It Ends With Us

5.

Buck

I tossed and turned All. Night. Long.

I drank warm milk, downloaded a "white noise" app, counted sheep, you name it. But nothing worked. Every time I closed my eyes, all I could see was him. Eddie.

And his fully naked body.

**********

Last night

I had just finished grading papers. Book reports. I loved all of my students, but I needed to give them a serious talk about acting like they read the book, when I could clearly tell they just watched and summarized the movie.

Thinking I'd done enough work for the weekend, I slipped the graded papers back into my laptop case and headed upstairs to my bedroom. I stripped down to just my boxers, throwing my dirty clothes into my clothes hamper. I walked over to my window to close the blinds and curtains when I saw it. Him. Eddie, moisturizing his fully. Naked. Body.

I wanted to look away. I needed to look away. This was wrong. Creepy even. I started to close my blinds, but then he started to turn around.

He had caught me staring.

"Shit," I muttered, trying to hide behind my curtain. I stood there for a minute, thinking he'd move to close his curtains first. But I was wrong.

I peeked around my window to find him looking directly at me. Smiling. Biting his bottom lip seductively, while he continued to moisturize his body.

His – and I could not stress this enough – ENTIRE body.

I was frozen now. Unable to do anything except watch as he touched himself, making eye contact with me the entire time. He smirked at me. I didn't even have to look down to know why.

I was completely aroused and he saw.

I knew I should have been embarrassed, but I wasn't. At least not entirely. Because he wanted me, almost as much as I wanted him. There was only one problem.

There was no way I could face him after tonight...

**********

Present Day

It was 8am now. I was supposed to meet up with Eddie at 8:30. I thought about calling him and canceling, but what was I supposed to say? 'I can't hang out with you today because I want to jump your bones?' I cringed at the thought of actually saying that to him.

Get a grip, Buck, I thought to myself.

Deciding that laying here any longer would do nothing but make me late, I – almost grudgingly – got up, took a quick shower, and threw on a pair of jeans with a plain white tee shirt. And no sooner than I was finished did my doorbell ring. I ran down the stairs stopping at the bottom long enough to catch my breath, then opened the door...and there he was...

Dressed in a pair of jeans and a plain white tee shirt.

"Good morning!" he smiled widely at me, not so subtly looking me up and down.

I couldn't help but smile back. "Good morning." I looked down and noticed he was carrying a cup holder with two large coffees in it. "One of those for me?"

"Actually both of them are for you. I wasn't sure what flavor you'd like, so I got two of their most popular ones."

My smile grew even wider. "Which one is which?"

"Ah now that's the fun part. I'm not going to tell you. You'll just have to try one and see."

"Would now be a good time to mention that I'm not a big fan of surprises?"

He gave me a knowing smirk. "There's a difference between a surprise and a grand gesture." He tapped his temple with one finger. "Remember that." He winked at me, knowing he had me right where he wanted me.

I blushed and grabbed one of the coffee cups, accidentally brushing my fingers against his. I gasped feeling as if a bolt of electricity zapped through me. I grabbed the cup quickly and took a long sip. "Mm. Is this a Cinnamon Dolce Latte?" Eddie smiled, obviously pleased with himself. "Thank you," I muttered quietly. I took another sip as we stood in an awkward silence.

Eddie was the one to break it. "So...you ready to go?"

"Yeah. Yeah, let's do it!" I led him to my truck.

"So where are we headed?"

"It wouldn't be a surprise if I told you now would it?" I said, mocking him. To be honest, I had no idea where I was taking him. I had all week to think about it, but instead, all I could do was fantasize about him. I shook away the unholy thoughts that were starting to form in my head and decided to try to make small talk instead. "So where did you and Christopher move from again?"

"Texas."

"That's right. What made you guys move out here? Other than the new job of course." Eddie stiffened next to me. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked that." Five minutes and I've already ruined the whole day.

Nice going Buck.

"No it's okay," he cleared his throat before continuing. "My wife, Chris's mother, died 6 months ago. Then I lost my job. Decided it was time for a change in scenery."

"Oh, Eddie. I'm so sorry."

"It's okay. How could you know? It's not exactly something I walk around broadcasting," he chuckled. He was trying to make light of the situation, I could tell. But the laugh didn't reach his eyes.

"What about you? Have you always lived in LA?"

"No, I was actually born and raised in Pennsylvania."

"Wow. East coast boy huh?" He leaned back, grinning at me.

I laughed. "Something like that yeah."

"So what made you make the switch, if you don't mind me asking?"

I couldn't tell if he was still talking about my location or something else...

I looked over at him, but the innocence in his eyes gave nothing away. "I...needed to find myself I guess...I spent the past five or six years traveling, so now I'm just looking to settle down, you know? Start a family. Both of my parents were teachers, so I decided to try it, see what all the fuss was about. And honestly, I fell in love with it. Then my sister moved out here and we both decided to put down some roots of our own." I glanced over at him and he was staring at me with a look I didn't recognize. Adoration? Admiration?

Lust?

"I know it sounds kind of stupid –"

"No it doesn't. I think it's beautiful," he smiled and I returned it. We sat in silence for the rest of the ride, but this time, it wasn't awkward at all. It was comfortable.

I didn't even realize where I had driven us to until I parked the car. I looked over at Eddie and he was grinning ear to ear, eyes glowing.

We were at the Santa Monica Pier.