The Apple of My Eye

State of Love and Trust

Star and I woke up next to each other the next day. What a delightful feeling that was. She was still resting on my arm, as we had barely moved at all during the night, which is quite unusual for me: I'm one hell of a messy sleeper. I usually toss and turn like crazy all the time, especially when I'm not sleeping alone—because maybe, in the back of my mind there somewhere, I'd rather be. At any rate, that was not the case today. Today I was happier than a turkey the day after Thanksgiving.

We fooled around a little, got up, brushed our respective teeth, and took our respective showers. We'd have a long day ahead of us. For starters, we had to go to the supermarket and buy food. We didn't have any, and we couldn't wait until we left work later that night because by then the stores would all be closed. About thirty minutes later, we were all set and good to go. If we hurried, we'd still have time to eat breakfast somewhere—and the nice little bakery around the corner seemed as good a place as any.

I sat on the side of the bed to put on my socks and shoes. I looked on as Star struggled with herself and her skintight pants. When she realized I had sat back and was enjoying the show—her hopping around trying to squeeze her deliciously plump round fanny into her jeans—she smiled the most mouthwatering smile, heaved a sigh of resignation, and simply gave up. I didn't think twice: I pulled her to me and kicked off my shoes as we attacked each other like our plane was going down. Breakfast and whatever else Star and I had to do would just have to wait. The business we were about to conduct now simply could not. I even tried to say something along the lines of, "We're gonna be late, Star, let's do this some other time," but my insincere words were muffled by her hungry kisses and her faint, breathless little moans. I didn't really care about breakfast or anything else at this point, it just felt exciting to make believe I was resisting her. In many ways, Star was still uncharted territory for me, the mystery of the unknown mixed with an intimacy that was just starting to feel familiar. But I didn't resist her one little bit this time. Resistance was a thing of the past. The truth was, I was entering a whole new world and was basking in the experience.

A couple of hours later, we were both late to work and had to speed things up if we were going to make it on time. We had to shower together—and no fooling around this time—leave the apartment in a hurry, and make a run for the bus stop. We were fresh out of the shower but were still sweating all the same when we hopped on the bus. The moment we sat down for the twenty-minute ride I realized Star was unstoppable today. She wanted to make out right there in the middle of the swarm of people. Little pecks and little bites on the lips just weren't doing it for her. She wanted to go the whole nine yards. And her hands wouldn't quit, either. Star was giving me quite the hard time, if you know what I mean, and I was loving every second. We were laughing like we were high, and I guess we really were—on dopamine, that is. I didn't have a care in the world. Except I did, obviously.

At work that day, we were seen arriving together for the very first time, our hair still wet and everything, chuckling like a couple of idiots, and we sure raised a number of eyebrows in our direction. But we couldn't be bothered. It was actually amusing to see people's faces when they thought they had us all figured out—when in fact most of them didn't have a clue.

Unfortunately, not everyone deals very well with having to witness carefree displays of exuberance. By dealing well with it, I mean leaving those exuberant, carefree people the fuck alone. Star and I were the complete opposite of being left alone. Like it was 2008 all over again, there were complications not only in the workplace, but on the former boyfriend front and on the estranged wife front, too.

At work, there was Ashley—remember her?—who was giving Star a particularly hard time. Ashley had not tried any funny business with me again, partly because she knew I wasn't going to give her the time of day, partly because she and everybody else knew Star and I were going steady now. We were no longer just a couple of paramours who were sort of spending an awful lot of time together when we had a boyfriend and a wife waiting for us at home. That phase was over. It was official now: Star was my girl, and I was her man. And Ashley just couldn't live with that notion. It was eating her up inside. She couldn't just forget about us and go be a bitch somewhere else. Nope. Not Ashley. She had to exact her revenge by getting Star in trouble, and that's just what she did.