A new bond grew between Lucy and Wyatt. They each acknowledged that they wanted to help the other get by. And began in earnest accepting the help the other offered. Lucy took every shift she could and put in for food, rent and utilities. They pooled their money and did their laundry together, taking turns bringing it to the coin operated laundromat in their neighborhood. Lucy got enjoyment out of folding her clothes with Wyatt's. And she appreciated the care he took with hers.
They fell into a bit of a rhythm. When she could, Lucy took a break midday and brought some food to Wyatt. Wyatt did the grocery shopping on his way home at an all hours grocery store and remembered to bring home Lucy's favorite brand of almond milk. They spent a couple overlapping free hours on the weekends together, rolling up Lucy's change from tips. Lucy learned after a bit that her bank would take the mixed coins. They have a large, noisy machine that does the tedious work for you. But she savored that precious time joking and working side by side with Wyatt so she just got more coin wrappers and conveniently never brought that up.
With time and diligence, Lucy finally got caught up on her debt. She breathed a deep sigh of relief the day she was finally able to hand Wyatt the check for a full month's rent plus utilities and write in her ledger, "Balance, nil." He gave her one of those electrifying smiles as wide as the sunrise, and raised his hands. There was a moment where she wondered if she was going to get a hug from Wyatt, but then the moment was gone and she answered his upraised palms with a friendly double high-five.
Lucy was determined to keep up with her bills and make some headway on her finances. Following up on a suggestion by Jiya, Lucy started putting fliers up at the University offering her editing skills to students. The rush of people around her as she tacked a brightly colored sheet of paper up on a bulletin board near the campus center brought her back to her college days. They seemed so young. How could that be when she'd just been one of them scant months before.
She trudged across the large campus, hunting down English and History department lounges. She asked directions from a glassy-eyed, pajama-clad student clutching a rainbow colored coffee cup that proudly declaimed the letters "ENBY." They gave Lucy side eye until she fully explained her mission. Then they grabbed a tab from the flier for themself and a friend. They took the time to inform Lucy about several online discussion boards maintained by the information technologies support staff, and an interdepartmental Slack channel that students used to organize study groups. They even pointed Lucy towards the grad student liaison's office to get better information about reaching that group of potential clientele. Lucy shook the student's hand and exchanged information with her new friend, offering to provide free editing passes for the duration of their time in the college in exchange for this treasure trove of marketing intelligence.
The morning after her productive trip to campus, Lucy dragged herself out of bed at 5am. Her shift would open and clean the cafe. Groggily wiping her eyes and gathering her keys, she found Wyatt fallen asleep on their couch. He'd clearly come in at a ridiculous hour and lost momentum before he hit his own bed. Sitting on the coffee table was a stack of her fliers with one set down askew as though he'd been reading it. Lucy knew she had to get going, but she lingered over her misplaced housemate. The slow growing light of day just began to light his golden skin. She could see a days growth of beard on his chin and her fingers itched to feel the soft whiskers. He had one leg flung carelessly over an arm of the sofa, the other bent over the edge, sole touching the floor. She couldn't leave him like this.
She grabbed the throw blanket they kept in the living room and gently laid it over him. He shifted slightly but didn't wake, if anything settling more deeply into sleep a slight smile curving the corner of his mouth. It should be illegal how beautiful he is, Lucy found herself thinking. She went to creep away, but his booted feet sticking out from beneath the blanket caught her eye again and a new compulsion gripped her. Without a second thought she pulled the bootlace untied and tugged solidly on the foot at hip level. It gave, and she thought she saw another level of tension leave his body. In for a penny... She held her breath and reached down to untie the booted foot on the ground. She shook her head in disbelief as she put her hands around his ankle and lifted to make room to remove the boot. He's surely going to wake now. What on earth am I doing?
