Negan wouldn't give me a single hint about his plans for our belated first date. He did help me put away the things I brought to his house. He also gave me ample reason to be happy we rushed into shacking up together.

He was on his knees in front of me after he'd pushed me against the counter as I was making dinner, my shorts twisted around my ankles as he enjoyed his appetizer. My fingers were tangled in his hair as my breathing went from gasps to moans before my knees buckled from a rush of pleasure so hard that I nearly blacked out. I was still gasping as he pulled away, his hands sliding up my bare legs to my waist, and then he was standing in front of me, his face inches from mine.

"You alright, princess?" He sounded smug, and after how he'd just performed he had the right to. I was breathing heavily and couldn't answer, not just yet, so I nodded. "You look-" His fingers traced my cheeks and his smile grew. "Ready." And then I was in his arms and he was inside of me and it started over.

We finished moments before the oven timer rang. Unfortunately, I felt like I'd lost the use of my limbs, so Negan had to serve us. We sat at the table, clothes replaced, though I was beginning to wonder why we bothered with clothes at all, eating our dinner when someone knocked on the front door.

I shot Negan a look, since my legs were still completely useless. With a shaking head and a bark of laughter, he went to see who came for a visit.

"Hello, Coach," dear fucking god. "We thought we'd bring you a housewarming gift, since you and Amara are all cozy roomies now and all." Eric. I was going to fucking kill him. Although I now knew why we couldn't be clothing optional.

"Honey," Negan called, playing along, clearly. "We have guests."

"I heard," I called back, not that we were that far from one another, but I wasn't capable of turning around just yet, the man HAD fucked me into mush. I could barely feed myself. "Get your flaming ass in here, Eric."

"Not just Eric," Mary's voice offered, closer. "We thought you'd be happy to see your BEST friends, princess." Bitch, I grinned as she took one of the kitchen chairs that didn't have a plate in front of it. "Oohh.. Dinner."

An eye roll from me, and then I was inviting them to stay. It was just the four of us, since Eric told me that Steven had to work. We sat around the table, chatting, eating, and laughing. I realized, with a strange clarity, that this is what normal couples did. They had dinner with friends. They socialized. Shit, Negan was right, we had skipped to the end.

"I thought you had a gift for us?" I mentioned, staring at Eric. "Or was that a horrible lie, you bitch?"

He pursed his lips at me and sighed. "Here." He pulled a long, slightly chunky package from his pocket and handed it to-Negan. Wait. "A little birdie told me you might need this."

Negan's eyes met mine over the table and I shrugged. I hadn't spoken to Eric or Mary after telling them I was moving in with him. He opened the box and his confusion was replaced with glee. Eyes shining he pulled the 'gift' out and smiled at me. A ball gag. Shit.

"Which little birdie told you, Eric?" Negan's eyes were on mine, suspecting me, but I was guiltless.

"Amara's mom," he answered before following up with a nonchalant, "can I have seconds?" I shot him a glare, but he pointed to the serving dish, and I shook my head and nodded.

After the shock wore off, we went on with our visit. Negan's glee at my mother's absolute weirdness was almost unbearable. Almost. I guess I could see the hilarity. It would have been more funny if it hadn't come from her though.

When Mary and Eric were ready to leave, they hugged me like we'd never see one another again. I mentioned it, and Eric rolled his eyes.

"We've got weeks, right?" I nodded. "Then, bitch, we need all the snuggles we can get now." I laughed and he whispered in my ear. "The fuck are you wearing clothes around that beast for? I expected you to be butt ass naked and our knock to go unanswered, you bored with Coach's huge-" I smacked his shoulder and Negan's eyes met mine.

"Eric was being an asshole," I said with a smile.

Eric rolled his eyes, and then we said our goodbyes. The door shut behind my best friends and Negan pulled me into his arms and had me curled on the sofa with him in seconds.

"That was fun," he sounded as shocked as I felt. I nodded. "What did Eric say to make you hit him?"

"He asked why I bothered wearing clothes around you," Negan snorted. "And insinuated that I might have grown bored with this." I cupped his crotch and smiled at his audible inhale. "So I smacked him." I was sliding onto the floor in front of Negan, my other hand joining the first to tug down his shorts as he lifted his ass for me. "I mean, the nerve of him to insinuate I could EVER get bored with-" And then he was in my mouth and I reminded him why a gag was highly unnecessary to make me quiet.

OK, so maybe having unlimited access to my favorite sex toy wasn't necessarily absolutely perfect. I mean, I always thought that girls who said they could forget to eat were absolutely full of shit, but there were days that I struggled to recall if I had eaten. And if I did, which I'm sure I must have, what the fuck it had consisted of.

Packing Negan's office was as entertaining as I'd expected. He tossed what he wanted to keep into boxes as I carefully wrapped anything glass or delicate, not that there were many of those. And then, he bent me over his desk for old time's sake. We almost got out of the gym before my eyes caught the padded mats that were used to soften the hard floor. He caught where my focus had shifted, and my bottom lip being worried by my teeth and with a grin gave me one more high school memory.

Ever have sex on tumbling mats in a complete empty gym? Hint: The acoustics amplify EVERYTHING. He was kind enough to sit on the mat as I then sat on him, but there was no way for him to muffle the sounds he helped force from me. I was sure that we'd get caught, but what precisely would be the consequences? He had already resigned and I had graduated and was an adult. Aside from embarrassment, not a fuck to be had. Well other than the fuck we did indeed have.

One more chore checked off from our list before moving away, I was still in the dark about that first date he was planning. I tried, sneaking leading questions in here and there, but he wouldn't budge. Until finally, the day before our next dinner with my parents, he gave me a hint.

"Amara," I'd been reading, naked on the bed, and glanced up at him coming from our steamy bathroom, equally naked. "Could you wear," he pulled an outfit from our closet and laid it on the bottom of our bed. "This tonight?" I didn't even look at what he picked.

"Are we going somewhere?" I nearly went back to the page, but his answer stopped me.

"Of course. It's date night, princess." Shit. I looked back at his face to see that smirk I loved.

"Tonight?" A nod. "And you want me to wear," I finally looked down at what he'd picked. It was the exact outfit I'd worn while grading papers for him for the first time. "This?" My fingers touched it as I sat up. Another nod. "OK."