The deep pitter-patter of the heavy rain reverberated through the window shutter of my apartment as I adjusted in my sleep, pulling the blanket tightly around my curled body.
The need to make the necessary call to check on his well-being was increasing through each passing minute.
I glanced at my silent phone, time being past midnight and seeing that there were no missed calls from him, eventually I settled on going back to sleep.
Which proved to be a tougher task 'cause half of my stupid self was wondering if he got home safely while other half threw cactus at the first half for making such speculations of him reaching home at his first date, stubbornly making me imagine various interesting and steamy ways he might be enjoying his date with Kiara.
Hell, no! Heath wasn't like that. As far as I knew, I was fairly informed of all his barely touched relationships with women and none of them involved his own will but was rather, forced upon him by his very own father, who, if he ever got the chance to confront bravely, was going to get the piece of his mind someday.
But that was out of question, since Heath barely visited his home, let alone having good relations with his father.
As for his mother, he never mentioned anything about her, except for the day she was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis and I still remember the day he asked me to leave him alone, after hearing of his mother's sickness, which I clearly protested against and he gave me his one reserved look of You-better-back-out-before-I-turn-into-a-wolf which did pretty much of a harm to my already bruised dignity.
I clutched the blanket around my fingers, wetting my lips in deep thought but after a minute of being held prison by my own evilness, I kicked the pillow in frustration and decided to give in to my conscience for once.
When he didn't respond after my second call, I knew he wasn't home, or he was already asleep after his strenuous date.
Or maybe he loved every inch of it.
Deciding it better to visit him in person, hurriedly I put on my jacket and shoes and marched to his apartment, after hauling taxi from across the rainy street corner.
It was only after I reached his front door, was I able to realize I actually forgot to pick umbrella with me and after typing his house passcode with trembling fingers and shivering spine, I opened the door in slight rush, making the polished wooden door thud against the adjacent wall, leaving slight scratches.
Heath was in the midst of opening his shirt when he looked at me, his fingers loosing movement the minute he laid his eyes on my soaked form.
"Hi." I croaked out, waving hesitantly at him.
He raised his one eyebrow to examine my face before he let his eyes trail downward, and almost instantly, as if afraid of looking down, he plasterd his gaze again on my face, with a blank face. "What happened?" He asked.
"I..I..." I opened my mouth to answer him, but found it difficult to continue further.
He stopped unbuttoning his shirt, and went to his room, quietly, and emerged with a fresh towel.
"Here."I felt soft material land on my wet forehead, my temple itching with the prolonged rainwater sticking to my face.
Tentatively, I grabbed the towel, and rubbed it against my soaked face and over the wet clothes clinging to my body as a second skin.
With the corner of his eyes, he glanced to make sure I was drying myself before moving aside the unnecessary things from his dining table aside and picked two clean coffee mugs from the kitchen cupboard.
"Why're you still standing there?" He asked me when I made no move to close the door and enter inside his apartment. "I thought you came to check on me." He said, with a hint of smile on his voice.
My eyes widened at his words and quickly I fumbled with my shoes and walked to his apartment, seating myself comfortably on his couch.
"Who said I came to check on you?" I muttered, grabbing blindly any book from his study table and clutched it in my fingers, proudly, ready to show him the proof of my claim.
When he turned around, carrying two coffee mugs in his hand, I pretended to read something from the book in my hands, my mind totally fixed on making back up excuses if the one in my hand didn't work.
"Why're you here then? Your dishevelled state of-"
"I forgot a very important book while leaving your apartment." He looked at me with a questioning gaze and I practically shoved the book on his face, too eager to prove him wrong.
He stared at the book, then at me and then again at the book, and slowly, a faint teasing smile spread threatened to spread on his face, before he put the coffee mugs on the table and crossed his hands across his chest, his muscles flexing against his tight shirt.
"What?" I started, irritated by his response.
"Are you sure it's the one you've been looking for.." His right lip curled upwards. "in the middle of the night" He regarded me with mild amusement, before looking outside his windows. "in this rainy storm." He traced the corner of my jawline with his scrutinizing eyes, finally trailing his gaze down my wet slightly heaving breasts and legs. "half-naked."
I blushed at his boldness. "Yes! It's the one-" Quickly, I turned the book around to read it's title so that I could clearly show him I was really looking for my book and almost immediately, I threw the book on farthest corner of the room, wiping my hands frantically on my wet top, as if just the title had managed to rob me of all my innocence, and engulfed me in its sultry world.
