Eden feels the sheet slowly being pulled down, and she feels her breasts suddenly exposed to the cool air. Eden stirs. The sheet is quickly tugged back up, and for a few minutes there's no other movement. Eden opens her eyes and looks at the clock. 3 AM. She stretches and turns to face Gabriel, whose eyes are closed. Eden takes his hand and presses it against her breast. "You can touch them if you want," she says, and Gabriel flushes, embarrassed.
"Sorry," Gabriel says. "I didn't want to wake you."
"Too late," Eden says. She smiles and flattens her naked body against him, burying herself against his neck. "You're so warm," she says, and she feels him hoist her up slightly before wrapping his arm around her waist. She kisses the side of his jaw and closes her eyes.
She feels Gabriel move slightly, and she lets out a small sound of disappointment when she feels his chest pull back from hers. But then she feels his hand gently cup her breast, and his fingers tweaking her nipple. Eden opens her eyes and sees Gabriel staring at her breasts with a small smile on his face, as if he's studying a clock or a watch.
Gabriel lets out a small laugh. "Look," he says, and he spreads his fingers out. The span of his hand is so large he can touch one nipple with his thumb and the other with his little finger. Eden shrieks, laughing. "Stop!" she says. She bats his hand away.
Because they're both fully awake, Eden gets up and roots around for a spare toothbrush while Gabriel takes another shower. They share the bathroom; she brushes her teeth while he disappears behind the shower curtain, and after he finishes and she hands him the extra toothbrush, they switch. Eden pads around the apartment in nothing but an oversized T-shirt, and Gabriel leaves his shirt unbuttoned, exposing his wifebeater. They head back to the bedroom where Eden curls up on her side and Gabriel spoons her from behind, kissing her shoulder.
"It's really early," Eden says. The clock reads 3:30 AM. She feels Gabriel nod against her back.
"We went to bed around seven, that's probably why," Gabriel says.
"Really?" Eden asks. Eden shifts her body weight to look at him. Gabriel smiles.
"It was right after dinner," Gabriel says.
"You weren't going to stay," Eden says. She lazily drags a finger across the top of the wifebeater. She catches his eyes and smiles. "I'm glad you did," she says.
"Me too," Gabriel says, softly. He touches the side of her face.
The Spanish bakery is open; Eden can hear them moving around below her. "You wanna get breakfast?" Eden asks. "I could make pancakes if you want. Or there's the bakery downstairs. I've never tried it, but it's probably good."
"I'm fine," Gabriel says. He smiles softly, stroking her face with the tip of his finger. "Unless you're hungry. We can try that bakery downstairs..."
"I am kind of hungry," Eden says. Gabriel sits up.
"No," Eden says, and she presses a hand to his chest, pushing him back down. "Let's lie here for a second."
The hold each other for a few more minutes, then Eden sits up and pulls on a pair of pants. Gabriel presses a hand to the small of her back as they head outside, as if guiding her in front of him. It's still dark out, and their feet clatter down the metal steps. Gabriel opens the bakery door and lets Eden step inside first.
Inside the bakery, the walls are painted bright red and the floor is checkered black and white. There are small black tables and chairs up in the corners of the shop, and the glass display case gleams under the ceiling lights.
Eden gets a large Spanish pastry--a budín de pan, which she butchers when she orders--and they take it back to Eden's apartment. She splits it in half with a knife and hands Gabriel a piece, and they sit and eat quietly, listening to the movement of the bakers below them.
Eden makes coffee and smiles apologetically when she shows Gabriel her instant tea bags. "I don't really drink tea, I just have the microwavable kind," she says.
Gabriel smiles. "It's okay," Gabriel says. "I don't have a coffee maker."
They finish eating and clean up quietly, Gabriel washing the dishes while Eden puts away the leftovers. There's really nothing left to do but make love again, and within minutes they're both naked again and touching hungrily in bed. Once again, Gabriel grabs her hip and rolls her to the side, and Eden's orgasm is so strong she nearly pushes the both of them off the bed. They lie together satiated, bathing in a warm silence, and Eden drifts off back to sleep.
"I wonder how many times I can make you come?"
