Well that hiatus was longer than I had expected, but here I am again. I don't think I'm going to be able to keep up with the weekly updates again, but hopefully I will be able to have consistent Friday updates every two weeks. That's what I'll be going for. (I couldn't finish this in time to post it last night and I'm too excited to wait till this Friday, so today is special.) Thank you all for your continued support and I hope you continue to enjoy the story.

Chapter 15: Oh

The room was still dark when I woke up, but I could see hints of the morning light peeking through the window. I felt Jon's fingers slowly tracing along my thigh and my lips pulled into a small smile. It felt so sweet and I sighed happily.

After being awake for a few moments though, the sleepy haze cleared from my brain and I was faced with the reality of the previous night. The sex had been great, that was a fact. My back still felt a bit raw from his excessive clawing and my muscles were sore. But what did everything before that mean?

He had vaguely explained his feelings on that damn necklace. 'A symbol of our relationship,' he said. That's a lovely gesture, but our relationship really wasn't serious enough for him to get so worked up about it that he punched a stranger in the face…was it? I certainly didn't think so. I looked forward to the time we spent together and I definitely liked him a lot, but if he were to tell me that he wanted to stop seeing me, I'd understand and be completely fine with it.

Right?

Ugh, dammit, the more I thought about it, the more jumbled and confused I felt. I would just have to ask him point blank where he thought our relationship was. I didn't want to have to bring up something so serious this early in the morning, but if we were on different levels, we needed to know now.

I let out an audible sigh. He stopped moving his fingers and grabbed my thigh with his whole hand.

"How long have you been awake?" I asked.

"Maybe twenty minutes?" He propped up his head and rested his chin on my arm.

"And you've just been lying there?"

"Mmhmm. I was waiting for you to wake up."

"Really?" I laughed. I shifted my body around so that I was lying on my back with my face turned toward his. "That's…oddly sweet of you." I raised my eyebrow at him suspiciously.

"Tch, I can be sweet," he shot back, flashing that stupid charming smile at me.

"True, I'll give you that. It just always feels horribly wrong when you do." I mussed up his hair with my hand and flipped back over so that my back was facing him. "Speaking of horribly wrong…can we talk about what happened last ni-?"

"Before you go on," he interrupted, "aren't you going to ask me why I was waiting for you to wake up?"

I sighed and humored him. "Okay, why were you waiting for me to wake up?"

He didn't respond. At least not verbally. I felt his lips brush against my shoulder and move up to my neck. His warm tongue peeked out just enough to leave a moist trail in its wake. His teeth latched onto my earlobe and tugged just enough for it to hurt a little. His hand wrapped around my hips and pulled me closer to him as I felt his morning wood press into my cheeks.

"Oh," I whispered as I heard that arrogant laugh in my ear.

I had actually fallen asleep after morning sex. It was kind of funny. That had never happened to me before. I glanced at my phone and saw that I had only fallen asleep for a few minutes. I heard the shower running in the bathroom and assumed that Jon was in there and it wasn't some stranger who had snuck into my apartment in order to use my shower. I hoped that he had left for the shower before I had actually fallen asleep because if he knew he had sent me into a mini sex coma, he'd never let me live it down.

I got up to get dressed after I heard the water being shut off. As much as I wanted to just stay in bed with him all day, that wasn't really an option. Or maybe…? I glanced over my shoulder at the bed and sighed. No, I really shouldn't. I pulled out a clean pair of panties and bent over to step into them, pulling them up as I did.

"You know, we really can't keep meeting like this."

I jumped up and spun around, surprised at how quietly he had emerged from the bathroom. He was smiling cheekily and rubbing a towel through his hair, with some loose fitting gym shorts slung low around his waist. I wanted to have a painting of him looking like that for my wall.

"It's not my fault that you came in here at that exact moment," I said.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I wasn't talking to you. I was talking to your ass."

I rolled my eyes, but couldn't resist cracking a smile. "You really are a piece of work."

"Yeah, that's right. Love me or leave me, bitch." He crossed the room and pulled out a fresh pair of socks from his suitcase.

I remained silent as I finished getting dressed. What he just said got me thinking again. It was probably just a throwaway phrase, but I was so tangled in my head since the previous night that I took it far more seriously than it was intended. I knew I didn't love him. Not romantically. Not in the way that romantic comedies and Valentine's Day cards like to preach. I was fairly certain that I loved him in a platonic sort of way. I enjoyed the time we spent together, sexually or otherwise. But was he trying to tell me that I should love him romantically and that if I didn't, I needed to let him go?

That's fucking stupid. Why would he be insinuating anything like that?

I knew I had to try to bring up the state of our relationship again. Talking about it would be the only way for me to shut off my stupid brain.

