Page 75 of Not In The Contract

Maybe I could start talking about the little things that clung to my thoughts, the footnotes that tailed after me every day. Maybe it would be easier to deal with. Either way, Devon’s willingness to listen was something I’d never been offered, and I knew that if it had been anyone else I’d have declined. I wasn’t sure how I felt about it anymore.

Another week had crept by and Devon’s presence had somehow grown closer. She followed after me until she became more familiar to me than my own shadow. The worst bit was the brand new sense of expectation that came with it. Whenever I looked over my shoulder, I expected to find Devon right there.

I wandered into the kitchen late that Friday night, the stress of the work week lighter after talking it out, only to stumble onto a very unexpected sight.

“Uh, hello.”

Devon turned owlish eyes on me, her lips wrapped around a spoon. She sat cross-legged on one of the kitchen stools in her flannel pajamas, her bare feet tucked under her ass, with a tub of ice cream on the counter in front of her.

She swallowed the mouthful of ice cream and winced at the temperature. “Hi,” she said sheepishly. She glanced at the clock above the door frame and then back at me. “You’re up late.”

“I don’t feel as tired as I usually do,” I said with a shrug. “I didn’t want to lie in bed staring at the ceiling.”

“Are you sure you’re not stressed about something?” she asked, her brows furrowed with concern. “It could be keeping you awake.”

I shook my head. “For once, I’m pretty relaxed, I think,” I confessed. “I can’t remember the last time I felt like I could just… grab a book or spend time in my house.”

“I’m almost afraid to ask.” She chuckled and hopped off her stool to grab another spoon. She offered it to me and slid the tub toward me wordlessly. “Have you actually spent time in this house? Or have you basically been a specter?”

“A specter?” I scoffed, scooping some of the ice cream onto my spoon.

“Like a ghost,” she teased, licking a bit of ice cream off her spoon. “You float around without really existing here.”

“I guess it can feel like that sometimes,” I said. It was all I could manage, most of my attention lingered on the tip of her tongue as it swiped across the spoon.

“You know,” she sighed, leaning onto the counter, her eyes bright, “when I first got my own place, the first thing I did was dance around butt naked for two hours.”

The mere thought of that image sent heat rushing to my face and I glanced away, turning all my attention to the spoon in my hand. “I hope you closed the curtains,” I joked.

“No, but I should have charged the neighbors for the show.” She laughed and it drew my gaze once more.

The sound of her laughter sent a thrill through me, my nerves zinged with heat, and it drew a laugh out of me as well. “Is this something you do often?” I asked, gesturing to the open ice cream tub.

“What? Devour chocolate ice cream at midnight?” She giggled and I smiled. “It’s something that used to give me some kind of control, but now I just do it for the dopamine fix. Plus, it’s undoubtedly healthier than letting Tamera drag me on a bar-hopping extravaganza.”

“I have to agree.” I chuckled. “Something tells me that Tamera and Hayden would get on like a house on fire.”

“Tell me more about your friends,” she said, her smile crinkling her eyes. “Sometimes I feel like they’re my friends, too, but I don’t know anything about them.”

I hummed, wondering what I could possibly tell her about my circle of friends.

“We’ve known each other for so long that I honestly don’t even know what to say.” I chuckled. “It’d be easier for you to meet them.”

“That sounds mildly terrifying.” She frowned. “I’d have nothing in common with them!”

“What makes you think that?”

“Eh, you know, the huge gap in lifestyle, for starters.” She shrugged.

“That means nothing to us,” I said, wanting her to understand that. I wanted her to know that differences in lifestyles weren’t something we cared about.

“Really?” she asked, the disbelief in her words clear. “I wouldn’t blame you. It’s a social pattern that we easily adapt to in finding others like us.”

I shrugged. “We met long before any of us found much success,” I explained. “I met them in college or just after, and we’ve stuck together ever since. Enough that their significant others are just as much a part of our group.”

Devon’s eyes glittered with an unfamiliar emotion and I couldn’t look away. “That sounds wonderful,” she hummed.

“I figured that you and Tamera have a large group of friends of your own.”