PREFACE

Mary interlaced her fingers with Wilson's. Her parents, Lucy, and Simon were all upstairs. They had made out for an hour in peace, until Mary started pulling at his shirt and Wilson started pawing at her hips.

She smiled at him mischievously and he smiled back knowingly. They were pushing it, but neither of them cared.

"So..." She looked at her watch. "We still have another thirty minutes probably."

"That's enough."

"It's never enough." She kissed his cheek. "I missed you." They had been dating again for a little less than a month. Ever since Wilson had helped Lucy get over the death of her friend, Mary and Wilson had been inseparable. Mary felt like a piece of her that she lost had been found.

"I missed you, too."

She raised an eyebrow. "Then you shouldn't have dumped me."

"Don't remind me."

She giggled. Wilson sat back on the couch and Mary joined him, leaning her shoulder against his chest. He wrapped her arm around her and his hand fell on her left bicep. "Should we have done something more productive with our night?"

"No, this was pretty good." His fingers drummed on her arm. "Do you want to go to a movie or something tomorrow night? We can go make out in the dark."

She laughed. "That's always better, isn't it?"

"Yeah."

As Wilson said that, Lucy bounded through the front door in a huff. She saw Mary and Wilson in the living room, and walked over to share her misery.

"What happened?" Mary asked.

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing! There are no guys out there!"

Mary looked to Wilson. "She went boy-hunting." Wilson snickered. "That's what you get for going to the mall. Who do you think is at the mall on a Thursday night?"

"Old people with their kids dragging them out after they get home from work, that's who."

"Then try again tomorrow," Wilson suggested.

A light bulb went off for Lucy. "You're a guy. Where do you go to hang out?"

"Here, with Mary."

Lucy grumbled. "When you weren't dating Mary, where would you hang out? Where do your single friends hang out?"

"Parties."

"I'm not allowed to go to real parties. What about-"

Mary cut him off. "Enough. Wilson was just leaving."

"Fine." Lucy skulked up the stairs.

"You're kicking me out?" he joked.

"No. But now I have to go deal with that." Mary pointed to the stairs. She got up and showed Wilson to the door.

He told her he'd call her when he got home. She came out to the car with him, and kissed him before he got in. She hated to see him leave; it made her heart ache.

Wilson kissed her again, his hand holding her cheek. "I'll call you. And I'll see you tomorrow night." He kissed her once more and pulled back. He noticed the look in her eyes, this look of happiness and sadness at the same time. "I'll see you," he said again. She kissed him for a third time, long and tender. "Good night Mare."

"Good night."

xxxx
Mary picked the movie on purpose. It was at dinner time, which was usually the most dead of the nighttime showings, and this was the last weekend the movie was showing. There were about ten other people in the theater.

Mary and Wilson sat in the back in one of the corners. They had no interest in the movie whatsoever. They arrived right when the previews began and got down to what they came for.

In the back of her head, Mary knew this was dangerous. Wilson was much more experienced than she was. She had noticed a change when they got back together; his experience excited her more than scared her. Maybe she had grown up, but she wasn't sure that was it.

Mary genuinely missed Wilson while they were apart. She had dated guys before him and guys in the interim, but no one had ever made her feel this way. Feel like she wanted to be bad. Feel like she was supposed to be with him right now. Feel comfort in his arms.

Ironically, they had more privacy out in public. Wilson flipped up the arm rest in between their seats and Mary was practically in his lap. Wilson's hands kept creeping up Mary's shirt. She made no attempt to stop him. Mary found herself rocking into him, trying to close any space in between their bodies.

The music in the movie swelled, and Wilson pulled back. She stopped him and she continued. Wilson held her into him as he took a second to breathe. He started kissing her neck, then down to her collarbone.

Mary moaned softly against his ear. He pulled back. She was starting to tease him. Her breath on the back of his neck was driving him nuts.

When the movie finally ended, Mary ducked into the restroom to reapply her lip balm.

Wilson kept looking over at Mary when he drove her home. Her cheeks were flushed and she couldn't stop giggling.

