Chapter Twenty-One: Freakin' Out – Everyone Has Their Reasons

"Hey Cind," I said after a minute of just watching her as she stood with her back to me, at the counter opposite. "You heard of these… 'cuddle parties'?"

"Sure," she answered simply, glancing round at me. "They're all the rage jus' now apparently, or so I read in Time Out New York, anyway."

I smiled at this and looked down, while she turned round asking me, "What?"

I shrugged, "Nothing. S'just Stella said the same thing."

"Ah right," Cindy replied, nodding.

Then after a moment, she said, "So take it you went to one of these cuddle-party-things then, since you're so freaked out an all"

I glared at her, answering measurably, "I'm not 'freaked out'."

She grinned at me in response, crossing the short distance between us.

"Of course you are," she told me, placing a hand on my chest with a smile. "The whole idea of it, never mind the damn image or act itself, freaks you out."

I mock glared at her again; though it was considerably more difficult this time, given she was standing right in front of me now, pressing her body flush against me, her warm breath mixing with mine, her red hot lips –

She smiled at me, made a face, and then put on a babying voice as she placed a hand on either side of my face and told me amusedly, "Don't worry, sweetie, if I'm in need of a cuddle I'll go to Donnie."

And she smirked at me, draping her arms round my neck and linking them together, as she added, "An I'll keep the real lovin' for you."

I grinned seductively back, saying, "Damn straight you will woman."

And I lifted her up suddenly, as she squealed a little, smiling down at me, before our lips met and the sparks began to fly as I carried her along to the bedroom, her hands working furiously on my top, tugging it out of my pants, and hastily unbuttoning the fastenings, as our lips continued to dance in frantic, but passionate, tandem with one another.

Shit – I couldn't even describe things in my head properly anymore. What had this woman done to me?

But my train of thought was swiftly cut off by the distinct sound of a button being 'popped' followed closely by my fly being unzipped, and all thought seemed to cease within my brain then; well, almost.

I think I should've phrased that differently.

It should be, what was this woman doing to me? God!

Cos, seriously, the stuff this girl could do – half of it should be made illegal, an purely for the sake of others within a close vicinity of her and her…partner. No joke, she did things I'd never even seen before, never mind heard of. And don't even ask me to try an spell them, neither.

But then, Cind was one of a kind.

An I guess I'd always kinda known that.

x

A while later and the doorbell rang.

We'd actually been 'up-and-about' for some time by then, though the way we carried on most of the time, I guess you couldn't blame Flack's skepticism, and his tentativeness as he walked into the apartment – closely followed by Aiden, when it was 'safe to enter'.

"Fuck, Aid," I said almost instantly on catching sight of her. "Are you drunk?"

She just raised her eyes to look at me, and walked wordlessly towards the sofa, where Cindy was seated – not really bothering to move since… well, mainly since Flack an Aiden came back to the apartment together all the time, so it wasn't really a 'big deal' or anything. Except, it sort of was this time.

"Hey Aid," the blonde greeted her, as she rounded the couch.

"Hey Cind," Aiden responded monotonously, sitting down at the opposite end from Cindy, as the blonde brought her legs closer towards her, and sat up a little.

"Shit," she breathed out almost instantly. "What the Hell happened to you?"

And her blue eyes shot questioningly to both Flack an me, as we stood off to the side, talking in hushed tones.

"Got fired's, what happened," Aiden's voice stopped us all.

"What?" Cindy said immediately, her eyes flying to Flack demanding to know if this was true – much like my own.

He confirmed it with a single, solemn, nod of the head.

I exhaled, and looked across at my partner then – my ex-partner – who'd let out a small, brief, sob moments before and now had her head cradled in Cindy's arms, while she spoke soothing words in her ear, and gently stroked her long brown curls.

And Flack and I watched them, wishing we could help Aiden – in some way, any way.

Before she'd needed alcohol to drown away her problems.

Right now, she was needing comfort for the consequences of her actions.

Soon she'd need to bitch, curse and moan about her mistakes.

And we'd each be there, fulfilling her different needs in whatever way we knew best, and whatever way we knew how.

Because Aiden was our friend.

And because that was all we could do.


TBC…

Thanks for reading, and please let me know what you think – means a lot!
Steph
xxx