"So about last night…"

I wasn't able to finish my sentence again because he pulled me into a quick kiss. When he let go, he stepped back, clapped me on the shoulder and headed for the door. "I'm going to go to that gym again for a workout."

"Do you want me to drive you there?" I asked with an obvious look of disappointment on my face.

"Nah, it's cool. I was going to run there for my cardio. I'll be back later." He quickly slipped through the door and I was left alone with my thoughts

I wasn't entirely sure the first time, but now it was glaringly obvious that he was trying to avoid this conversation. I rubbed my hands over my face and let out a frustrated grunt. I had to make sure that he didn't leave tonight before I got this off my chest or I'd be a complete mess for the next month.

I tried to bring it up shortly after he came back two hours later. He quickly changed the subject to food and I had to admit that I was awfully hungry, too, so I caved again. We ended up going out for a late breakfast at one of those crowded brunch places, so I didn't dare try to bring it up there in public. Honestly, that's probably why he suggested we go there in the first place.

I tried to bring it up again a little while after we got back, but he somehow convinced me to listen to one of his ridiculous stories from the road and I got distracted. I'll admit that I gave in too easily on that one. I'm a sucker for his stories and he knows it. That one was on me.

I went for a fifth time, but he distracted me with sex again. Yeah, that one was also on me, but can you really blame me?

I decided to wait a while for my final attempt. I had tried to bring it up enough times that I'm pretty sure he was constantly expecting it, so maybe if I waited a while, he'd think I'd have dropped the issue completely and he wouldn't be prepared for me to throw it at him, point blank.

After we had finished up an early dinner so that he could eat before his flight, I brought it up as he was throwing his stuff back into his suitcase. I knew I didn't have a lot of time to discuss it with him, but I hoped that he'd be willing to get it out now since he knew that he had to leave.

"Are you in love with me?" I asked.

"What?" He started laughing and I actually felt a little offended. "Where did that come from?"

"Well, every time I've tried to start this conversation with "let's talk about last night", you change the subject and you're so freaking charismatic that I let you."

"So what can I say now that will let you let me get out of this?" I stared at him hard to try to get across how serious I was. "Okay then, let's get this over with. Why are you asking that?"

"Because the way you acted last night about me and that guy going to have sex seemed uncharacteristic of you. I know you said last night that it was because he was a douche, as you so eloquently put it, but he looked kind of douchey from the beginning and you didn't seem to have a problem with it when I looked over at you. You were smiling while he and I were dancing. But when we went to go do what you've been encouraging me to do, that's when you suddenly decide he's not right? Then you go and make the broken necklace out to be this huge deal. I've tried to figure out what it could mean and the only thing I could think of was that you've fallen in love with me, but don't want to admit to it. So…is that it?"

He had a humored look on his face while I spoke and his eyebrows continued to rise the longer I talked. "Don't get your panties in a twist. Don't worry, I'm not in love with you. I think it's funny that you were so concerned about this. I told you straight up from the beginning that I don't do serious relationships." He narrowed his eyes and looked at my suspiciously. "Why? Are you finally willing to admit that you're in love with me?"

"No. …Wait, fuck you!" I playfully slapped his arm once I completely registered what he had said. "Okay fine, so if it wasn't that, then why did you get so emotional about the broken necklace and it being a symbol of our relationship?"

"Well, I don't love you, but I do think that you're an important friend, so I thought it would be nice to get you a gift. I was emotional because I was really sad. That's ten dollars that I'll never get back." He pretended to wipe away a tear.

"The necklace only cost you ten dollars?"

"I told you it was cheap."

"You are ridiculous." I smiled and shook my head as I turned around to open the door for him. He grabbed my shoulder and pulled me into his arms.

"Look. We've been having fun together, right?" I nodded. "Neither of us wants a serious relationship, so let's just continue to have fun together and not let any of that drama bullshit get in the way of a good time."

"I...I can do fun."

I felt his arms shift around so that he was now cupping both of my tits and felt his breath against my ear. It was a vicious combination. "And you and I know how to have a very good time together." His low raspy voice always stirred something in me. A soft moan fell from my lips. I wanted him so badly right then.

"But I gotta go catch my flight, so I'll see you next month." He let go of me, grabbed his bag, and smacked my butt as he walked to the door. I glared at his back and when he turned around after he opened the door, he could see how pent up I was. I noticed that he was staring at my heaving chest.

"You know, you really are an asshole," I said.

His eyes snapped up to mine. "I'm sorry, what were you saying?" I clenched my fists and he eased off a bit. "Just promise that you'll be thinking of me while you're rubbing one out later." He winked at me as he slipped through the door.