The boot came off smoothly, and she let his foot down slowly. Her hand lingered a hair's breadth longer than necessary on his calf. He made a half moaning sound and she leapt back away from him trying to decide whether to flee or be still. Her body chose freezing in place, taking no suggestions from her racing mind, but it all was for naught. Wyatt's eyes stayed closed. He curled his back and rolled over, tucking his legs together between his body and the back of the sofa. The t-shirt he had fallen to sleep in hiked up showing a strip of his back, and Lucy noticed that he was wearing his thick leather belt. A heated fantasy bloomed in her mind. Of taking that off him somehow. Winding her arms around his middle, loosening up the tongue of the belt. His eyes lazily blinking open but instead of startling at her proximity she imagined his strong arms coming around her. Those blue eyes focusing on her. Her hand coming up to stroke that stubbly growth on his...
"Hey Lucy.." A hoarse voice broke in on her reverie. "Early, huh?" Wyatt croaked at her. He looked around confusedly and stretched his arms out, nearly shoving himself off the couch by accident.
"Wyatt! Careful. I'm just leaving. I didn't mean to wake you." Lucy flushed scarlet, grateful for the darkness to hide how far gone her thoughts had raced over her housemate in such a vulnerable state.
He responded unintelligibly, trying to push himself up, "(mumble mumble) my room. Sorry, Luce." He stumbled on the coffee table, knocking several fliers onto the floor. "Darnit. Didn't mean to crowd you."
Lucy was torn between trying to help and trying to escape. She took the cowards way out and headed to the door, flinging a comment back in his direction but trying to tear her eyes away from the soft, sleepy mess he presented as he shook his head and tried to clean up the mess of paper he'd made. "Leave it, Wyatt. Just get some rest!" Lucy spent that morning trying hard to keep her mind from following him into his room, but the thought of tucking him in and maybe getting a reward for her trouble clung to her. Out of desperate self defense she used her break that morning to scribble down notes for a chapter where her heroine, Ivy, helps Liam into bed and they enjoy themselves in ways Lucy could barely believe she was imagining much less writing down.
The coffee table figured prominently in a long, sensuous detour that Lucy was forced to rudely interrupt due to work. But details flowed through her mind as she poured coffee and plated brownies. Her fingers itched again, this time for her pencil or laptop keys, and after her shift ended, she pulled out loose pages and gave herself over to a narrative that brought a flush to her cheeks. Being at the cafe gave her license to dream things that even being alone in her room hadn't afforded her. And there were warm feelings stirring in her that needed expression. She'd been fostering them since learning about Wyatt's secret campaign to subsidize her. A small voice whispered in her mind that she was opening Pandora's box by letting this hot and tender stream of consciousness flow, but she couldn't contain it any longer.
When she went home that night, Lucy found her formerly scattered fliers had been placed in a neat pile on the coffee table. She blushed a little again as she picked them up and stowed them safely away. She would never look at that table the same way. She took some time to organize her notes and read through what she'd written that evening. It sparked new directions for her novel. Twining the lives of these two characters together in ways she'd had vague notions of but which hadn't crystallized before now. Wyatt knocked on her door late in the evening, and she answered him enthusiastically but in the negative about joining him for a quick bite.
"I think I had a break through, Wyatt!" She beamed at him. Her embarrassment disappearing in favor of excitement. But the enormous smile he gave her in return did things to her stomach that she tried hard to ignore. She saw his arms lift. This time it was for a hug, which she found herself embracing wholeheartedly. Her chin rested on his shoulder for long moments, his heartbeat filled her ears. Then he broke it off and stepped back, looking uncomfortable.
"Well, okay. I'll just leave you to it then. Congrats, Lucy."
She nodded despite not really understanding his feelings, but returned gratefully to her writing. The warm buzz caused by having his arms around her just lifted her already bouyed spirits higher. It took until she fell into bed, drained and exhausted from her mental labor of the day, to begin to wonder what he had been feeling as he stepped away. Maybe he didn't want me to get the wrong idea? The bloom came off the blush of excitement that had been flowering in her all day.
She lectured herself as she fell asleep, You know this is all just a story you're writing, right?