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Chapter twenty-four

Brain Cells & Boyfriends

Karma

“ Fuuuuuuuck!!! ”

With the force of a rocket on lift-off, cum blasts from my balls and out through my cock, launching high into the air. I arch off the bed as I scream through my orgasm—only the cuffs tying me to the bedposts keep me from flying off the bed. My brain is hurled into outer space, my body dragged behind it. I fight to hold onto consciousness, a passenger on the wildest ride of my life.

When I finally land back on Earth, I’m shaking and covered in cum. My body is spread-eagle on the mattress—hands and feet tied to its four corners—with my pants pulled down to my thighs. My shirt is tangled up around my neck, exposing the white mess on my torso as well as all of my junk. As I struggle to catch my breath, I gaze blearily around the room. What the hell just happened?

Josh stares intently at me, naked except for a piece of cum-splattered silk. “What did you just say?”

Say? I can’t even form a thought, much less have a conversation. When I reach toward a bottle of water on the nightstand, the cuff jerks my hand to a stop. I let out a weak groan as my head drops back onto the mattress.

Josh hurries to unfasten the restraint, then lifts the water to my lips. After a couple of swallows, he tells me, “Karma, we’ve got to talk.”

Right now? I gaze down at my half-naked body. Three of my limbs are still shackled to the posts.

“Oh, sorry.” Josh rips off the velcro, then wriggles out of his underwear before rushing from the room. When he returns, he has a wet cloth in one hand and a fresh glass of water in the other. After gently wiping the mess off my skin, he unties me from the bed. As I struggle to sit up against the headboard, he says, “About your wish...”

My what? “I just lost a few thousand brain cells, Moonbeam. I’ll need you to refresh my memory.”

He straddles my waist, looking me straight in the eye. “You said that you want to be my boyfriend.”

Oh. That. I rub my hands across my face, trying to snap myself out of my cum-coma. “Your boyfriend… your slave… your fuck-toy. After what you just did to me, you can call me whatever you want.”

Josh lets out huff. “Be serious, Karma. We’ve just started dating! This isn’t about the prophecy, is it?”

I shake my head in confusion. “What does this have to do with your grandmother’s visions?”

“You tell me.” He folds his arms across his chest. “You know that Nani ‘s dream was just a coincidence, right? We aren’t actually getting married.”

“Well, yeah,” I say, sitting up a little straighter. “Her prophecy could’ve been about anyone. But that doesn’t change the way I feel about you. I really like you, Josh.”

His face softens as he settles back into my lap. “I like you, too, Karma— a lot . But there’s still so much that we don’t know about each other. Don’t you think it’s too soon?”

Shit. Evie warned me about looking desperate. I probably just blew my only chance. “I don’t want to push you before you’re ready, but I already know what I need to know. You’re brilliant, kind, and sexy as hell. You make me feel like no one ever has before.”

“I’ve never felt like this about anyone, either.” Josh brushes a kiss across my lips. “Everything about you is amazing. When I’m with you, I feel like I could take on the world.”

“Right? Just you and me, together.” I gaze into his eyes, searching for an answer to my wish. “So… do you want to be boyfriends?”

“I do.” He grins at me.

Holy shit! I let out a whoop of victory and pump my fist in the air.

Josh throws back his head and laughs. Wrapping his naked body around my fully-clothed one, he rolls me over on top of himself before pulling my head down for another kiss.

Long moments later when we finally come up for air, I tell him, “Let’s celebrate, Moonbeam! What are you doing tomorrow?”

“Mmm… tomorrow?” He stretches beneath me. “I’ve got my internship in the morning.”

“Oh, right. Me, too. I almost forgot.” That’s what happens when your boyfriend blows your mind. Boyfriend. Can you believe it?

“You have a summer internship?” Josh asks me.

“Well, kind of,” I hedge. “I’ll be working as a personal assistant on… um, a secret project. I can’t give you any details except that it involves writing—which is what I love to do more than anything. It’s gonna be the most demanding work that I’ve ever attempted. It could be the greatest creative challenge of my life, unless…”

“Unless what?” he asks.

“Unless I suck so bad that I get fired.” My mood plummets as I think about the scope of the project. Seriously, how am I supposed to assist Rodrick Domingo ? “The job is so over my head that I can’t believe I even got hired for it. I don’t know what the hell I’m doing or how I’m gonna help.”

