Chapter Eleven
"This is it." She said, opening her door. She let him in, and he looked around.
"I like it. Not too girly, and not empty either. Homey. Where should I put this?" He lifted his bag.
"In here." She led him to the hall, with one room on one end, and the other on the other end. She let him choose. she knew which one she wanted him to be in, but she also knew he didn't like whores. "This one is mine, but you're welcome anywhere," she said, trying to only hint and not be so obvious. "They both share this bathroom in the middle, so you do have doors you have to lock, if you want." Taylor knew he wanted to be in her room, but didn't want to rush things.
"Well, I'll put them in the other, for now. I can always move them." Madi tried not to be disappointed. At least he was still here.
"Alright. Is there anything you need?" She set her bag on the inside of her door.
"Maybe a quick trip to Starbucks?" He asked hopefully.
"Sure." She went to him, and wrapped her arms around him. "I'm glad you're here," she said, then let him go. He cought her by the wrist and pulled her back. He held her tighter than he'd like to accept.
"Me too." They walked down to Starbucks, arms around eachothers waists.
They returned back to her place with their coffee in hand.
"Are you hungry? We could order a pizza or something."
"Pizza?" As if on cue, Taylor's stomach growled.
"Pizza then." Madi laughed, picking up the phone. After placing their order of a large pepperoni pizza, a twenty piece order of medium buffalo wings and a two liter of Coke, they sat on the couch. Taylor layed out, then had Madi lay next to him, cozilly fitting her body against his.
"So tell me about your family," Taylor said, playing with her hair.
"Not much to it. I have an older sister, and my parents divorced when I was eight. My dad remarried, and my mom decided to change teams."
"Change teams? Like boys against girl teams, not coed?"
"That's a good way to put it," she laughed. "I like that. Anyway, nobody ever had any more kids, and my sister started her own flower shop, and is engaged."
"Damn. Sucks for Ike." Madi giggled.
"It's okay, and not to be vain, but I got the good end of the gene pool."
"Ouch. Alright, so what does everybody else do?"
"My dad's a trucker, my step mom works from home for an insurance company in claims and policies. My mom is in real estate, and her "significant other" I call her, is a deadbeat because she can't accept that she's too old to be in the field she went to school for during her mid life crisis." Taylor started laughing, until he had tears in his eyes.
"Harsh much?" Coughing, he calmed down.
"She's a bitch. And you can tell just by looking at her. All my friends are afraid of her."
"Wow. Why does your mom like her?"
"I've been asking myself that for the last thirteen years. Opposites attract is my best guess."
"Hmmm." He began running a fingertip up and down her left arm. "So what field did she go to school for?"
"Computer animation. She says she wants to work with like, Pixar or Dreamworks. I say she's insane. So in the mean time, my mom supports her. Sorry. I'm bitter in that subject." She rested her head on Taylors arm, and looked up at him. "Tell me about your family."
"What don't you know?"
"A lot. Once you guys got out of the teenie mags, it seems I lost touch in that area. I mean, they wern't in there much anyway, but I'd rather hear about it from you." Just as he was finishing catching her up on his brothers and sisters not in Hanson, the doorbell rang. Madi got up and got the pizza. Bringing it into the kitchen, Taylor got up and searched for the glasses and napkins. As soon as she opened the lid to the pizza and a puff of steam rose, Taylor took a long appreciative sniff.
"Man that smells good."
"Sit." She told him, taking a glass and opening the soda. Pouring, she watched him practically inhale his first piece. Half an hour later, all the wings were gone and only three slices of pizza were left.
"Thanks so much Madi, that was awesome."
"Welcome."
"I think," he said, glancing at the clock on the microwave, "I'm going to call Ike, and let him know we're okay."
"Okay. I'll clean up in here. There's a balcony out those doors if you want."
"Great. I'll be back in a minute." He gave her a soft kiss, then disappeared outside. Madi cleaned the mess from dinner. It had been fifteen minutes. She looked at the doors. She could see his shadow on the other side of the curtains, sitting in a chair, feet propped up on the railing. She decided she'd start to unpack. At least he couldn't go anywhere out there. On her way by, she knew she shouldn't, but she put an ear up to the crack in between the door and the jam and listened.