Eden turns to look at Gabriel's face. She had slept for about an hour, and when she woke up again, neither of them had spoken, they just held each other quietly instead. This is the first time Gabriel has spoken for a few hours.
"What do you mean?" Eden asks. Gabriel shifts her closer to him.
"I read once that when a woman reaches climax, she has the capacity to stay at that threshold indefinitely," Gabriel says. "Men have a refractory period once they orgasm, but women don't, that's why they can have multiple orgasms. I was just wondering, if I get you at that threshold, how many times can I make you come? More than once, right? So long as you're stimulated?"
"Um." Eden licks her lips. "I might get tired," she says. Gabriel smiles.
"Well what about in ten minutes?" Gabriel asks. "How many orgasms do you think you can have?"
"I..." Eden starts to laugh. "God I don't know. I've never done it that way," Eden says.
"I'd like to see," Gabriel says. He touches her hip. "Is it okay if I try?"
"Sure," Eden says. She laughs nervously. "What are you going to do?"
"Well," Gabriel says. "I'd like to do oral first, because that seems to be the quickest way to get you to climax. And after that I'd switch to my hand, because that way I can keep an eye on the alarm clock and time the ten minutes." He's speaking in an academic tone, as if he's describing some sort of laboratory experiment. But at the same time his hand starts stroking her leg, making absent circles on her skin. Eden lets out a shuddery breath.
"I could probably just keep doing oral, I have a pretty good sense of time," Gabriel muses. "But I want it to be as accurate as possible. I'd rather we had a clock with a second hand, but I guess the alarm will do."
Eden flushes. "Okay," she says. Gabriel positions himself between her legs.
"You ready?" he asks. Eden laughs nervously.
"Do I have a choice?" she asks. She's already unbelievably aroused.
"Okay," Gabriel says, and he bends forward and gently starts lapping her clit. Eden's hips jerk. Gabriel palms her ass and presses her closer, his tongue moving in hard strokes. Eden's breath tightens. Gabriel presses harder, and Eden comes hard, crying out as she spasmed against Gabriel's mouth.
Gabriel slips two fingers inside her and presses the pad of his thumb against her swollen nub. "Okay, I'm going to time it now," Gabriel says. He presses his thumb down and Eden comes again, hard and unexpectedly. Her mouth pops open and she stares at him with wide eyes.
"That was unexpected," Gabriel says. "That's two."
"Oh God," Eden says, and she presses her face against Gabriel's chest. He curls his fingers into a C and digs hard into her wall, moving in short, vertical strokes. "Gabe, I...I think..."
She comes again. And again, and again. Twelve orgasms later, Gabriel withdraws his hand and smiles. "That was informative," he says.
"Jesus," Eden says. She gives a shaky laugh.
Gabriel kisses the side of her face, his erection gently pressing against her thigh. Eden moves to take him inside of her, but Gabriel softly takes her wrist and moves her hand back up.
"You're tired," Gabriel says. "You don't have to."
"That's not really fair to you, though," Eden says.
"I'll be okay," Gabriel says. Eden smiles at him and kisses his neck, then the side of his shoulder. She kisses his side and his stomach, and she takes his erect penis into her hand and gently laves the tip. Gabriel sighs. His penis is swollen and weeping, and Eden trails her tongue along the head before dipping her head forward and bobbing slightly.
"Eden," Gabriel says. His voice is thin and he's breathing hard. "I...I'm going to..."
Gabriel cries out, losing control. He comes and Eden swallows, closing her eyes.
Eden shifts her body back up to face-level with Gabriel, and she daintily wipes her mouth and smiles. Gabriel pulls her close and she presses her face against his chest, her arm resting across his back. She starts to fall asleep.
Before Gabriel met Eden, he would often work late, working on a watch to make sure it would be done by morning. His regulars have come to expect it, and sure enough one of his customers from a few years back remembered him and his speedy service, and she comes to his shop with a complicated Swiss timepiece and demands for it to be fixed by the morning. The hours pass and Gabriel looks at the time, dismayed. Eden finally calls when he doesn't show up.
On the phone, Eden asks, "Can't you take it with you?"
"I can't," Gabriel says. "I'm in the middle of reassembling it. If I take it on the subway, it'll jar the pieces."
