“I have to be, I can’t undo it,” she said.

“Oh,” he said looking sad.

“I don’t regret it though, it was hot, and you know what? they are adults, they can handle it, it’s not that bad… just a little embarrassing,” she said.

“Are you doing that thing Krista said where you act fine to make me feel better because you’re not allowed to do that,” he said.

She laughed, “no, I maybe overreacted about it, to begin with, but not allowed? I’m not ‘allowed’ to do that? How are you going to stop me?”

He grinned, “hmm I’ll think of something.” He was refolding some clothes and he looked so adorable. She went over to him and tugged on one of his belt loops, “you could spank me.”

He let out a sharp breath and said, “damn what are you trying to do to me?” He threw what he was folding on the floor and grabbed her pulling her to him and kissing her. She pushed him away and threw herself on his bed.

“I’ll be good,” she said.

He started toward her and stopped himself, “we do need to try and control ourselves a little,” he said picking up the shirt he had abandoned.

She stretched out on his bed and he watched her licking his lips, he twisted the shirt tightly in his hands, she smiled at him, “you gonna fold that?”

He looked at the shirt and then back up at her, “fuck it,” he said tossing it down. She giggled as he came over and buried his face in her neck, nibbling. They kissed and she started to undress but he stopped her saying, “let’s just make out for a while.” So they did and it was almost better than sex. After a while, her stomach growled so they stopped and Elliot made her some macaroni and cheese. She rolled a joint that they shared as he cooked. When the food was almost done she saw the stuffed elephant he had won her last night and went and got it.

“We never named this,” she said.

“Sam,” he said.

“Why Sam?”

“From Benny and Joon, then I’ll get you something else that you can name Joon,” he said.

“What about Benny?” she laughed.

“I’ll get you a Benny if you want,” he said. She hugged Sam and Elliot handed her the rest of the joint, she was able to get one last hit before she licked her finger and put it out.

Elliot laughed, “I’ve never seen a girl do that.”

“I’ve been smoking since I was twelve, Papi used to give it to me for my anxiety,” she said.

“Did your parents know?” he asked.

“No not really, I mean I think they kind of did but we didn’t tell them, mom wanted me to get on anxiety meds but for some reason suddenly stopped pushing it after Papi started smoking weed with me, he said it was safer than pills… he wasn’t wrong.”

“So Papi is a stoner?” Elliot asked.

She laughed, “well I guess so, you would never guess it by the way he always dressed and acted, he was… is so classy.”

“How so?”

“He always wore a suit, everyone thought he was a mafia don or something,” she said.

“Was he?”

“What? No,” she laughed, “They never talked about it to me but I think that’s why Papi left his family, and my dad left his in part for the same reason, they didn’t want that life, I found pictures of some really well-known crime bosses, I think they were related to Papi, but they’re all dead now… if you’re into batman Papi has the same kind of personality as Carmine Falcone, he could run a city but he’s too sweet deep down.”

“Might have been what it needed,” Elliot said.

“Yea but he didn’t have it in him to make the hard decisions to get to the top,” she said, “I can’t see him busting knee caps… but all those types respected him, and all the old musician’s and actors loved him, his place was the place for all that stuff.”

“Now it’s your place.”

“Yea but it’s not the same, I can’t generate that kind of family feel to it like he did,” she said.

“Yea you do, it’s not you it’s the city, it’s different now, but your employees seem to like you and feel comfortable with you.”

“Enough to tell me they heard me having sex with my boyfriend you mean?” she laughed.

“Well you could take it as a compliment that they aren’t scared of you, and don’t see you as ‘the man’” he said.

“They really don’t and I’m glad, I feel like an outsider enough without everyone like going quiet when I walk into my own home.”

“I hate when bosses have that energy,” he said.

“You never talk about your job, is it top secret or just…”

“Incredibly boring…” he finished for her, “well not boring to me but I know you don’t want to hear all that techie stuff, and it’s really mild compared to what I used to do.” He handed her a bowl of mac and cheese and she curled up on the couch. He got himself some and sat on the other side.

“I don’t know it’s kind of hot,” she said.

“The food?”