"I know Ike, I know. But I think I love her....I don't know, a week? It's nice..." She couldn't listen any more. Blindly she went to her room and sat on her bed. She looked at her prized possession.
"I can't believe you're here," she said quietly to the picture. Should she take it down? Move it? Maybe if he was uncomfortable, but for the meantime, his bags were in the other room, so would it matter? She decided not and began unpacking.
A full hour later than he started, he went inside. It was dark already outside, but the light in the living room was on low, and then he saw the glow from the light of her bedroom from behind the corner. He went to her room, and he heard music on low volume. It took him a minute to recognize Justin Timberlake's new single, 'Summer Love'. He leaned on her door jam and watched her grove to the song as she unpacked her toiletires. She stopped dead in her tracks coming out of the bathroom when she saw him.
"Hey. Sorry I took so long. I had to talk to everyone. Zac and Ike are over at our parents already."
"Oh. How are they?"
"Great. Everyone's great. My mom's a little worried, but that's what moms do, right?" He gave her a smile.
"Right. Come on in. I'm almost done." He came in, stretched out on her bed, and looked directly at the picture.
"Wow. That mat makes me look awesome." Madi laughed, then paused to look at the picture and smile lovingly at it. Then she brought her gaze to Taylor, who was eying the picture warily.
"Over a month ago now."
"Crazy, huh?"
"It is. Do you want me to move it?" She asked.
"No, no. It's interesting to see what becomes of the stuff we sign."
"I bet it was kind of weird for you to sign yourself." She picked up another couple of clothes from her bag and disappeared into the bathroom.
"It was, at first, but you get used to it. At least it's not in the bathroom." He heard her laugh. She came back out to her bag, next to Taylor's TOMS clad feet. They looked brand new, like he used this pair for slippers. She held back a snicker as she verified his feet were indeed hairy, even with shoes on. She'd seen pictures before, but this was way better.
"Do you need to have your clothes washed?"
"Tomorrow." He waved a hand, dismissing it. She nodded, then picked up her bag and took it into her closet. After, she turned off her music.
"Well, we could move into your room, or watch a movie, or go for a walk."
"Or make out. Just kidding. That's later. If you want, that is. Otherwise a movie sounds good. I haven't been able to watch a movie in a long time."
"In here or out there?"
"In here's fine. You pick out the movie, get it ready, and I'm going to change into my "on the road" pajamas." He smiled. "Don't worry."
"I'm not." They parted ways, Taylor through the bathroom and Madi to the living room. She heard the bathroom doors close, and the faucet turn on. She brought her mind back to the task at hand, picking out a movie he wouldn't think was lame. After a long mental debate, she finally chose 'Pirates of the Carribean'. She was sure he'd probably seen it already, but it was one of the most "man friendly" movies she had. She was sure he wouldn't want to watch 'Tulsa, Tokyo And The Middle Of Nowhere', or 'Leagally Blond', or even 'How To Lose A Guy In Ten Days'. She took it back to her room and popped it in. While the previews played, she grabbed the quart of mind chocolate chip ice cream out of the freezer, put it on a flat hot mit, and got two spoons from the drawer, then went to her room. The light was still on under the closed door of the bathroom. She set the ice cream on her nightstand, and went into her closet to change into her pajamas. She pulled out a pair of really low sitting pants from Victoria's Secret and a matching tank top. She went back out to the living room and grabbed a couple of extra pillows from a closet, then went and placed them behind the ones on her bed up against the headboard. Taking one last look at her prized possession, she took it down and set it carefully on the floor in her closet, propped up against a wall. While she was in there, she grabbed the bottle of lilac scent, and sprayed a bit on the pillows and bed. Replacing the bottle, she sprayed herself lightly with Peony body spray. Just as the light went off in the bathroom, she climbed into bed and made herself comfortable. Ice cream in one hand, and the remote in the other. Two minutes later, Taylor came to her room from the main door lookind sexy as hell. She felt herself go wet just looking at him in his gray wife beater and loose fitting gray and blue flannel pants. The pants sat low on his hips, so the band of his black and gray Calvin Kliens showed. Positive she was drooling, she snapped her eyes to the tv screen and tried not to concentrate on his perfectly disheveled hair hanging strategically in his sparkling blue eyes. He flicked off the light and crossed to her bed. Climbing in with a smug smile on his face, yes, he'd seen the gleam in her eye, his elbow touched something really cold. He jerked away, then squinted to see what it was.