Josh runs his fingers through my hair. “Einstein said ‘ Imagination is more important than knowledge’ , and I know you have plenty of imagination. You can accomplish anything you set your mind to. There’s just one thing that I don’t understand.”

I roll onto my side, raising myself up on an elbow. “What’s that, Moonbeam?”

“Well…” He pauses. “I know how much you love writing and you say that you want to be a novelist, so why are you studying for a business degree? You never explained that.”

Oh, I guess he’s right. Should I tell Josh about The Wilson Wake and Bakery? It feels like an awkward moment to tell him about my plans to own a weed shop. Still, I can’t keep it from him forever. “I do want to be a novelist. I’m earning an MBA for, um… a side project.”

“A side project?” Doubt creeps into Josh’s voice. “You need a master’s degree for a side project ?”

Maybe he’s right to think it’s sketchy. Our cannabis café had seemed like the perfect plan, at least at the beginning. “I’m gonna start a family business with Hank and Em. Our parents thought that one of us should have a business degree, and Spartacus offered me a scholarship.”

“Oh! That makes sense,” he says. “What kind of business are you going to open? A book shop? A publishing company?”

“Um…no.” Why did my brand-new boyfriend have to ask me about this now? Compared to a career at NASA, our idea seems kinda stupid. Josh is gonna research the wonders of the universe while I sell pot-laced brownies. “We plan on opening a coffee shop with a bakery and a… dispensary.”

Josh’s forehead wrinkles. “A dispensary? Is that like a pharmacy?”

“It’s a pot shop,” I admit with a sigh. “Y’know, marijuana. That’s the side of the business that Hank will be in charge of. Em will run the bakery, and I’ll run the coffee shop. Together, we hope to create a place for friends and neighbors to come and hang out.”

“Marijuana?” His eyes widen. “You mean the drug?”

Arghh. Don’t get me started. “Cannabis is legal in California, Moonbeam. In fact, the recreational use of marijuana has been legalized in twenty-four states, with more on the way. You just have to be twenty-one to consume it, the same as with alcohol. You’ve had a beer before, right?”

“No, but I had wine once.” He shudders.

“What about a bhang lassi ?“ I ask. “I’ve heard that’s a popular beverage in India during the Festival of Holi.”

Josh licks his lips. “Oh, yes. I like bhang lassis very much.”

“They’re made with marijuana,” I say in a loud whisper.

“Oh. Well, in that case…” He shrugs his shoulders and grins. “Will you make bhang lassis in your shop?”

I sit up in bed, letting out an internal sigh of relief. “No, but Em will make other edibles, both with THC and without. She’s an excellent baker and candy maker. It’s kind of her calling in life. Hank’s passion is to cultivate different strains of cannabis— that’s why he’ll be in charge of the dispensary. And I know how to make espresso drinks, so that’s what I’ll do.”

“It sounds like you’ve thought of everything.” Josh curls up next to me with his back against the headboard. “It must be fun taking MBA classes while you’re planning your family business.”

“Actually… not so much.” Ugh, I’d rather have my pubes waxed. “But I’ve only got one more year of school, and then I’ll be free to start our shop.”

He gives me a funny look. “Oh. If you don’t enjoy your business classes, then why would you want to run a business?”

He’s got a point. “I can write when I’m not busy with customers, just like I do at WLL. Plus, it’ll pay the bills until my writing career takes off.”

“But what if you’re too busy with the shop to write?” He sits up straight, a line creasing his forehead. “And when will you have time to travel? I thought you wanted to see the world.”

“I do,” I tell him, “though I probably won’t have any spare time to travel for the first few years. But that’s the same with every job, right? You gotta do what you gotta do—and if it helps Hank and Em follow their dreams, it’ll all be worth it.”

“Family is important,” Josh agrees, taking my hand and lacing our fingers together. “But so is following your own deepest desire.”

Yeah, I guess he’s right. Owning a shop won’t ever be my dream-come-true. There’s nothing I’d rather be than a novelist. To tell the stories of the people that live in my head, to bring my figments of imagination to life. Didn’t the writer Joseph Campbell always urge people to ‘follow their bliss’? What would it be like to follow mine?

As I think about my plans and hopes for the future, another quote by Campbell comes to mind: ‘We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.’

Josh had the courage to stand up at graduation and choose a different path than the one he was on. He’s brave enough to follow his deepest, most heart-felt dreams.

The question is… Am I?