“No, you… I mean you’re literally the best hacker in the world,” she said.

“I don’t know if that’s true,” he said.

“Darlene said you were,” she told him.

“Maybe but there’s some kid out there or maybe they are older, they are learning new things I haven’t, there’s always the next thing, and the next person.”

“But you are like seriously a genius, I mean not just with that kind of thing, with people, and well everything, it’s so sexy.”

“You say that about everything I do,” he laughed.

“Who’s fault is that? Stop being so attractive,” she said.

“I thought girls didn’t like nerds,” he teased.

She looked him up and down, “That’s a myth, but you don’t even fit the typical nerd stereotype, because you look like a…” she stopped, trying to find the right word, “I don’t even know but it’s working for me.”

“Well that’s all that matters,” he said, reaching out to her so she would come closer to him. She got up and sat crossed legged facing him.

They ate and then took flipper for a walk, she wore his hoodie again, instead of holding hands she held his arm with both hands. They would stop to talk and kiss and play silly games. Elliot made her hold flipper’s leash as he dashed into a store to look for something. He brought out a bag of cotton candy.

“We need to save this for after we smoke again,” she said. They went back to his place and smoked, then they fed each other cotton candy until it drove them to the bed where they continued to playfully eat it and feed it to each other as they had sex. It was a sexy sticky mess and Raine had never been so happy. After they were done, they went into the bathroom to wash the melted sugar off of themselves.

“Should we even bother getting dressed again?” she asked.

“Darlene has a key,” he said.

“So, you need to get dressed,” she laughed.

“Do girls normally just not care if other girls see them naked?” he asked.

“It depends on the girl, Darlene and I are like sisters,” she said.

He shook his head, “that’s weird for me,” he laughed.

“Well not really, I mean if we were married she’d be my sister-in-law,” she said then panicked, “I mean, not that I think about us being married, I…”

He kissed her to shut her up then said, “you don’t?”

“I mean I’m not really big on the whole thing,” she said. He looked a little disappointed so she continued, “I mean not the way other people see it, I want to be married someday but I don’t want a wedding, I don’t want like a typical suburban life, I’d be happier if it were just me, the guy I love and a dog… anywhere, doesn’t have to be a house, it could be a tent, that’s what I want for my married life… eventually, a long time from now,” she said.

“How long?” he asked.

She smiled at him, “someday…about twenty-four hours after you ask me,” she teased kissing him lightly. He kissed back harder and pushed her against the bathroom wall. Apparently, what she had said pushed a button and he went at her like an animal. He lifted her up and held her against the wall, she wrapped her legs around him, and they had sex like that, she couldn’t keep herself from moaning loudly and clawing at his back. Her fingernails in his skin made him go at her even harder and he put his face into her shoulder and started softly biting her neck and moaning so deeply that it sounded like he was growling. When they finished, he didn’t set her down, so she said, “aren’t you getting tired?”

He shook his head ‘no’ and laid his head on her shoulder and softly kissed her all along her neck where he had bitten, “sorry if I was too rough baby,” he whispered.

“No, you weren’t, it was… there are no words, you could have been rougher if you wanted,” she said pushing her hair off her sweaty forehead. He sat her down but kept her backed into the wall. He took both her wrists and raised them above her head and held them against the wall with one hand, she couldn’t even talk because she was so excited about whatever he planned on doing. He kissed her passionately for a while then said, “keep your hands up.” He let go of them and grabbed her ass with his free hand and spun her around so she was facing the wall. He grabbed her wrists again with one hand and held them against the wall. Then he grabbed her around the waist and pulled her back, so she was bent over facing the wall. He slapped her ass lightly and she cried out in pleasure.

“That didn’t hurt,” she said, pretending to be defiant.

“Oh yea?” he said doing it a little harder.

“Harder,” she whispered, he hesitated, he wanted to play this game but he was still sweet Elliot so she had to push him, “how am I supposed to learn to be good if you don’t teach me my lesson? hit me harder,” she demanded.

“You sure?” he asked.