"How long do you think you'll be?"
"I don't know," Gabriel says, miserably. It's ironic; before Gabriel met Eden, he welcomed the long nights; it gave him something to do, something to occupy his mind. Now that he has Eden, his customer base seems to have increased exponentially.
"Well, do you mind if I come up there? I miss you," Eden says.
Gabriel's throat tightens. "I miss you too," he says, softly. He had only seen her just this morning, but it feels like it's been years.
In the shop, it's dark inside except for the small lamp by Gabriel's bench and the light from the street lamps outside. The light falls on her throat and by the tops of her breasts, which peak out from the V-neck of her blouse. Gabriel leans back from his workbench and watches her read. He watches her hands softly turning the pages, listens to the soft rustle of paper and the sound of her breathing.
Eden looks up at him. Her lips part, just a little. "What?" she asks.
Gabriel shakes his head. "Nothing," he says. He taps his tweezers against the bench and smiles.
An hour later, they walk down the street. It's late and they're the only ones walking down the sidewalk, their footsteps echoing around them. It's windy and Eden presses herself against Gabriel's side. He wraps his arm around her shoulder and pulls her close. In the subway, Gabriel stands behind her while she stands next to the pole. The train rocks and she sways a little, but he's there to steady her. They go to Gabriel's apartment; he only reassembled the watch enough so that it won't jar on the subway, but it's still far from finished. He sets the watch on the counter and promptly ignores it.
They make love on a bed that's too small in a room that's lined with books. He told her once that he would gladly get a bigger bed, but Eden wouldn't hear of it. The idea of the two of them crowded together in his solitary twin made her smile; it was a way of leaving her mark, of stamping out his loneliness and replacing it with her.
When her breathing evens, he knows she's fallen asleep. He presses his face against the nape of her neck. She has a sweet smell, like honey or vanilla, and when he kisses her skin, he can almost taste it. She stirs and he hugs her tight. She feels soft and warm in his arms.
"You have a lot of books," Eden says.
Gabriel's fingers trace a line across her collarbone, the hollow of her neck. Eden turns to look at him.
"You've read all of these?" Eden asks. Gabriel nods and presses his lips to her shoulder.
"What are they about?" Eden asks.
"Lots of things," Gabriel says. "Art. Philosophy. Everything."
Eden takes his hand and laces her fingers between his. "I don't think I've ever seen you read," Eden says.
Gabriel smiles. "You've been keeping me busy," he says.
"I've been making you stupid," Eden says.
Gabriel hugs her. "It's okay, I don't mind," he says.
Eden hits his arm and laughs. "You're not supposed to say that," she says.
"What am I supposed to say?" Gabriel asks.
"You're supposed to talk about how lonely you were without me," Eden says. "How without me, your life would be completely empty."
"That's not true, I had my mom," Gabriel says.
"Oh my God," Eden says.
"She was pretty sexy in her day--actually, you look a lot like her."
"Oh my God, stop!"
Eden is laughing. She touches his face. Gabriel smiles and kisses the tips of her fingers. Eden's smile fades. Her face is flushed and her hair is tangled, and she looks up at him with wide brown eyes.
Her lips part and he kisses her gently, just barely grazing the tip of her tongue. His hands palm the cool skin of her hips, slides its way to the small of her back.
"Gabe," she says, and he moves inside her. The soft little sounds she makes come out like sobs.
Nothing changes. Gabriel still wakes up at 6 AM to make the commute from Queens to Brooklyn; he still sits alone in the shop until 5 PM. And when he comes home, he makes his tea and he reads the newspaper, and he does the crossword puzzles in black ink. The only difference now is that there's another body in his space, a warm silence that fills the room. She pads around barefoot in his apartment, goes to the other room to knit or read. Sometimes, when she's not looking, he'll watch her rub lotion on her legs, tracing the smooth skin of her neck and shoulders with his eyes. She caught him staring once, and she smiled.
"You wanna help?" she asked. Gabriel shook his head.
"I'm working on something, maybe later," Gabriel said.
She set the lotion on the coffee table and stood up. "I'm going to bed. Wake me up when you go to sleep, okay?"
"Okay," Gabriel said. It wasn't until she left the room that Gabriel smiled.