Caught in the middle

Ch. 15

Joshuas POV
I had messaged Kai earlier today. I didn't really like how we had left things yesterday when I took her back to her car. I had wanted to check on her last night but I didn't know if she would be receptive to speaking to me yet after I had gotten a little harsh with her so I waited until we had both slept and gotten a chance to think. I checked my phone and it had been four hours since I had sent the message and she hadn't acknowledged it. It showed it had delivered but hadn't been opened yet. I closed my phone and flipped it screen down on my coffee table. I didn't want to sit and marinate in the anticipation of hearing from her. Chris would laugh me out of my house if he knew I was waiting by my phone for a message from a girl. I shook my head and hoisted my self up to all six feet four inches of my height and headed for the front door of my apartment. I shoved my feet into my boots and grabbed my keys off the counter. I took one last second to glance back at my phone sitting on my coffee table and slipped out my front door, locking it behind me and dropping my keys into my pocket.
I jogged down the stairs from my apartment on the third floor down to the main level and out the side door. I let it slam behind me as I approached my garage door. The automatic keypad on the side of the drive in door doesn't work but if I tap two wires together behind the cover it slides itself open. I step into the cool shadow of the garage and my bike sits in the back right corner where I keep it next to my pickup. I stride over to it and admire the machine. It's beautiful and I baby the shit out of it. Never left outside. Never dirty more than a night, she gets a bath as soon as I'm home after I've ridden if there's any dirt visible. She gets meticulous maintenance and has never had a dent or scratch or chip. I didn't have a chance to wash her yesterday so I decide today, washing her would be the perfect distraction from waiting for a reply from Kai. I would put my time to good use. I pull her out of the garage to the concrete outside my garage and grab my detailing supplies. I spend the next two hours washing, conditioning, polishing, and drying the machine to perfection. The sunlight from the late afternoon shone off the polished metal and fuel fuel tank. I admired it for a moment before heaving a sigh and bending to grab my supplies and replacing them in the garage corner behind where my bike resides when not in use. I back my bike back in to place and close the garage door. I'm not fully sure if I'm being tedious and slow because I want to enjoy the bite of the fresh air in the spring evening or because I'm avoiding the disappointment of not seeing Kai's name on my phone when I get back upstairs if she still hasn't responded to my message. Might as well get it over with.
I take my time climbing the stairs and unlocking my apartment door, lining my boots up next to my entry way, and placing my keys and wallet on the counter. I then avoid checking my phone by pulling leftover pizza from my fridge and warming it up in my air fryer and grabbing a Bodyarmour drink from my refrigerator. Finally I have nothing left to avoid my phone so I take my food and drink and drop myself onto the vintage and wildly uncomfortable couch next to my coffee table and phone. I pick it up and glance down with a sigh and see notifications from Chris, Facebook, and Snapchat. I open the notification from Chris first, chuckling at the meme he sent me and tapping out a quick response about his sick sense of humor. I open the Facebook notification to reveal a friend request from someone with no mutual friends and then I open Snapchat. The little blue square next to Kai's name indicates she's replied to me finally.
Excitement flickers in my chest as my thumb hovers over her notification. I tap it and the chat pops up.

Me: How's your day?

Kai: It's ok. I just woke up.

She had sent the chat an hour ago, it was damn near supper time. What the hell was she doing asleep still?

Me: Just woke up? Now?

Her reply was almost instant. Before I could even close my phone.

Kai: Yeh. I didn't sleep much last night.

Me: Why not?

Kai: Just a lot going on in my head.

Me: Yesterday morning?

Her icon shows up in the corner and disappears. It reappears a second later and she starts typing, pausing, disappearing, and typing again. This goes on for several minutes and I close out of the chat to wait for her response. Curious if she'll confront the interaction yesterday or ignore it. Maybe that was what was bothering her but maybe it wasn't and I'm just giving myself too much credit where it wasnt warranted. My phone alerts me to a response from Kai, however I take my time finishing my food before it grows cold then pick up the phone to check her reply.

Kai: Idk.
Kai: Among other things.
Kai: There's a lot.
Kai: Just, idk.

Me: Do you want to talk about any of it?

Her reply is instant.

Kai: Idk. I think so.

Me: Do you want me to call you?

Kai: Ok.

She follows up her reply with her phone number. Smiling, I tap the number and my phone connects to the call with her contact showing up that I had taken the time to create when I'd unlocked her phone with her Face ID after she had fallen asleep on top of me with my cock sheathed fully inside her two nights ago. I had looked up her contact card and entered her phone number into my phone, telling myself it was just for a precaution in case i ever needed it. What would I need it for? I'm not sure. But my rational brain didn't care much. Before the first ring is done she picks up.
"Hi." She breathes on an exhale.
"Hey," I say back, hoping she can hear my smile in my voice. "So what are you feeling, what's going on?"
"I'm not sure." It sounds like there's a little waver to her voice. A sense of uncertainty. I'm not sure if that's about talking to me about how she's feeling, or if she is uncertain how she feels.
"Start from the beginning then. Walk me through everything. I'll help you work it out in your head." I coax. She hesitates. Not for long, but long enough. "Just start where your head goes first."
"Shai." It's barely above a whisper.
"Shai." I repeat. "What about her?" I half expected this to be where she started. But she didn't seem fully genuine with her response. Like she almost doesn't believe her own response.
"When we saw her yesterday. And you asked me what I was going to tell her about us being together when we asked." She stopped herself short.
"Ok..." I trail off, ending with a slight question at the end while also leaving room for her to continue on when she was ready.
"I told you that I was only going to explain how I ended up on your bike. You weren't happy with that. You got mad at me about it." She explains with a small pout to her voice.
I consider how to respond for a second. A small bud of annoyance rises in my chest. "How perhaps, would you have prefer I respond? When you tell me that you don't want to acknowledge the mindblowing sex we had? That you're simply going to say or imply to your friend that I brought you home and crashed on your couch to be a knight in shining armour? When, gorgeous, I'm anything but a night in shinning armour." I can't keep the sharp edge that creeps into my voice.
"I don't see why the details matter Joshua." She snaps back at me, my kitten reaching her little claws out momentarily.
"They matter because I'm not a casual person. And I don't share. I won't be sharing you." I sneer darkly.
"I'm single, Joshua. Very single. I don't belong to anyone. That includes you. You can't share what isn't yours. That's called borrowing."
A posessive feeling blooms in my chest. I sit in my silence for a moment contemplating how to answer that. She is in fact single. And I, in fact, have no desire for a relationship with anyone right now. That includes her. But I don't want her being with anyone else while we're together. Or once we've been together like the other night. Not while I still want to fuck her pretty little pussy.
"Then plan on me borrowing your sweet little pussy again. And again and again. Over and over. And plan in walking around with my seed filling you and dripping out of you while you're trying to let someone else 'borrow' your pussy." I taunt. She's silent for a moment on the other end of the phone.
"Who said I would even let you borrow it again? Maybe I don't think you deserve to. Maybe the other night was an accident and a one off thing. Maybe that's all you're going to get." The challenge in her voice is clear. The taunt. The brattyness that makes me want to claim her, but not until after I've made sure she's absolutely begged me to fuck her. Not until she's writhing under me and panting and begging me for even just the tip of my cock.
I wish she could see my smirk on my lips as I reply, "Maybe we'll have to find out." And I disconnect the phone call.