"You have ice cream? In bed?"
"Mint chocolate chip and two spoons." She smiled, her face blue from the tv light.
"You are so awesome!" She laughed.
"Thanks. 'Pirates of the Carribean'?"
"Good one."
"Good. It's the most manly movie I have. These and the 'Lord Of The Rings' set."
"Those are good too."
"The rest are chick flicks." She handed him a spoon, and the container.
"I still can't believe we're eating ice cream in bed. Just ice cream period. Don't girls think ice cream is fattening?"
"And pizza too. I'm a rebel when it comes to food." Taylor laughed.
"That's so cool." He began digging into the ice cream.
When the movie was over, the ice cream gone and abandoned on the nightstand, Taylor volunteered to take it back to the kitchen.
"Need anything while I'm there?"
"Just a bottle of water from the fridge please." She watched him walk out, appreciating the view of the back before she turned and threw the couch pillows onto the floor on her side of the bed, not by the door to the bathroom. She was under the covers on her back when he returned.
"Here's you're water."
"Thanks." He sat down on the edge of the bed.
"Hey, Madi, thanks for everything."
"You're welcome. I'm glad I can do that for you."
"Cool. So I'll see you in the morning?" She hesitated.
"Yeah. In the morning." She tried not to burst into tears of celabacy pain. He hesitated, reaching out to her in the dark, but stopped. Pulling his hand back, he stood up.
"'Night."
"'Night." He walked to his room quietly and got into bed.
Madi burried her face in her pillow and tried to draw silly pictures on top of the image of Taylor standing in her doorway in her head. It ended up erasing all the added doodles, and his clothes.
Taylor lay awake, looking out the light translucent curtains on his window to the sky outside, lit up by street lights. It was so nice to be in a normal size bed. Or, he could be in a bigger bed, with a warm, willing beautiful woman. He strained to hear if she was doing anything, but was met with silence. What if he didn't do anything but sleep next to her. Would she understand? The thought of sleeping next to her made him ache. He desperately wanted to, needed to even. But what he wanted to do eventually made him nervous. He hated to admit it, but he'd never done it before. Even if rumors made it sound otherwise. Would she laugh? If she did, she wasn't what he thought she was. And if she didn't laugh. What if she hadn't done it either? He'd never bothered to ask. He smacked himself on his forehead. Maybe if she was sleeping already, he could just lay next to her for a while. But that was weird. What if he just played it off that he was used to being on a crowded bus, and it was too quiet and lonely for him? Yeah, that made sense. He started getting excited about it. Working up the nerve, he went to her door. If she was sleeping, he'd just go back to his bed and ask the question tomorrow. After all, he was the one that chose to have his own bed. But he didn't want to rush it. After all, he just wanted to hold her. The rest was for sure a later date. He knocked three times. Softly, he called, "Madi? You still awake?" He listened, but heard the blankets rustle. "Madi?"
"Tay?"
"Yeah. Can I come in?"
"Sure." She moved the blankets again, trying to act like she had been asleep, and not paying attention to her body responding to his presence at her door. "What's up?"
"I'm so used to sleeping on a crowded, noisy bus, it's weird being in the quiet. Can I lay next to you?" Was he really asking this? She couldn't understand why.
"Of course." And without saying another word, in two steps he was on her bed, getting under the covers. He layed close to her, but not touching, even though his arms almost moved themselves to her. He had to lay on them to control them. "Better?"
"Yeah, thanks." She shifted, so she was practically touching. Only a piece of paper could fit between them. After a minute, he asked, "Madi?" She nearly sighed.
"Yeah?"
"Can I- can I hold you?"
"You don't have to ask me twice." She rolled over and fit against him as his arms came around her. It felt so good, and right.
"Good night."
"Good night Tay." She sighed then, but of contentment. This was good enough for the first day.
Chapter Twelve