NIKKI & JOE, CASUALLY |

34: the glasses stay on during sex

            I stumble to pull the door shut and wedge off my trainers without losing touch. Joe unbuttons my printed shirt and shoves both it and my jacket off. It takes a group effort to manoeuvre me out of my turtleneck without snapping any of my necklaces. Once it's on the floor, I shove my glasses back on and bend to capture her mouth again but Joe holds me back.

She thumbs the barbells pierced through my nipples, her breathing thick with want. 'Just when I thought you couldn't get fitter...'

'I'm glad you approve.'

'Oh, I more than a–' Her sentence cuts off with a burst of giggles when I pick her up. Joe instinctively wraps her legs around my waist as I stumble deeper into her flat and realise it's not a studio.

'Left,' she says and kisses me again.

I push through the ajar door into a dark room, shuffling forward until my shins hit the side of the bed and I lower Joe onto it. She knocks into summat and jolts away from the kiss.

'Don't look at this!' Joe slams her MacBook shut and literally swipes the rest of the things off the bed: gel pens ricochet off the floor like a firework. At least one journal drops open. Her MacBook and its bamboo laptop tray are the only things she places on the floor with a semblance of care. 'I've totally not watched four series of Bake Off in the past three days. What? I've got mates and hobbies.'

Seizing a clicker from her nightstand, she presses a button and a neon light comes on—don't flicker or nowt, either. It's the shape of a rising—or setting—sun and appropriately bathes the room in an orange glow. She's got a remote for her fucking lights? I mean, I know her parents are dentists but–

That train of thought crashes into a wall when Joe grabs the waistband of my corduroy trousers.

'I'll do it.' Stepping back, I shove them down my thighs with my boxers.

Joe hums with appreciation as my erection springs free. 'Nice penis.'

'Uh, thanks.'

She tosses me an unopened packet of ribbed condoms. I grab one and tear the foil open with my teeth, though I have to pause in my urgency to place the box on her desk even if her floor is already covered in what might be every article of clothing she owns and she'd probably just throw it there with the rest of her shit.

'Very symmetrical.'

I glance down. 'I guess.'

Joe watches with a tilted head as I stroke myself, pausing to squeeze the head so I can maybe not come after one second, and roll the condom on. It's a classroom type of curiosity; I'm the lamb heart her teacher is about to dissect.

She must realise this because her stare is bashful when she finally tears it off my dick. 'Sorry, it's only that I've not seen a flesh penis since I was eighteen. It's a bit weird. Don't get me wrong! I honestly find it quite aesthetically pleasing. But also... weird.'

'You don't have to–'

'No, I want it inside me.'

That's all the invitation I need to move back to the bed. Joe has wormed out of her own jeans and sports bra and is now gloriously naked against the mountain of pillows. She don't have a headboard, which makes me feel slightly better, considering the sheer amount of things in this room. Good thing we came here and not my house or Joe would've probably turned around right at the door.

Good thing we came here or I'd never have seen her like this, a silhouette in the orange LED light. I nudge my glasses up my nose as I sit on my heels at the foot of the bed.