Dick.

It had been three weeks since I'd last seen Jon, so that meant that Jared and I had been talking consistently for about a month. I met him through that online dating website and he seemed great. He understood early on that I wasn't looking to fall in love or be exclusive. He understood that I was in an open relationship and was basically just looking for a casual fuck buddy. He also was willing to get to know me a bit first before we tried hopping into bed together, which I appreciated. He came off as totally cool. We had mutual love for scripted televised dramas and most of our conversations were just gushing about the latest episodes. Jon didn't have a lot of time to watch TV and Dave was more of a movie guy, so I didn't have anyone close to me who I could talk with about the shows. I was really happy to have found him.

So when he suggested that we finally have an actual date, I was really excited. We made plans to have dinner together, and maybe more, two nights later. I needed to vent my giddiness to someone, so I immediately called up Jon's cell. Seth answered.

"Hey bitch! How's it going?"

"You're too nice to call me that," I answered, trying not to laugh.

"Well, that's the name that came up on the phone, so…"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. Can I talk to the asshole who owns the phone?"

"He's the driver at the moment. I can relay a message to him, though."

"Tell him that I have a date in two nights, it's going to be great and the sex is going to be awesome, but to not worry because I'm not going to leave him for this guy."

I could hear him repeating what I said on the other end. I could hear Jon replying, but it was too quiet and mumbled for me to make out.

"He says that he wouldn't care if you did."

"Okay then, tell him that's fine because he's not that good in bed anyway."

"He says you're a liar," he replied after a moment.

I stared at the phone, not able to think up a comeback. I heard Seth say she's speechless and then the whole car laughing.

"You guys suck. Bye." I hung up and rolled my eyes.

I told Dave and Larry at work that night and got a much better reaction from them. They tried to give me some pointers for dating again, but I told them to not waste their breath. I was planning to go into this one cool, casual, and ready to discuss the subtleties of Mad Men. If I tried to change myself to fit their advice, I wouldn't be me and Jared would be able to tell. I decided that I'd rather be myself and fail then act like someone else and succeed.

"I'm telling you, watch that episode again. You see it in a whole different light." He took a sip of his drink and placed it back down.

Jared was freaking fantastic. He looked exactly like he did in his pictures, which was honestly a concern for me when it came to online dating. He had medium brown hair with just a hint of red mixed in and lovely light brown eyes. He didn't look as fit as Jon was through his clothing, but I really didn't care. He was wicked cute and we were getting along wonderfully so far. He was the perfect type of guy for what I was looking for. I could definitely hang out with this guy outside of just having sexy play dates together.

"So…it's getting a little late. How about you and I get out of here?" he asked, smiling. Was that a twinkle I saw in his eyes? Crap, maybe I would consider dropping Jon for this guy.

"That sounds great," I replied, perhaps a little too eagerly. We agreed to split the check only after I debated with him about it for nearly five minutes. I told him to think of it as me paying for his meal and vice versa.

I had arrived by taxi and he had come in his own car, so we decided to go back to his place since he had the ride available. We didn't bother with the bullshit lie of "coming up for a cup of coffee" that a lot of people use when they invite someone back to their apartment late at night. We both knew exactly where we wanted this night to end.

As soon as the door clicked behind us, we dropped our things and grabbed at one another. His lips were remarkably soft against my own and they felt great. He tugged lightly at the bottom hem of my blouse, trying to guide me down the hallway to his bedroom, or at least I assumed it would be his bedroom. Honestly, I didn't really care which room it was, I just wanted him.

As we neared a closed door, he pulled away and whispered to me. "We can't be too loud, okay? I don't want to bother my roommate." He gestured to the closed door. I acknowledged him with a nod, and then latched my mouth back onto his.

We stumbled into his room and I was a bit surprised when he didn't turn on the light.

"Can you turn the light on? I want to be able to see everything you do to me," I begged.

I could sense his hesitation, but he ended up flipping the switch. He pulled away from me and looked embarrassed as I looked around his room in awe. The walls were covered in framed posters from all sorts of television shows and he had a bookshelf that was filled with resin figures of different iconic characters. I think he assumed that I would find it stupid and ditch him, but I thought it was fantastic.

"You have some cool stuff here, Jared. Remind me to take a better look in the morning," I said, winking at him as I kicked off my shoes and started to unbutton my blouse. He was clearly relieved by my reaction and started to take off his pants.

By the time that we were both completely naked, things were getting rather intense. This was definitely going far better than any of my previous attempts. He was lying on top of me, running his fingers through my hair and grinding his hard cock against my clit while we continued to make out. My mouth was getting a little sore, though, so I pulled back and exposed my neck for him to explore. He was making me feel really good, but I felt like I'd be stuck in this plateau forever if one of us didn't try to push things further.

