Physical Therapy
"How you doin'? You sure you're alright?"
"I'm fine."
"You keep saying that..." He trailed off.
She casted him a sideways glance, before turning to face him.
"What do you want me to say?"
"Anything besides you being fine. Happy? Sad? Pissed off?"
"How about some other 4 letter words, huh? Sick and done. What about maybe a 5 letter word? Tired. That's how I feel. I'm sick and tired and done with this bullshit." She turned back to face the street and folded her arms.
"What happened in there?"
"I don't wanna talk about it, E. Drop it."
"Since when do you shut me out?"
She didn't want to talk about this either. Eric was one of her best friends. Eric was the man she saw being her husband and the father of her children. But things had changed. She had been pushed aside for someone else by him too, when it was clear that there was more than simple friendship between them.
"I'm not shutting you out." She mumbled.
"Then talk to me."
"What part of I don't want to talk about it don't you understand?"
"We don't talk about anything anymore. It's like we aren't even friends."
She rolled her eyes, "Maybe if your girlfriend wasn't such a psycho bitch, we could be as close as we were."
"Ex." He corrected.
Did she just hear him right? Ex?
"What?"
"Ex girlfriend." He clarified then realized how nice and light he felt after saying that.
"That explains the death glare I got."
He rolled his eyes at that comment as he got them an uber.
"You alright riding back with me? Doesn't make sense to potentially have two cars."
"I was hoping to stop by a store and buy some whiskey or something to drink this night away."
"It's no fun to drink alone. It's also not safe."
"Since when do you care about being safe?"
"I'm getting wise in my old age, didn't you know?" He spoke as he did his trademark Enzo Amore Ali Shuffle. She tried to hold back a smile, but failed miserably.
"There's my girl." He commented.
She rolled her eyes.
"So... Sleepover in your hotel room then?"
"How nice of you to just invite yourself, as usual."
"I'm just trying to look out for you, that's all."
"Mhm, I'm sure you are."
After a quick stop at a convenience store, they made their way back to her hotel room. They had since gotten comfortable; music playing lowly and opting to drink the amber colored liquid from the bottle.
Bottle in hand, he got up, placing the bottle on the table in the room, "Come dance with me?" He asked as he approached her side of the bed.
She placed her hand in his as he pulled her off the bed and into his chest. He playfully dragged her to foot of the bed and began to sway to the music.
As the tempo to a new, faster song started, she got bold. She turned her back to him and slowly started swaying her hips to the beat. He kept his eyes on her before he pulled her close to him. She pressed her ass against his crotch and slowly grinded on him to the beat of the music. She slowly raised her arms and wrapped them back and around his neck. He noticed her eyes were closed as she moved against him. He ran his hands from her hips, up to her stomach and sides over her body con dress. He dipped his head and pressed a gentle kiss on her neck. She let out a small sigh and smiled before she untangled herself from him and turned around to face him.
"What would you say if I said I wanted to kiss you right now?" She searched his eyes. She was no longer moving to the music. This was a bad idea, she vaguely registered, but it felt so good to have him like this again.
He paused briefly before leaning in to whisper in her ear, "I'd say, don't talk about it, be about it."
With a smirk on her lips, she let her eyes roam all over before pulling away from him.
He watched her as she walked over and grabbed the bottle of their shared liquor and took a long drink.
The whiskey was long gone. The two of them sharing a bed for the first time in a long time.
"Are you staying with me so I don't choke on my puke?" She spoke quietly into the dark room as she pressed her face against his back as her arm was draped over his waist. She had passed her limit on the alcohol.
"Yeah and I'm drunk." He turned over to his back as she draped half of her body on his, "There's no way I would even attempt to drive to Jersey like this. I did think you had passed out already though."
"Not yet. When are you going back to Jersey?" Her speech had a slight slur; from the alcohol and falling asleep.
He lightly ran his fingertips along her upper arm, knowing that any kind of gentle touch in this state would lull her to sleep, "Probably when I wake up some time later today. Then it's back to the grind."
"Grind with me relax your mind take your time with me" She randomly sang before giggling.
That had caught him a little off guard. He glanced at her in the darkness. She really was singing and humming lyrics to a Pretty Ricky song.
"I'm gonna ask you something and I need you to be honest with me, aight?"
"When am I not honest with you, Zo? I might be too drunk and too tired to keep it all straight, but I'm always honest. Ask away."
"If I said I wanted you to kiss me right now, what would you do?"
She paused for a second as she thought, as foggy as she felt, she knew how she felt about kissing him... Again. Doing things like the impromptu sleep over they were having at the moment, made her realize how much she missed him. It didn't fix how hurt she felt from loving him so hard and him deciding to put his love and effort into someone else, but in the moment, it was her and Eric; exactly how they should be.
"I would ask you to sit up so I could sit in your lap facing you. Then I would make sure your arms were wrapped around my waist. And my arms would be draped over your shoulders. Then you would tilt your head back just a little bit and I would gently kiss you; at least initially anyway. But, the real question is E, what would you do?" She twirled a piece of his hair around her finger.
He untangled himself from her to turn on a bedside lamp, temporarily blinding them both. He sat himself up against the headboard of the bed then grabbed her thigh making her squirm. She straddled him just as she described, his arms around her waist, holding her against him before he leaned in and kissed her.
She melted into him as she deepened the kiss. He pulled away from her briefly, slightly breathless. He brushed his thumb along her cheek before he leaned in and pecked her on the lips repeatedly causing her to quietly laugh.
He had missed that. Terribly. She had always been the only woman to leave him breathless after a simple and short make out session. His heart was racing. He was sure she could feel it.
He loosened his grip on her so he could really take her in. She was definitely drunk. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes were half closed, but even then she still looked beautiful.
And then as he realization struck him through his drunken state, they had both fallen oddly quiet.
Suddenly it was all starting to make sense. Suddenly he was sober. Suddenly he was aware.
"Goodnight." He spoke softly, trying like hell to not let his face show everything he was feeling inside kissing her again for good measure before she took her spot next to him in the bed.
"Goodnight, E." He heard her mumble as he turned off the lamp and mentally argued with himself about spooning her not.
"Hey, I'm heading out." He gently shook her shoulder, trying to wake her just enough to tell her he'd see her later.
She opened her eyes to look in the direction of where she thought Enzo's voice was coming from.
"What?" She asked with confusion in her voice.
He sat on the bed, "There's water and aspirin right there, drunk ass. Mella will be here in a few. I'll see you back in Florida, alright?"
"Thanks, Zo." She popped the aspirin in her mouth, washing it down with the water then lying back down.
He stood up from the bed before leaning down and kissing her on the forehead.
A little bit of space would do him good. He suddenly had a lot of things he needed to sort through and come to terms with.
Quickest hiatus ever, right? A few things, after the shit show that occurred because of the lyrics in chapter one, I've put them back and left my rant, because really, fuck that shit. Secondly and more obviously, THIS IS A REAL CHAPTER. I wrote this as a big thank you to all of you; Aeon, Williow, MissM0x, Nao-bou, Ctinaisfashion, CiCix3, writergrrrl, SmallButFierce, Armbar Nation and whomever CatKilla is. Thank you guys so much for your support through this and for inspiring me to keep writing this story. It means a lot to me that you guys support my writing and would come to my defense over this chicken shit situation. I won't be editing the first chapter again, so if I get reported, I absolutely will wait to hear from a moderator before I let someone try to bully me out of one of my creative outlets. As always, I hope you all read and enjoyed this latest installment. Leave a review and let me know what you thought.