He hated to bring her home. He could do this forever with her.

xxxx

The next morning, Wilson rang the doorbell. Mary answered the door, surprised to see him.

"Hey."

"Hey."

"What are you doing here?"

He shrugged. "Wanted to see you."

She kissed him. "That's nice of you."

Wilson closed the door behind him. He looked around the room; he knew something was off. "It's quiet in here."

"They're all out," Mary responded. She leaned against his side and he put his arm around her waist.

"Maybe I should go home," Wilson said. He tried to pull away a little but Mary wouldn't let him.

"No, stay," she said. She picked up his hand and held it between them.

"For a little bit."

Mary wasn't expecting him, and didn't know what they should do. "Want to go upstairs?"

"Um..." Wilson contemplated Mary's innocence. They had talked very briefly on the subject. He found that she was innocent in practice, but she wasn't naive. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah." She tugged him by the hand and upstairs.

They both sat on her bed and looked around the room. Wilson had been up there before, but now seemed different. He put his hand on her knee and smiled at her. Mary took this as a sign to begin their never-ending make out session and kissed him.

They began like usual, until Mary remembered that she was home alone. When Wilson started in with his hands on her side, Mary grabbed his forearm and moved his arm so that his hand was at her chest. He was shocked but did not pull away.

Mary felt alive. "Go ahead," she said between kisses.

Wilson stopped. "Are you sure?"

She kissed him. "Very."

He made sure to look into his eyes. "How far ahead?"

Mary rolled her eyes. "Wilson."

"What?"

Mary didn't let that continue. She pushed him back onto the bed and straddled him. After planting another kiss on his lips, she tugged at his shirt. Wilson could only resist so much. When she was successful, she ran her fingers over his chest. He was tan and toned.

She sat up and took off her own shirt and smiled.

Wilson's eyes went to her chest, then back up. "Mary."

"Shh." She put her finger to his lips and began to nibble on his ear.

xxx

Wilson moved off of Mary. He wanted to lay next to her, but there wasn't much room on the twin bed. Instead, he sat next to her and put her legs on top of his. She wasn't making eye contact and Wilson felt terrible.

Mary was thankful her legs were on top. She crawled over, found her underwear on the floor and slipped them back on. Wilson followed her lead.

Before Mary could do anything else, Wilson grabbed her hand. He shook her arm to get her to look up at him. When he did, he saw the tears in her eyes. That was what he expected.

"Hey," he said quietly. "Are you OK?"

She looked back down. "Yeah."

"Did I hurt you?"

"No. I'm fine."

Wilson tried reaching for her face. He wanted to see if Mary would pull away from him. She didn't. Wilson cupped her face and used his thumbs to wipe away her tears. Mary smiled slightly and collapsed into him.

He held her, and he could feel her crying silently against his bare chest. "This was probably a mistake." It came out without him thinking.

"No," Mary insisted. "No. I'm just," she wiped her eyes again as she looked at him, "emotional."

"OK." He kissed her forehead. "Let's get dressed. I'll sit with you."

Mary went looking for her shirt. She was thankful her bra never came off; she would have felt too exposed. "That's not a good idea. If somebody comes home..."

"I'm not just going to leave."

"You're not." She slipped her shirt over her head. "I'm fine, really. You can go. You should go."

"Mary. I'd really like to stay." He was standing before her in his boxers, which cancelled out the strength of his argument. He looked sexy, but bordering on pathetic.

She kissed his cheek to show him she was OK, then handed him his pants. "Get dressed. I'll walk you out."

When they got to the front door, Wilson kept looking into her eyes. "I really care about you." He stopped short of saying he loved her, which Mary noticed but didn't dwell on. "I'd be happy to stay... or come back later once your parents get home."

"Again, not a good idea." She started pushing him out the door. "I'll call you."

Wilson could not have felt worse. "If you don't call me, I'm going to call you."

"OK, OK." She tried to flash him her most confident smile. "Bye."

Mary shut the door and fell against it. Wilson stood on the porch for ten minutes, not yet ready to leave.

xxxxxxx