Shape of You (+18)

Chapter Eight

▬▬▬▬Marley's POV▬▬▬▬

The last thing I heard was the sound of a car engine starting and then the call ended. Giggling in disbelief, I stared at the screen of my phone, wondering if my assumption was right.

"Is he actually on his way, right now?"

I was talking to myself, considering I snuck away from Emma the moment I saw Joel was calling. There was no way I would have had the nerve to say what I did if anyone was around me. Scurrying out of the empty bathroom, I walked back to my table, sitting down while trying to act as casual as possible. I must not have been doing a good job at that, though, since Emma was giving me a weird look.

"What?" I asked, looking to see if there was something on my clothes that I hadn't noticed.

"Did you even wash your hands? Cause, seriously, Marley, that was a quick bathroom break."

I just blinked at her, waiting for her to move past her unwanted line of questioning. Eventually, she looked away, focusing on her food, so I did the same...until I realized something.

I had no idea where Joel was expecting to meet up. I didn't want to call or text him while he was driving. Philadelphia traffic was not an easy thing to handle, which was another reason I opted to walk places. A little flustered by our lack of communication, I decided to just finish my late lunch date with Emma and then head home. If he didn't call or reach out, then that's probably the place he'd go.

Forty-five minutes later, I was finally walking through my front door, the warm air instantly enveloping me. I could feel my frozen nose and cheeks thawing as I pulled the hat off my head and took off a few layers of clothes. Shaking my hazel brown hair out, I walked toward the kitchen, my eyes lingering on one of the photos I'd taken while I was in Miami earlier this year. It was taken on my iPhone, but the quality was still great, so I had it blown up and framed in my living room.

Still covered in my black leggings and red sweater, I started brewing a pot of coffee. That's when my phone rang.

It's Joel.

Clearing my throat, I answered, "Hey. What's up?"

Honking in the background caught my attention, and I had to pull the phone away from my ear slightly when Joel shouted, "What are you honking at me for!? I'm stuck here just like you, asshole!"

Then, he must have honked his horn because it was much louder than the previous one.

"Uh...Joel?"

"My bad, Marley," he sighed, no longer showing signs of road rage. "It's just, I'm stuck in traffic, bored out of my mind and all I want to do is get my hands on you and...never mind."

Ignoring the burning of my cheeks, I managed to ask, "How far out are you from my place, you think?"

"Well, I was an hour away when we last talked, and I've been stuck pretty much ever since so...I've got about thirty, forty minutes of nothing to do but look at this car with an ugly ass array of bumper stickers."

His little comment made me giggle, imagining him so irritated.

"That sucks." When he hummed in agreement, an idea popped in my head. After all, he wasn't the only one looking forward to our appointment. "Maybe I can give you something better to look at."

Setting the phone to speaker, I carried it with me into my room and started undressing, biting my lip when Joel wondered, "And what exactly do you mean by that, darling?"

"You'll see," was all I gave him in reply.

My underwear didn't match, but they were still provocative on their own. I had a feeling Joel wouldn't mind the different colors.