"Hey," I whispered in his ear. "Would you be willing to go down on me?"

"Do you seriously know how hot it is when a woman asks you that?" he murmured into my neck.

"So is that a yes?"

He lifted his chest off of me, smirked, and wagged his eyebrows at me before he slid down so that his head was between my legs. His tongue gently lapped at my clit and I began to softly moan and grind my pelvis against his mouth.

I could feel myself getting close to a climax. "Faster," I panted and he responded by rapidly flicking the tip of his tongue and slipping a finger inside of my pussy. He curled it up as he thrust in and out of me and I breathily let him know that I was about to cum.

Then the door suddenly burst open.

"Jared, do you want me to make you some pancakes? Oh! I'm sorry, honey, I didn't know you had a lady friend over."

"Oh, shit!" I cried out.

I was staring face-to-face with an older woman wearing a nightgown while I was naked and on the verge of orgasm. I'm pretty sure I don't have to tell you that I was mortified and it killed my arousal instantly. My worst fear was also confirmed when Jared lifted his head to answer.

"Mom! You need to remember to knock!"

"Well, sweetie, you didn't leave a sock on the door like you usually do, so how was I supposed to know? Do you need me to go get you some more condoms?"

"No, mom, I'm fine. Go away!"

"Alrighty then, you two kids have fun!" She shut the door behind her and I slowly regained mental consciousness.

I scrambled off the bed and got dressed as quickly as possible. I should've known that he was too good to be true. He had to have some fatal flaw that was going to kill my lady boner and it just had to be one of the worst possible scenarios. I suppose people will tell me that the posters and the figures should have been a dead giveaway, but I think that's a horrible stereotype. Unfortunately with Jared, it happened to be true.

"Shit, you're leaving?" he asked, looking defeated.

"After that, of course I am!" I replied with wide eyes.

"What, just because I live with my mom?"

"Look, if I had known ahead of time and she hadn't walked in while you were eating my pussy, maybe I could've overlooked it, but that's not what happened and I am so not in the state of mind to be able to continue this right now."

I opened the door and speed walked down the hallway to get to my purse and coat. He followed me with a sheet around his waist.

"Well, can we have dinner again sometime? I really enjoyed spending time with you, Lana."

I picked up my things and turned to look at him. "I really liked you, too. That's why it depresses me to tell you that this is a major deal breaker for me. Thank you for dinner." I left their apartment and ran down the stairs, trying to get away from that scene as quickly as possible.

"Auuughh...Dave! Please, for the love of god, tell me what is wrong with me?" I slowly banged my head on the bar top while he laughed at me and fixed me a drink.

"El, if I knew the answer to that, I don't think I'd be working here."

"Am I a shitty guy magnet? Is that it?"

"Well, you said the guy was great…he just kinda sorta still lived with his mother."

"You know, I'd understand if it he was 20 or if his mother was living with him because she needed the extra help, but no, he's 31 and she's making him pancakes for dinner and buying his condoms for him. I just can't look past that."

"Pancakes for dinner sound awesome!"

"Dude…you are not helping," I sighed.

"Wasn't trying to," he said as he winked. He handed me my drink and made the announcement for last call.

I nursed my drink while people surrounded me, getting their last orders in, and I finished it after the last people had finally left. I pushed the glass to the side and laid my head down to rest in my arms. The empty bar was eerily quiet while Dave began to get ready to clean.

He circled back around behind the bar and lazily wiped the top down. "You're really upset about this, huh?"

"You think?" I mumbled. "Jon's out there barely having to lift a finger to bring chicks home and I'm struggling to get one."

"Well, you have landed a few guys. They just haven't led to anything worthwhile."

"I guess so."

"It's true. And for the record, I think you're going about this all wrong."

"What do you mean?" I asked, briefly glancing up at him.

"I mean that I think you're looking for a fuck buddy in all the wrong places."

"I already tried a bar and I am not doing that again. Online is the easiest way. How else would I look for one?"

When he didn't respond immediately, I lifted my head from my arms, only to find his face mere inches away from mine. His eyes looked dark and serious. He wiped a strand of hair away from my face and leaned in so that our noses were touching.

"Oh."

If anyone is interested, please check out what I had been up to while this story was on pause. There's a new chapter to The Business of Sex, a one-shot retelling of this story's chapter 11 (but through the perspective of the chick that Jon slept with), and the start to an Ambrose/Callihan slash story called Wolf and Crowe. Also, the fabulous BrodieBlue and I started a joint story called Poor Little Rich Girl. Check it out!