Grace watched as her friend emptied the ice from her glass out the second story window of her townhouse. "What are you doing, Tash?"
"Oh, I've got plants down there, I'm looking after them. This is as close to watered as they get."
This unusual gesture was not unlike most things Tash did-- lazy, a little unconventional, but generally with her heart in the right place. Grace's limited experience of the world and conventional, conservative upbringing made this aspect of Tash appealing. She would often watch in amusement as Tash did things that were perfectly normal for Tash. Like that night, when she'd invited a backpacker guy home from the bar to play xbox because he said he'd been missing gaming when travelling. She picked up the controller again.
When inviting him over, she'd said, "You can come and stay the night. But I've got one rule-- no sex. Don't even ask. Just xbox and a comfy bed, and maybe pancakes for breakfast if Duke is up in time."
Duke was Tash's step-brother-- another aspect of Tash's life that was an amusing curiosity to Grace who could imagine nothing further from ideal than moving out of her parent's home, and into a share house with her own annoying brother. But Tash and Duke were two peas in a pod, and Grace thought the way that they both looked after and leaned on each other was kind of adorable. Like how Tash left pancake cooking to Duke, who had it down to a fine art. Duke was like a male version of Tash and all her affection for her friend transferred to him instantly, even though she'd only exchanges a few words with him.
The backpacker's name was Steven, and he was now in another world, staring at the TV screen with the controller in his hands after responding in the bar with with, "Damn, you had me at xbox-- but I'd sell my soul for a comfortable bed and pancakes for breakfast. I mean, Jesus. Sure, no sex, but can I marry you?"
Problem was, that comfy bed was where Grace had thought she was going to sleep that night, so she wasn't sure what Tash had in mind. She guessed since Tash had two single beds in her room (she usually put them together to make what she called her "megabed pillow-fort"), they'd have to sleep in one together while Steven slept in the other. It already felt weird for Grace, to be sitting on the bed in Tash's cozy bohemian bedroom, watching Tash sitting on the floor with her legs crossed, intensely playing this comically violent game with some guy they'd just met.
This was not the first time Grace had been surprised by the level of casual intimacy at Tash's house, but it didn't make her feel uncomfortable, it was just unexpected. Like that morning when Duke had come downstairs wearing nothing but boxer briefs and joined them on the couch for an episode of Breaking Bad.
Grace had quickly looked away when she's seen his body revealed like that, but she'd found it hard to keep her eyes from wandering while he sat right next to her, his muscular arm stretched over the back of the couch so that it was almost around her shoulders. She'd even found herself glancing at his groin, taking a quick snapshot with a flicker of her gaze which she later analysed in her mind's eye, surprising herself with her thirst for detail.
She didn't usually think about men like that. Not that she wasn't 'a sexual being' as Tash once described herself (along with telling the less experienced and adventurous Grace all kinds of surprising details about what 'sexual beings' can get up to), she just generally didn't think much about men's bodies and body parts until they were there in the context of having sex, and even then her focus was more on the guy she was with as a person and what he was thinking and feeling. So, to have had many thoughts wondering about the shape and feel of Duke's cock had been something new for Grace.
"Fuck you! No fucking way! No one has ever beat me at this. I'm sorry, but you have to leave."
Tash was play-pushing Steven, who was laughing gleefully. "Fuck you, I was promised comfy bed. I should get extrapancakes for kicking your ass." Grace watched them play wrestle as Tash pretended to push Steven toward the door. It was kind of like watching a kitten wrestle a bear, Steven just sat there, barely needing to resist. "best of three. That was a fluke, you suck for sure."