“Please, I’ve been so bad,” she said in her most innocent-sounding voice. He hit her harder but still not as hard as she could take but she let him think it was enough because she knew he wouldn’t let himself hit her very hard, it wasn’t in him. He spanked her hard a few more times before he went inside her, he didn’t have a problem going at her hard with that. It caused her to start actually screaming and that made him more excited, but he told her sternly to stop screaming so she said between gasps, “keep spanking me daddy and that might teach me to stop.” This caused him to lose control, he couldn’t keep ahold of her wrists because he had to grab her on both sides of her waist as he moaned, “oh fuck, I’m cumming already, you’re too fucking hot.” She put her hands on the wall and waited on him to finish.

“I’m so sorry,” was the first thing he said.

“For what?” she asked straightening up and turning to look at him.

“You didn’t get to finish, I just couldn’t take it,” he said.

“Then why are you sorry, that means I won,” she laughed.

He grinned, “I’ll get you back, I didn’t hurt you any did I? Are you okay?”

“No, it didn’t hurt,” she said, not telling him it wasn’t hard enough because she knew once he got used to it and realized he wasn’t going to hurt her he would be more comfortable being rougher. She continued, “you were spanking me on the ass, it’s like all meat.”

“Oh, I know, you have a nice fat ass,” he said, then he winced like he had said something wrong.

“Thank you, I think,” she laughed.

“That was meant to be a compliment, I’m sorry, your ass is perfect,” he said, slapping it lightly and biting his lip, “I still wish I could’ve got you off though.”

“That doesn’t matter, it was hot and fun, in that position it’s almost impossible for me anyway,” she said toweling sweat off herself.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” he said.

“Stop apologizing, you’re the one that said that’s not even the goal every time, it was super sexy and probably what I’ll think about the most when I can’t see you and I have to take care of myself,” she said. He looked at her like he wanted to go at it again but instead, he shook his head and grinned, he grabbed the towel she was using away from her and said, “go get dressed… please?”

She kissed his cheek and whispered, “yes, daddy,” in his ear, he groaned and started biting her neck playfully to tickle her, she giggled and struggled away. As she closed the door behind her, she said, “love you.” He yelled it back after the door was shut and she smiled to herself. She got dressed then sat on the couch in Elliot’s spot, he came out of the bathroom naked and walked over to his clothes and put on half of them but left his shirt off. She glared at him.

“What?” he asked.

“You can’t wear a shirt? We have to wait at least five or ten minutes before we do it again,” she said.

“Who says?”

She laughed, and said, “whatever I just won’t look at you.” He walked over and stood in front of her and said, “you’re in my spot.”

She closed her eyes and waved her hand at him, “go away tempter.”

He laughed and bent down and picked her up causing her to yelp. He moved her down the couch out of his spot and sat down. He got his weed and packed a bowl for them then started to play ‘half baked’ on his laptop.

“Nope, I can’t watch that,” she said.

“Why?”

“Do you see Darlene?”

“You can’t watch it without her?”

“No, it’s in the unwritten vows.”

“Vows?”

“We are weed married, I can’t watch stoner movies without my weed wife,” she said holding up her arms like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

He shook his head and turned it off, looking for something else.

“Has Darlene ever watched a stoner movie without me?” she asked.

“No, last time I tried with her she said the same thing, then she explained it, but I thought that was just her being weird… I guess you’re in on it too.”

She ignored his comment and said, “aww she’s faithful.”

Elliot put his head in his hand and laughed, usually when he laughed, he let out just a few soft inaudible breathes while smiling. This time he was actually laughing for real the first time she had heard. His laugh was so indescribable and adorable she almost hugged him but held herself back.

She said, “you wouldn’t happen to like really old movies would you?”

“Like what?”

“Hitchcock, Cary Grant, Doris Day, Jimmy Stewart, Hepburn: Kathrine and Audrey… those are my favorite things, they are so special.”

“I’ve seen a few but not many, what should I start with?”

“Rear window for sure,” she said.

“And what’s that?”

“It’s Hitchcock, Jimmy Stewart, Grace Kelly, Thelma Ritter, Raymond Burr…”

“Perry Mason?”

“Yep but in this he’s different… all the acting is incredible, I could listen to Jimmy Stewart read the phonebook, I love the way he talks.”

