Chpt. 54

The past couple of weeks were somewhat eventful. Abuela kicked Rachel out of her house. Rachel willingly, if not somewhat excitedly, gave up all parental rights to Julie. Bryce arranged for me to interview with the Special Agent in Charge (SAC) Jim Jameson for an internship in the FBI's Miami office, which I got. This past Monday I started working from 0800 to 1630 Monday through Friday in the downtown Miami office.

Five days into my internship and I determined that working in an FBI office might be incredibly boring. At the very least, my internship is monotonous. I have a feeling I wouldn't be so dispassionate if I was investigating someone or out in the field. I'm sure this is the reaction that Uncle Sam wanted. Sitting at a desk for eight hours a day in a butt-numbing chair might be the death of me. I filed paperwork and files. I fetched coffee, though I'm pretty sure my uncle wouldn't be happy with the FBI's failing to give me actual work experience. So when the clock ticked to 1630 on Friday afternoon, I was more than a little ecstatic. I could finally escape.

I hightailed it home and changed out of my poly-blend pants suit into my normal shorts, flip flops, and tank top. I restyled my hair into a loose bun situated at the top of my head instead of the tight, painful bun I wore during the work week. Looking professional was overrated.

At 1800 the phone rang, alerting me that Bryce arrived downstairs. I told Eduardo that he should add him to the list of my permitted guests and to send him up. A couple minutes later I heard Bryce knocking on the door, making my heart race a tiny bit. I took a deep breath and opened the door. He stood there with his blinding smile. I grinned in return.

Before we returned from our assignment in Tunisia we discussed what type of arrangement we wanted. After going through the extreme circumstances of Bryce's job and my college lifestyle we decided that we would only sleep with one another. A relationship in the conventional sense wasn't a possibility. Bryce travelled too much and I wasn't ready to give my heart to anyone. I felt like I was just beginning to piece it back together when we were in Tunisia. Three months later, I felt like I had finally stitched it all back together. I might be whole again, but the wounds were still somewhat fresh.

That said, Bryce was one of the few people I truly trusted. He didn't have ulterior motives. He was upfront with me, which seemed to be such a rarity these days – at least when it came to the men in my life.

"Hey, come on in," I said, opening the door wide so he could enter the apartment with ease. After I closed the door behind him, he dropped his duffle bag on the floor and hugged me tightly.

"How's my favorite girl?" he asked, slouching some to rest his forehead against mine.

"Much better now that you're here and it's the weekend!"

"That's what I like to hear," he said, a large grin on his face.

"Let's take your bag to my room. Then do you want to go out and grab dinner?"

"I think dinner can wait for a little while. I've missed you."

I felt my face flush with anticipation and ever-so-slight embarrassment. Even though I'd been with Bryce repeatedly, being wanted and feeling desirable was still a little surreal. I led him into my bedroom pointing to where he could leave his bag and closed the door behind me. When he turned around he pinned me with a look of pure desire. In three steps he stood in front of me, looking deep into my eyes.

"Are you still good with this arrangement?" he asked me.

I smiled, "Yeah, I'm still good with this."

"Oh, thank God," he murmured right before he kissed me. His kiss started gentle, but it progressed quickly to powerful and passionate. Our tongues tangled, he sucked on my bottom lip before I gently nipped him, drawing a laugh out of him. "Feeling playful, are we?"

"Just a little playful…and a lot of desperate," I said. I wrapped my arms around his neck tighter, pressing my body closer to his. He groaned in response and started walking us back towards my bed. His hands found the bottom of my tank top, pulling it up and over my head, disengaging my arms.

He looked down at me in my bra and shorts and moaned. "I swear you get more beautiful each time I see you."

I unbuttoned his shirt and pushed it off his shoulders. We unapologetically looked one another over while we continued to undress each other. He truly was a beautiful specimen of a man. Looking at his washboard abs and muscular arms was more than enough to arouse me. Add in his eye contact and kisses and it's a wonder my legs held me up long enough to make it to the bed.

I couldn't wait much longer. I quickly pulled off my remaining clothes and climbed onto the bed. "Hurry," I urged him, "it's been months."

Bryce quietly laughed. "Glad to know you missed me," he said while I tore off the rest of his clothes. He pushed me down on the bed gently and climbed over me. He held himself over me on one forearm while he caressed me with his other hand and devoured my lips. I wrapped my legs around him, urging him to hurry. Bryce stopped kissing me and looked into my eyes with a huge grin on his face. "In a rush?"

"I told you. I'm desperate. We have all weekend for slow. Right now I need you."

"Well, we wouldn't want that, now would we?" he smiled. He pushed himself off me and got off the bed, walking towards his bag.

"You're still clean?" I asked. We both got periodic tests to screen for sexually transmitted diseases and emailed the scanned results to each other. While I had mentioned to him the possibility of getting the birth control implant that goes in the arm so we wouldn't have to worry about pregnancy, I hadn't told him I got it last month.

