Push(74)

“I’m game,” he says.
“I’ll try to come up with some options, and you do the same,” I say as I twist my face to look up at him. “We can decide tomorrow night.”
“Atta girl,” he says with a grin. “I think we can come up with something pretty excellent.” His voice is thick with innuendo. Again.
It makes me smile. “I’m not talking about f*ck-buddy stuff, though.”
“Damn,” he says. “But we can always fall back on that if we can’t come up with anything else.”
“Very funny,” I say, laying my head back down on his chest and closing my eyes. My mind is swirling with options. I don’t know the city that well, but David does. I know he will come up with the perfect thing.
I am nearly asleep when there is a knock at the door.
“Who the f*ck is that?” I say, opening my eyes. David shrugs his shoulders and grins at me.
“How the hell should I know? It’s your apartment,” he says lightly.
We hear a voice on the other side of the door. “David, it’s Brad. Come on.”
“Go the f*ck away,” David shouts. His voice is loud but calm.
“No. Take your cock out of her f*cking * and get out here,” Brad yells back. That was clearly not the right thing for Brad to say, because in an instant, David is off the sofa and stomping toward the door. I pop my head up over the back of the sofa and see David, naked as a jaybird, unlocking and opening the door. He is pissed as hell, and as the door opens, I scramble to block Brad’s view of my own naked body with the sofa cushions.
“Jesus, David. Put some damn pants on,” Brad says, half covering his eyes in jest. Then he peeks over David’s shoulder at me. “Hi, Emma. What’s up?” I’m not sure what to do, so I give a small, awkward wave. Brad’s eyes return to David’s as he straightens his body. “Shit. She is f*cking hot, David,” Brad says in a near whisper. I am positive that David is going to punch his f*cking lights out again, and I am scrambling to grab my dress from the floor without Brad catching sight of me.
“Shut it, Brad,” David says with a heavy dose of restraint. “Don’t.” Brad raises his hands in capitulation just as I nab my dress and try my best to drop it down over my head while keeping covered with the sofa cushion. I must look ridiculous.
“We need to talk. Seriously,” Brad says. “Get dressed and come upstairs. We can figure everything out. Just, come on.”
David sighs. “I’ll be there in five minutes,” he says, his voice quieter now. Almost resigned. He closes the door on Brad and turns back towards me.
“I’m sorry, Emma. I have to go. I have to go talk to those guys. We’ve got some shit to figure out, and I just need it to be done.”
“Okay,” I say. “It’s not a problem, I’m tired anyway.” I stand up off the sofa and run my hands along the front of my dress. David walks back to me, grabbing his jeans and shirt on the way. I look up at him, and his eyes look tired. Not sleepy, but tired. Weary even. Whatever he and Brad have to talk about is obviously not something he is looking forward to.
“Is everything all right?” I ask.
“Yeah. It’s all right. I would just rather stay here with you, that’s all.” But I know that that isn’t all. I know there is more to it than that.
“Okay, well, you know where I am if you need me,” I say, picking up my panties and sliding them up my legs. David gives me a small smile as he finishes dressing, then he pecks me on the cheek, picks up the metal box, and walks out the door.



chapter Thirty-Three

David picked me up when I left work yesterday evening at seven. He took me out for a beer and some pub grub so we could talk about today’s little adventure. I suggested we go rock climbing or horseback riding or zip-lining, but he said that he had something all figured out and that he wanted it to be a surprise. When I asked him how he knows it’s something I’ve never done before, he told me that I needed to trust him and promised that it will definitely be a new experience for me. And so today, I am nearly jumping out of my skin. I’ve managed to talk my supervisor into letting me leave a few hours early, and I’m more excited than I’ve been in a very long time. I spend most of the day staring at the clock, willing it to move faster. When Matt asks me why I seem so out of sorts, I tell him that I got permission to cut out early, and David and I are spending the afternoon doing something crazy.
“What are you guys going to do?” he asks with more apprehension than curiosity.
“I’m not really sure,” I tell him. “I let David make all the plans, so the only thing I know is that it’s something I’ve never done before.”
“You let David make all the plans? Man, I hope you make it out alive,” he says without a trace of humor in his voice.
“Aww, come on. What kind of crazy do you think he’s gonna get me into?” It reminds me that Matt knows way more about David than I do. Should I even be having this conversation?
“I’m just saying, don’t be surprised if you end up on the back of a motorcycle, or rolling a joint in an airplane at ten thousand feet, or standing at a blackjack table in Vegas.” Oh. I hadn’t even thought of that kind of crazy as being an option.
“I heard that that’s the type of stuff David was doing before I showed up. So it’s true, huh?” I ask nervously.
“Kind of, yeah,” Matt says. He purses his lips and scrunches his face up in a wince. As if he thinks he might be saying too much.