“Is that an accent?” Elliot asked, more interested in her excitement over this than the information.

“No, it’s actually a speech impediment and in a few of his earliest films he tried to hide it for the roles but people wanted it, so directors told him to leave it alone. In some movies, he does it worse than others based on the character but in this one, it’s probably about his normal way of speaking.”

“So, he amps it up for characters that are like…” he tried to think of a word for it.

“’Aww shucks’ characters? Yea he definitely does, I love it.”

“You know a lot about this stuff,” he said.

“My parents liked some of the more family-friendly stuff, or that’s all they let me watch, but Papi was all about it, let me watch Psycho when I was nine and he was babysitting me, these actors and directors were his customers and friends.”

“Oh shit really?”

“Yea Jimmy was his favorite actor partly because he was so down to earth and nice in person,” she said.

“He seems like he would be,” Elliot said.

“He also liked Hitchcock's sense of humor but said he could be a dick sometimes,” she shrugged, “we all know that.”

“Do we?”

“Oh honey, I have so much to teach you,” she said, patting his face.

“Can we watch this first?” he asked, grinning.

“Am I getting carried away, I do this about some things,” she asked.

“A little but it’s very adorable,” he said. She giggled and he kissed her unexpectedly and said, “I love watching you talk about things that excite you, your eyes get bright and you start talking faster because you’re so excited.”

She gave him a little kiss and said, “okay remember that when you see Grace because she is next level.”

“Is that her name in the movie?”

“No, it’s Lisa, oh but she’s not just a pretty girl she’s a badass in this movie,” she said.

“Don’t spoil it,” he said.

“A fifty-year-old movie? You don’t know the plot or anything?”

“No, I’ve seen only the most basic of old films, Casablanca, Psycho obviously because it’s a must, the birds, maybe some others I can’t remember.”

“Psycho is good, but it doesn’t even scratch the surface of good Hitchcock, I’m glad you’re going into this blind because that will make it way more fun,” she said.

“Okay, we will smoke and watch this, then order in for dinner?” he asked.

“Sounds good,” she said.

They smoked and watched the movie, Elliot kept asking her questions, he felt sorry for the lonely woman on the first floor, worried worse than Jimmy Stewart about Lisa when she was trapped with the bad guy and cried when the dog died. When it was over Elliot just said, “wow.”

“You had all the exact right reactions,” Raine told him.

“You didn’t tell me a dog died,” he said.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t think about it, I was too excited about the movie.”

“It was a great movie but man, that dog looked so much like flipper,” he said. Upon hearing her name flipper looked up at him from the little bed Elliot had for her in the kitchen under the table.

“Aww she’s a baby,” Raine said to her, then to Elliot, “she’s fine and no actual dogs got hurt.”

“Yea I know but that was so sad,” he said.

“Yea it was but that system she had set up to let the dog down into that courtyard, oh man that was almost the best part,” Raine said.

“I know, I wish I could do that with flipper, and you were right, Lisa was a badass.”

“Right? And so likable in a way people don’t expect women in old movies to be, most characters aren’t in the movies I like, but especially Hitchcock, they are all so bold… even though he was a sexist creep in real life, he did like a strong and sassy blonde.”

“I like this about you,” Elliot said grinning at her.

“What?”

“When you care about stuff you go all in and know everything there is to know and analyze it perfectly, you’re smart, which I knew already but this is a new side of you and I love it so much.” She didn’t say anything, just kissed him softly on the cheek.

“What do you want for dinner?” he asked. She put her hand on his thigh almost to his zipper and he jumped at the surprise.

“Oh?” he said. He unbuttoned his jeans and got himself ready as she kissed his neck and nibbled his ear. He started stroking himself so she said, “can I watch this for a second?”

“Really?” he asked.

“It’s so hot,” she nodded. So, he did and she continued to kiss him and bite his ear. Then a few moments later she couldn’t take it anymore, she leaned over and took him almost all the way into her throat. Elliot let out several moans and cuss words and put his hand on her head. She moved up and down a couple of times and then while she had almost all of it, she took her tongue and swirled it around his head, and moaned.