"Yeah, the test results are in my wallet," he said as he bent down to grab the box of condoms.

"Well, you can put those back in your bag unless you really like condoms. I got the implant in my arm that I told you about."

He tossed the box back in his bag and jumped on the bed. "Best news of the day," he said right before his lips met mine. He crawled back between my legs, settled his body over mine, and looked deeply into my eyes. I wrapped my fingers around his erection and guided him to my core. His breath hitched and he closed his eyes for a long moment before he thrust into me.

"Oh my God," I moaned, wrapping my legs around his waist and pulling his lips back down to mine.

"You have no idea how much I've missed being with you," Bryce said in between thrusts.

I laughed, "I think I can tell. You're huge."

"Of course I am. I'm with you," he smiled down at me before nipped my ear.

I whimpered and pressed my feet into the small of his back, urging him on. My hands tugged on his hair and I guided his lips back to mine. My tongue caressed his as he started to ravage me, playfulness now forgotten. My hips met his thrust for thrust. His mouth traveled down to my sensitive spot just below my ear, which he gently bit and then sucked.

"Are you close?" he asked in between thrusts.

"Yes," I managed to moan.

"Good," he said, his hand finding my breast and tweaked my nipple.

Pleasure flooded my body and I cried Bryce's name in ecstasy.

"Oh thank God," he sighed as my core continued to contract. He plunged into me twice more before nirvana overtook him. He stayed nestled in me for a moment before he rolled over and pulled me onto his chest. My ear rested on his chest and I listened to his heart start to calm. His fingers trailed up and down my spine. After a few minutes he seemed able to speak. "Wow. I've never experienced anything like that."

I pushed myself up so I could look into his eyes and I smiled. "I know. That was amazing." The feeling of intimacy had skyrocketed since we were last together. I'm not sure if it was because we missed each other and had become closer from emailing each other every day for the past three weeks or if it was because we had sex without a condom. Maybe it was both reasons.

"Come back and cuddle," Bryce yawned as he gently tugged on my arm to lay back down with him. "I need some serious recovery time after that."

I laughed. "Do you want to skip going out to dinner tonight? I can just order in a pizza."

"That sounds like a great plan. We'll definitely go out to dinner tomorrow night."

"'Kay. I'll call and order a pizza after I run to the bathroom and clean up."

We spent the rest of the night eating pizza, watching movies, and making out.

The next day we hung out on the beach with Lexi – laying out, talking, and playing beach volleyball. Lexi decided it was her place to make sure that Bryce's intentions were noble. Thank heavens Bryce is good at improvising because our intentions towards one another were far from moral. Frankly, they were downright sinful and while we were okay with that, I knew Lexi wouldn't approve.

"So what is it that you do, Bryce?" Lexi asked.

"I'm the Assistant Director of Organizational Structure and Development for USAID," he replied, taking a long pull on his Corona.

"Okay, and that means you do what?" Lexi continued to probe.

"It means I help reorganize the different branches throughout the world when they become inefficient, have problem employees, or when we recognize that certain employees have talents that we're not taking advantage of," he explained.

That sounded good to me if not terribly dry. I hoped that would deter Lexi from continuing her line of questioning. I sat up and grabbed a tube of my sunblock, handing it to Bryce without a word, knowing full well that he'd reapply it to my back without question.

"So do you travel a lot for your job?" Lexi asked. I mentally sighed.

"I'm almost always traveling. Though I have a lot of leave built up, so maybe I'll start taking more of it now to come visit Steph on a semi-regular basis," he said. Well, at least he made it a point to say he wanted to come visit me. That would sound good to Lexi. Hell, it sounded good to me, but unlike Lexi, I knew the realities of Bryce's job.

"Do you have a different girl in all the cities you travel to?" she asked. At that I turned quickly, pushing my sunglasses down the bridge of my nose so she could see my death glare.

"No," he replied as he rubbed sunblock onto my neck and shoulders. "I'm only seeing Steph. We have an understanding. We're seeing each other exclusively." That was about as accurate as he could get without saying we were friends-with-benefits that exclusively slept with one another. She definitely wouldn't like that.

Lexi squinted at him, like she was trying to determine the truthfulness of his words. After a few moments, she nodded, put her sunglasses on and laid back down. "Just so you know, if you hurt her, I'll have my brother kill you and hide your body without any guilt."

I looked at Lexi. She was getting a little scary. Or she might have just hung around Les and me too much.

"Understood and I won't hold that against you. I'm glad Steph has friends that look out for her. She needs that. She's too nice of a person," he said.

I could tell Lexi liked that response. She visibly relaxed. After her mini-interrogation, the rest of our time on the beach passed in peace.

Bryce and I headed out to dinner later that night at Maïte. I even dressed up a little with a cute little print skirt, and a light, loose, white tank top, with a jean jacket and four-inch stiletto sandals. My hair was up again in a messy bun to show off my earrings. What I didn't realize when I left the apartment was that I had a hickey courtesy of Bryce a little behind and below my right ear. I only saw it when I checked my lip gloss in the car mirror.