Seventeen ways to have him inside you.
-By Rixon Gold.
God, I almost vomited the heart out of my mouth reading that title.
Who even cares how many ways he is inside you as long as you have him love you daily?
I mean I wouldn't care if we made love daily, with the same angle everyday, I would just be content with him ins-
I heard him cough beside me and, blushed at my own hidden dirtiness, avoiding his eyes.
"You sure keep some interesting specimens of literature in your study." I accused him, taking the coffee mug and leaning against his dining table.
I glanced at him when he didn't reply. "I suppose I should give the credit to Jennifer for gifting you such beautiful analogies of human reproduction."
It was plausible enough that his sister, who had a face of an angel but soul of a devil, could commit such heinous act of spoiling her own younger brother.
He shrugged, eyeing the book on the floor dangerously. "Not entirely. My mother owns more than half of it."
Like daughter. Like mother.
But I liked Mrs Evercrest. She's most beautiful and graceful lady I ever had the honors to cross paths with.
Though she was mostly busy with serving her family with utmost devotion, she would drop by his son's apartment almost at every weekend to fill his needs for nutrition and healthy munches.
Though Heath didn't seem to be grateful of his own mother's unconditional affection for him!
She was the sad mother, undoubtly genuine one, concerned for her son's well-being cause her daughter grew up too wild to her taste, and so, she made sure at almost every family gathering that her son hadn't caught on her daughter's germs by staying in the same room together.
Which was kinda impossible as Heath wasted no time in kicking his sister's ass whenver she'd get too wild, bossy or sassy with him, though it earned him almost equal intensity of retaliation, four out of every five times, considering Miss Jennifer didn't take shit even from her own brother.
But keeping the usual animosity between siblings aside, Heath and Miss Jennifer were goals.
Too bad my mother didn't marry the man with a son. I'd have loved to play brother-sister with him.
Taking one sip from my mug, I looked at Heath to see him in deep thought. "How did the date go?"
As if broken out of his reverie, he blinked at me before answering. "Ah. Date." He paused, thinking something, as if remembering the night's events, before looking at me. "Yeah. It was good."
I narrowed my eyes at him. "Good? Just good? What'd you do, Heath?"
He shrugged. "I just followed your instructions." He glanced brifely at me, before continuing. "You told me to smile and wave it off. I just did that."
"So...What'd you two do then?"
"We talked, ate, and enjoyed." He looked apologetic. "In silence." He completed, obviously feeling dejected and disappointed.
I frowned. "Silence? You two ate in silence? How is this even possible? I mean I know you aren't very talkitive, hell sometimes, even I had to butt-heads with you to put words in your mouth!" He glared at me but I was already immune to all his scaring tactics. "I thought your taciturnity changed after all these years." I completed, feeling remorse for him.
He shook his head. "It wasn't entirely silent. I love silence but that one was a bit unnerving. Only Kiara talked, she asked me a lot of things and I think I had replied to all her doubts properly-"
"Doubts?"
"Yeah. She asked me if my favourite singer was Eminem. She just assumed it was him without even taking my choice in consideration-"
"You went on a date, Heath. Not on a courtroom to defend some raped victim." I put my empty cup down the sink and turned on the tap to wash it.
"It was Kiara's ways of asking your interests, likes and dislikes, hobbies, wants and whether you'd still like to go on a next date with her."
Health frowned deeply at my revealation. I understood his inexperience and undeftness in such subjects but still, he was a man so I thought he wouldn't need suggestions in those areas of love life.
"Yes. I'd love to go on another date with her. She's pretty, cute and tolerable. I think she's the one, Scarlett." I paused hearing his words, my heart twisting painfully in my chest, throbbing harder but kept my lips pressed in a thin line.
After a pause, Heath continued. "It'd have been better if I had been courageous enough to tell her that. It's frustrating how I messed it all up, Scarlett! I had been so close to wooing her tonight. She was right in front of me, smiling, talking, stealing glances. But I let my nervousness and inexperience take over me. I'm such a fool Scarlett. I'm such a-" He took one glance at me, then at himself, then at me again before he took one sip of his coffee and spoke "Never mind."
I didn't respond. I thought it was better this way, if I would just ignore some things, some pretty unbearable confessions, some loud thudding of my heart, some raw desire of my body, some hard feelings of lo-
I coughed, -we'd both be happy in our own spheres, I completed hurriedly in my mind.