“Oh baby, I’m done already fuck how are you so good oh fuck,” he said gripping and tugging her hair. She moaned over him as he finished. She continued lightly sucking and licking it. He jerked and groaned, “I’m finished.”

“I know, I want to make sure I get all of you,” she whispered, licking and sucking one more time causing him to shake all over.

“What the fuck?” he said leaning his head back and rubbing his face.

“What?” she asked, worried she’d done something wrong.

“How are you this good at that? Did you take classes? That was seriously two minutes from when I took it out,” he laughed lightly.

“I didn’t know I was good at it,” she said honestly.

“No not good, fucking incredible, and I love you, I love you so much but even if you weren’t my girlfriend and I was married to someone else, I would still let you suck my dick, and I would never cheat, but that might be worth it, that’s how good it is.”

She laughed, “well I guess it’s good that you aren’t with someone else.”

“That’s one of the many reasons I’m glad I’m not with anyone else, I fell in love with you before we even kissed, all this is piling more nice things on top of that,” he said, getting his pants buttoned and zipped.

“We are just good together I think, no one else liked me doing that,” she said.

“How many did you… I mean I’m not asking out of jealousy, I just don’t see how anyone could not like that.”

“Just one, the bad one,” she said.

“Oh well no wonder,” he said looking less confused, “of course he liked it, he was just an asshole.”

“Well I had nothing else to base it on, no one else’s opinion,” she said.

“Have you ever done anything with anyone else, kissing even?” he asked.

She shook her head no, and said, “just him and you, I was young when that started, but it makes me wish I could erase him even more cause then it would just be you.”

“So, you never went on dates or anything?”

“Well yea, I went on dates and talked to people casually before him and after him but I never ended up kissing any of them… I just always found out they only wanted sex or after him, it was mostly cause he always messed it up,” she started to feel queasy and nervous like she did sometimes when he came up, more so when telling Elliot things about him, so she said, “Elliot can we talk about something else, I’m starting to feel sick.”

He rubbed her back, “I’m sorry I didn’t mean for…”

“No, it’s my past it’s hard to talk about some parts of it without remembering that person, unfortunately,” she said, breathing deep trying not to hyperventilate.

Elliot turned her around away from him and started massaging her shoulders, “you are in a shitty but cozy apartment, there is a cute puppy named flipper under the table, you can pet her whenever you want, you’re with your boyfriend Elliot who loves you and would never let anyone hurt you, you just watched one of your favorite movies in a safe place.”

The more he talked the more she relaxed, she moaned a little because he was surprisingly really good at back rubs, “thank you,” she whispered.

“Feel better?”

“Yes, how’d you know to do that?”

“It’s a grounding exercise I read about on the internet for people with PTSD.”

“Oh, I didn’t know you had PTSD,” she said.

“I learned it for you,” he said. Tears filled her eyes and she tried to stop them from coming out, but it didn’t work. She let them fall silently. Elliot somehow sensed it and whispered, “you okay?”

“Yea I’m just really touched that you did that for me,” she said wiping her eyes.

“I told you I’d do anything for you,” he said.

“But I didn’t even ask,” she said.

He turned her around and took her hand and kissed it, “you don’t have to ask, if I think of something that would make you happier or make your life easier, I’m doing it.”

“You haven’t kissed my hand in a while, it still feels like ‘our thing’,” she said.

“It still can be,” he said and did it again.

Then he put his hands on her shoulders, “now tell me what you want to eat, and it can’t be any of my body parts this time.”

She laughed, “umm… can we get Mexican?”

“If that’s what you want.”

“What do you want?”

“For you to get Mexican,” he said.

She tilted her head and sighed, “seriously?”

“Hey, I made you eat Coney Island hotdogs yesterday, I owe you,” he said.

“Fair enough,” she said, he looked up the nearest delivery and she scanned the menu, “I’m such a picky eater, like majorly.”

“Really? You didn’t mention that before I made you eat Coney Island hotdogs,” he laughed.

“They aren’t that bad, they just have a bad reputation,” she said. She got a piece of paper and pen and wrote down her very specific order for him and he called it in.