We sat in the left back corner of the restaurant, chatting and enjoying the ease of being in each other's company. I typically sat with my back against the wall, but since I was out with Bryce, I wasn't worried with sitting with my back to the door. If something happened, I knew he'd protect me and let me know what I needed to do to protect myself as well.

The problem with sitting with my back to the room is that I couldn't see who walked into the restaurant. Half-way through our meal, we were interrupted by Abuela.

"¡Estefanía, qué sorpresa! ¿Con quién sales?" Abuela asked me. [Stephanie, what a surprise! Who's your date?]

"Abuela, hi, how are you?" I asked, getting up and kissing each cheek. "This is Bryce. Bryce this is Abuela. She's Les', Lexi's, and Ranger's grandmother. I used to live with her."

"Oh, right! I've heard a lot about you. It's nice to meet you," Bryce said, standing up to greet her. Abuela smiled, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. She looked a little tense. A few seconds later, I realized why.

"Steph, Bryce," Ranger said, holding Julie in his arms. When Julie saw me she started squirming and reaching out for me.

This was awkward.

"Ranger," I said. Bryce silently greeted Ranger with a chin jerk.

Julie started crying and wouldn't stop. Ranger rubbed her back, bounced her slightly, but none of that seemed to make her happy. She continued to reach for me so I decided I might as well try to hold her in the hopes that she'd stop crying. She instantly quieted once she was in my arms.

"Hi, my little love bug," I murmured to Julie, kissing the top of her head. Ranger looked at me with some confusion and appraising eyes. "Bryce, this is Ranger's daughter, Julie." Julie gave him a blinding, toothless grin. Bryce smiled back at her and reached out to her. She quickly latched onto his finger.

"Babe, I see you've met Julie," he said. His eyes darted quickly to my hickey before making eye contact with me again. If I didn't know him so well previously, I would have missed the ever so slight look of tension that flitted across his face. Absentmindedly, I realized I didn't care if my love bite caused him any sort of discomfort.

I sighed. "Yeah, I visit with her when Lexi goes to visit Abuela. And before I started my internship I'd babysit for Abuela if she had errands she needed to run."

Ranger smiled at me. I didn't know what that smile meant and I had no desire to try to figure it out. It's amazing how time changes things.

Abuela cleared her throat, "Well, we should probably go to our table and leave Steph to her, um…her date."

Ranger's eyes narrowed ever so slightly when Abuela used the word "date". He gently gathered Julie from my arms. She tried to reach for me again, but Ranger held her close to his chest. "Not now, Jules. Babe is busy. I'm sure you'll get to see her again." He turned and looked at Bryce. "It was nice seeing you again, man. Take care of Steph for me, please."

"Always. I'll always take care of Steph," Bryce said.

Ranger looked over at me and gave me a sad smile. "Babe. Good to see you again."

"Bye," I said watching them walk to the other side of the restaurant. That turned out better than I thought it would. Bryce and I sat back down. I took a few seconds to calm my racing heart.

"You okay?" Bryce asked me.

I thought for a few moments, taking a sip of water. Was I okay? "You know what? I am. I didn't think I'd be, but I am. I think I always imagined the first time I'd see him after everything to be this awful, angst-riddled encounter. It was a little awkward, but I think that's kind of expected, right?"

"I think it would be strange if it wasn't at least somewhat uncomfortable for all those involved. You were major parts of each other's lives and you didn't exactly part on amicable terms," he said.

"Yeah," I snorted. "We definitely didn't part on the best of terms. I really thought seeing him again would hurt more. I just feel kind of…I don't know. It was sort of like seeing a ghost. I miss who he used to be to me and that makes me a bit sad, but just now, when I saw him, all I felt was some sort of resigned acceptance. Does that make sense?"

"It does. It makes a lot of sense. Are you okay to stay and finish dinner or do you want to go? I can always get them to box everything up, including a huge piece of cheesecake if you need comfort food."

I smiled at his thoughtfulness. "Nah, I'm okay. We can stay. I'm actually kind of glad that we ran into them. And I'm glad you were here with me. Your silent support helped. I think I'm good. It doesn't hurt." I laughed. "I'm actually really good for the first time in months." And I sighed in relief. I felt what was probably the first truly genuine smile grace my lips.

I glanced over at Ranger and Abuela's table to see him openly watching me. The small part of me that would probably always remain hurt and wary of him felt a little victorious, wrong as that might be. I knew that while he destroyed me months ago, I had come out the other side of this heartbreak stronger than I was before. I was no longer dependent on anyone to take care of me or make me happy. I loved my friends and family. They enriched my life and I'd be lonely without them in my life, but for the first time since my parents passed away I was comfortable being on my own.

"Well, I think this calls for celebrating. Let's finish dinner and take some cheesecake back to your place. We'll just make a quick detour on the way back to pick up some champagne."

I smiled at Bryce's sweetness and the lack of hurt and tension I constantly felt in my body. I had finally moved on.