Milkshake Hearts

Chapter 7: Eyelash Curler

"Thank fucking god for food delivery, honestly," Shayne muses, shifting the book he is reading off the couch onto the coffee table and fidgeting around for a moment until he's leaning against the arm of the couch, facing where Courtney is sitting on the floor.

"Yeah, it certainly fuels my laziness," Courtney responds, getting up off the floor and walking over towards her kitchen.

"Talking of laziness, I will probably get up early tomorrow and go to the gym around the corner, you up for that?" Shayne calls after her, and she rocks her head to each side a couple of times in thought as she reaches into her fridge to grab a couple of beers.

"Maybe. I'll see how I feel in the morning. Kinda off today," she admits, walking back out and holding a beer out for him.

"Thanks baby. Off how?" he queries, shifting around to give her space to sit beside him on the couch again as he takes a sip of the handed beer.

"I don't know whether it's more or less weird to tell you about my menstrual bullshit now," she shrugs, leaning against him. "I don't exactly know why I haven't mentioned it before."

"Equally not weird, probably. It's all sexist stigma bullshit, yeah? You tell me when you've got a cold or injure yourself doing something stupid on set or whatever, why not that?" Shayne responds.

"True. Well, yeah, implanons can kinda mess with timing? Some people don't get periods on them, wish I was one of those fuckers. But I just get a bad one every four months or so, I guess, so yeah, it's been knocking me around since Friday. Don't exactly feel like working out when my uterus is trying to strangle itself and sending my emotions all over the place, y'know?" She explains, and he nods in understanding.

"That makes sense. You good at the moment? Anything I can do to help?" He asks, and she cuddles against his side in response.

"I'm good. I'm less crampy later in the day and hanging out with you is good for the emotions. And exercise might actually be good for me if I don't feel like death tomorrow morning," she responds, as he wraps an arm around her and lightly pulls her closer.

"If you do feel like death I might even give the gym a miss anyway," he admits, and she grins.

"You going to be so caring that I come before your gym sesh?"

"Obviously, but don't push that too much," he laughs, and she joins in.

"Don't worry, I'll make you go anyway."

"Of course you will. Now, how long was the delivery timer on those dumplings?" Shayne changes the subject, and she grins.

Their dinner arrives fifteen minutes later, Shayne jumping off the couch to answer the door and take the order, tipping the delivery guy and quickly re-locking Courtney's door after himself to take the food over to her small dining table.

"Come with sauce or nah?" she asks, wandering into her kitchen again.

"A very small quantity – you got soy sauce?" Shayne queries, Courtney not answering but returning to sit at the table with him holding a bottle of the requested condiment.

They eat their meal in mostly silence, until Courtney's phone still sitting back on the table starts ringing the second she shoves the entirety of her third dumpling into her mouth.

"Fuck," she mumbles around the food, Shayne laughing and quickly going to grab the phone from her.

"It's Olivia, cool if I answer?" He asks, Courtney quickly nodding in affirmation. "Hey, Liv," he answers the call immediately.

"Wait, I thought I called Courtney?" Olivia responds.

"You did, but she just shoved a whole fucking dumpling in her mouth and these are sizeable dumplings," Shayne explains as he moves back to sit at his place on the table, "give her a minute."

"Oh, right, sounds like Court. Well, Shayne, do you know what brand the eyelash curler she recommended was? I went to buy the damn thing because I'm on an amazon kick right now and forgot what it was," Olivia explains, and Shayne laughs.

"I am not an expert on eyelash curlers, I can hand you over to Court though," he replies, missing Olivia's response as he hands the phone over and goes to shove a dumpling in his own mouth.

"Hey Liv, eyelash curler? You forget the brand again?" Courtney guesses as she puts the phone to her own ear, pausing as Olivia explains yet again.

Shayne offers to take their rubbish out to the large bins in the apartment complex when they finish, Courtney reluctantly accepting and handing him her key for the bins, flitting around the apartment putting a few things back in their places while he does. She sits down on the couch, quickly pulling open her laptop and shooting an email off to Ian and Sarah about their plans for his graduation just around the corner (provided he passes his final exams, but he hasn't failed a course yet in his extended degree, so she figures it's a safe assumption he will). She logs out of her email client and closes the laptop just as he re-enters, wandering over to join her on the couch.

"You can keep doing whatever if you'd like, I don't mind," he tells her, but she shakes her head.

"Nah, I just sent that script through to Sarah so she has it first thing tomorrow," she fibs, "and this whole period thing makes me annoyingly horny, so you know... we can't do much, but making out?"

"Definitely," he grins, pressing a firm kiss to her lips, although he ends it quickly, "what do you mean by can't, though? You don't want to, which is totally fine, or you'd think I don't want to?"

"The second. Plus it's kinda messy, I get why guys aren't keen on it, I guess," she explains, shrugging, "you sound like you're going to debate that point?"

"I mean I... maybe not super keen on going down on you, but happy to do pretty much everything else I'd do otherwise?" he turns awkward for a moment, "but I don't really know what the deal is with sensitivity and whatever, I really should know more about this, I'm sorry."

"It's cool, Shayne, it's not entirely your fault no one has ever told you about period sex, I'm guessing. I mean, I've never had it either, but..." she trails off, pressing another kiss against his cheek when she can't think what else to say.

"But?" he presses, "only say what you want to, but I'm seriously not going to judge you for anything sexual you tell me. Especially if it's about your own boundaries and preferences. I want to know those."

"Not so much boundaries, but. I do get super horny during mine, that wasn't entirely a joke, I usually just get off in the shower to manage the mess side of it," she admits, and he nods.

"Is that an option for us, then, if you'd like to?" He asks, tone careful, watching her grin in realisation.

"Mm... had not thought of that. Yes. You're smart," she replies, shifting to press another kiss against his lips. He lets her deepen the kiss this time, not feeling the need to break it to say anything else.

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A/N: See the companion book, Milkshake Hearts: Mature Content for an additional mature scene which fits between Chapter 7 and Chapter 8. The additional scene is completely optional, Chapter 8 will still make sense without it.