As they waited Elliot randomly mumbled, “I owe you two, no three.”

“What?” she asked.

“I got off three times that you didn’t, so I owe you three,” he said.

“No Elliot, you don’t ‘owe’ me anything, that’s not how this works,” she said.

“But I feel bad,” he said.

“There’s no reason to feel bad, I did those things with you because I wanted to, not just to ‘get you off’, when you say things like that, that you got something out of it and I didn’t, it makes me feel like you didn’t think I was a part of it.”

“Oh.”

“Yea.”

“I didn’t think of that,” he said.

She didn’t say anything, so he said, “are you mad?”

“No, of course not, I get what you felt about it, but that’s not how I feel about it, and we don’t do this, I don’t want to start any part of our relationship being about keeping score, you would beat me by a long shot because you’ve done a lot for me and most of it you didn’t even know you were doing for me, before and after we met, but I know that one of the most dangerous things for a relationship is to keep score, of good things and bad things.”

He nodded but didn’t say anything for a long time and looked like he was deep in thought so she leaned over and kissed him.

He looked surprised, “Why’d you do that?”

She shrugged, “felt like it.”

He put his arm around her and pulled her to him, “I have something else for you, it was an accident that it is finished on our anniversary, but I guess you can think of it as a gift if you want.”

“A weekiversary present? What is it?” she teased.

He laughed and leaned forward to get his laptop and typed in a web address. When the page popped up, she saw a picture of the front of ‘Papi’s coffee’.

“Elliot, what is this?” she asked. Just then someone knocked at the door, Elliot handed her his laptop and said, “just look through it.” As he stood up and looked for his wallet, she began looking at the site. It looked so professional, there was a picture of Raine on it at the bottom. There was a big write-up about the history of the place, Elliot had done the research. She read it trying to imagine him writing in such a professional tone. There was a gallery with pictures of current ones and a few from the past. There were links to a message board and a menu. The coloring and look of the whole thing were exactly what she would have wanted. Elliot was putting their dinner out on the table as she looked.

“Elliot,” she gasped.

“You like it? I have your login so you can get on as the admin and change whatever you want or add things. I had to wing it on some things but I can change whatever you need me to,” he said.

“No, it’s perfect, I love everything about it,” she said, “why did you do this?”

“Well, I know how Little Italy isn’t as big as it used to be and how important keeping the shop open is to you and probably the whole community so I thought maybe this would help bring in business and let people know it’s about more than just coffee and pastries.”

She had been crying and this made her cry harder.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

She nodded with her hands over her face, “I don’t even know what to say.”

“Well, there are some things I wanted to put on there that I didn’t have, like pictures, old pictures I was hoping you have or maybe Papi has some, anything you can find to put on there you can bring them to me and I can put them up.”

“All this work just for me?” she asked.

“Yea, and well it’s good for historical reasons and the city, plus I haven’t been able to do much work that’s personal, since I’ve been trying to stay out of trouble, this was something positive I could do that wasn’t for work, just like writing is a passion for you, doing stuff like this is my passion, with this I won’t get in trouble, you can use it or not it’s up to you but I’d like to continue working on it for fun if you let me.”

“Of course, you’re officially hired to run our website, except your paycheck will be… imaginary,” she laughed.

“Can I have a raise? I’d like one kiss a day from the hottest girl that works there,” he said.

She eyed him curiously, “who?”

He rolled his eyes, “it’s obviously you.”

“I don’t know I think Britney has a little crush on you and Ashley and Kaitlin seemed very interested today,” she teased. He walked over and took his laptop away from her and sat it on the coffee table, he took her hands and pulled her up, wrapping his arms around her waist.

“I just want you,” he kissed her then stopped, letting his lips linger almost touching hers, “for the rest of my life,” he whispered.

She sighed happily, “okay, I’ll pay you in kisses… like a prostitute,” she joked.

“I was kidding, I want to do this, it helps me a lot, so really it’s not a very good gift for you.”

“It’s a wonderful gift for me, even more so if it helps you,” she said grabbing his face and pulling him down for some more kissing. She made herself stop before it went too far and he groaned his displeasure as she pulled herself away. She giggled, “be good.” He tickled her and she struggled free laughing, then he pretended like he was going to chase her, and she ran away playfully screaming. Flipper jumped up and ran over to Raine and hopped up on her leg and barked, almost as if she was asking if she was okay.

“Aww mama is alright, daddy was just playing,” Raine said picking her up and kissing her. Elliot watched them smiling. She cuddled flipper for a minute then sat her down and washed her hands.

Elliot threw the shirt he had given Raine on, “maybe if you’re lucky I’ll get food on it and it will remind you of me,” he said.

“Oh, yea thanks, please make it as gross as possible because you know I won’t wash it,” she laughed. They sat down to eat and she said, “where did you get the pictures of the shop, besides the internet? I know some of them weren’t online.”

“Darlene took them for me,” he said.

“Oh, so she was in on it?”

“Yea.”

“She did a great job, I can’t wait to tell Papi and get into his old pictures, I have some at my place but I can look through his at his house tomorrow, he’ll love that… probably not tomorrow but next Sunday do you maybe want to come with me?” she asked.

He stopped eating and thought about it, then said, “I’d like that, but see if he’s okay with it first, I don’t want to cut into your time with him.”

She smiled to herself, Elliot was the polar opposite of Luke in every way. Luke even was tiny in some areas while Elliot, well, was the opposite. She giggled to herself a little.

“What?” Elliot asked. She blushed and shook her head and he said, “tell me.”

She told him about how him wanting her to be alone with Papi was the opposite of her ex and then the rest of what she had been thinking and he almost choked on his food.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

“No, it’s fine, I didn’t know you thought I have… you know.”

“I don’t think it, it just is, very,” she said.

“Maybe compared to him,” he said.

“Not just him, I have facebook do you know how many I’ve seen? Even though I really didn’t want to?” she laughed.

“I don’t know why people do that,” he said, looking annoyed.

“People are idiots… some of them, be glad you don’t have social media.”

“I am, I don’t know why you have it,” he said.

“Well Tumblr, it’s just entertainment and I share my writing there, I like sharing my art on Instagram, Facebook…” she stopped, he looked up at her, “I don’t know I just haven’t deleted it yet, I don’t even use it.”

“You should delete it,” he said.

She didn’t respond because she didn’t know what to say, she couldn’t tell him the truth if she deleted it Luke might come after her in person because it was his only way to contact her. She hated that they were even having this conversation because it might push him to hack her if he hadn’t already. She needed to change the subject so she started asking him what songs of hers he liked. Apparently, he had thought about it a lot because he had very detailed answers and reasons for liking some more than others. They talked about that and her musician friends as they ate. Those friends weren’t on Luke’s side at least but they all lived far away and lost touch long before her last break up with Luke. They were all guys, potheads and none of them had ever hit on her. They and the music they made got her through some of the roughest parts of her relationship. Luke had hated all of them but he couldn’t stop her from seeing them because she lived on campus with them. She wondered sometimes if he didn’t scare them off after she had to drop out.

“Do you think you’ll ever finish your degree?” Elliot asked.

“I don’t know, I love learning all that stuff but to do that every day, I’d love to help people but it’s so emotionally draining, I’d like to do something in the field that didn’t involve me getting attached to people because I am too emotional for something like what Krista does.”

“And you like your job now,” he said knowingly.

“Yes I do, I love it, and it gives me enough freedom to do my art… spend time with you, I don’t have to work shifts but I want to, I like making coffee and pastries, and I don’t want to completely detach from the day to day things because you can’t run a place if you don’t know that stuff.”

“Smart,” he said watching her, she blushed. They finished dinner and she brushed her teeth, then she turned on some music on her phone, she straddled him and they kissed between taking hits of a joint.

“Just kissing you is better than sex with anyone else ever has been,” he said, she kissed him and giggled into his mouth.

“Is that funny?” he asked, pulling away to take a hit.

“No, you’re just cute,” she said.

He took another hit and she quickly kissed him, sucking the smoke out of his mouth and inhaling it, she blew it out and said, “you took my hit.”

He grinned, “we should smoke like that all the time.”

She kissed him again, licking his top lip which was one of her favorite things to do, he moaned because he liked it too. They made out and finished the joint. As Elliot put it out she grabbed his shirt and pulled it off him. He lifted her shirt up and pulled her up so his face was in her breasts. He cupped them both and went from one to the other with his mouth making her crazy. After a while she took her shirt off and threw it. He picked her up and stood at the same time, an impressive move.

“Wow,” she laughed.

He grinned and took her to the bed and laid her down, getting on top of her. He moved down and started kissing her stomach and pulled the rest of her clothes off. She pushed herself up further on the bed to give him more room to go down on her. She let him do it until she was done and she was worried she had hurt him because of how hard she was pulling his hair. He went into the bathroom, she assumed to wash his face. He came back wearing black sweatpants, grabbed his cigarettes and ashtray, and laid down.

“Did I hurt you any?” she asked.

“How?”

“Pulling your hair?”

“Nah, it was really sexy, let me know you liked it,” he said.

“Well now you have gotten me off by myself,” she teased.

“No, I didn’t,” he said.

“Umm yea you did, I got off,” she said.

“So did I,” he said, then blushed a little.

“How?” she asked.

“It just happened, I got so turned on by everything you were doing, how you were reacting and the way you taste,” he licked his lips absentmindedly and it made her shiver.

“I don’t know how you guys do that, it’s a lot.”

“You get wetter than anyone I’ve ever seen, it’s hot,” he said. She didn’t understand why guys liked that but apparently, it was a compliment. She got up naked and went and got her phone. It was still playing a station on her pandora. She picked up the shirt he had been wearing and put it on. She danced a little on the way back to bed to make him laugh, but he bit his lip instead. Not the results she had wanted but still good. She got her bag and pulled out a fresh pair of panties and started to put them on.

“If those are all you brought, I’d leave them off until you’re ready to leave tomorrow,” he said.

“Good call,” she said. He pointed to his dresser and said, “the top drawer.” She got a pair of his boxer briefs and put them on.

“That’s so sexy,” he said when she had them on.

“I love wearing your clothes,” she said crawling in bed, “I’m on your side again.”

“Is that my side?” he asked. It was the side his computers were on, he was laying on the side near his closet.

“Well you sleep on this side and I always sleep on that side, but it seems like we always switch when we are just hanging out.”

“Does it matter?” he chuckled.

“No, I just noticed it,” she said, “I’m weird.”

“Yes, and I love it,” he said, taking her hand with the one he wasn’t smoking with and kissing it.

“I love you,” she said.

“I love you more,” he responded.

She smiled and said, “not possible.”

He laced his fingers with hers and kissed her hand again then held it to his chest. She was sitting cross-legged beside him, facing him.

“Does my smoking bother you?” he asked as she waved some of his smoke away.

“No, but you should quit, it’s bad for you,” she said only half-serious.

“Hadn’t heard that,” he said with a serious tone. She giggled and he said, “I love when you laugh like that.”

“Why?”

He shrugged and squeezed her hand, “just do.”

Flipper jumped up on the bed and walked over and looked at them one at a time then crawled up into Raine’s lap. She laughed and stuck her tongue out at Elliot, he scratched flipper behind the ear and said, “I don’t blame you.”

“Aww she loves daddy too,” she said.

“She’s gotta go out in a little bit,” he said. They both played with flipper for a while until she jumped down and went to the door like she had understood Elliot.

“Guess that’s my cue,” he said. He kissed Raine and threw his hoodie over his shirtless torso and zipped it. She stayed on the bed and he looked back at her as he opened the door, he did that thing where he looked like he was trying to memorize her and left. After he left she hopped off his bed to go look at the website some more on his laptop. She teared up again thinking about Elliot doing this for her. She needed to do something for him, at least a gesture he would appreciate. She got an idea and got up and turned his record player on. She went into the bathroom to take her hair down and put a couple of braids in her waves. Then she took off Elliot’s shirt and put on her nirvana one. She found one of Darlene’s headbands and put it on across her forehead. She turned off some of his lights and rolled a joint. She looked at the window and Elliot was starting to head in. She turned up the music a little and lit the joint.