Near Death Experience – Chapter 3
A/N: Coffee, beer and cereal
Joss thought she should have had her son pick some lottery numbers. When he signed up for a series of ski trips sponsored by his school, she reminded Taylor that most of last year's trips were cancelled due to lack of snow.
"Last year I knew not to sign up, this year I am," Taylor grinned, as he directed her to the proper section on his school's website.
"Just remember, every time they cancel, you lose the deposit for that trip." Joss gave him her patented glare, then keyed in her password and gave permission via her electronic signature. Taylor was doing well in school and he was using the money that he earned last summer to pay for the trips. While her son was an excellent snowboarder, she suspected his real goal was getting to know an attractive new classmate who had signed up for the series as well.
He was right. It seemed to snow at least once a week this winter, and this was the third weekend in a row that Taylor and his classmates were headed for the slopes.
She was glad that he wasn't watching her so closely anymore.
That evening Joss sighed as she looked around her apartment. You didn't work the hours she did without a ton of stuff to do at home, but while their place wasn't pristine, it didn't look like a bomb went off.
Ok, bad jokes, Joss thought. I'm definitely better.
She decided to take a short walk, then come back home, put in a favorite flick and tackle some laundry.
After being indoors all day, the cold air felt good on Joss' face as she walked down the street. She just ambled along for a while, no real destination in mind. A couple of times Joss felt something, a wisp, and she turned around, but she knew it was nothing, and after a while she ignored the feeling. It was a vestige from what had happened – in a week or two, it would be gone.
Before Joss knew it, she was downtown. If she planned on getting anything done tonight, she thought, she needed caffeine.
The young barista smiled when Joss entered the coffee shop. "The answer to my prayers." He came around the counter, and Joss was struck by how tall he was, over six feet, with a lean, yet muscular build. "I've got the weekend off for the first time in months and I was hoping I could spend it with you."
Joss had not spoken to him since he gave her his business card. She tilted her head, raising an eyebrow. "What makes you think you're going to spend it with me?"
His eyes lingered on her mouth again. "You're here."
Joss shook her head, trying not to smile. "For a cup of coffee."
As she headed towards the counter, his words came out in a rush. "Howboutadrink - instead?"
Their eyes met. Joss knew that he had practiced his opening lines to her, imagined her responses, never thinking that he'd actually say them to her, that he'd ask her out for a drink. "Sure you're old enough? Remember I'm a cop."
His shoulders relaxed and his smile was soft. "Yes, officer."
They left the shop together. He told her about himself as they walked along – a recent college grad, he was in his corporation's management training program. Part of the training involved learning about all aspects of the organization, including working in the stores.
Like a lot of men in his twenties, his voice had a heavy urgency, as if he had to work to push the words out, unused to talking so much after spending his teenage years almost mute. "Done it all, unloaded trucks, run focus groups, waited tables, even handed out flyers. In between all the on-the-job stuff, there's classes and training. It's pretty intense – sixty percent drop out, but if you can hack it, it's worth it." He smiled at her. "Hopefully the lessons I've learned about people will stick."
"What was the most important?"
"Recognizing what someone needs, and you need a drink," he said as they walked into a nearby bar.
They found a booth in the back, drank beer, talked and laughed. He was so uncomplicated, Joss thought, as the barista excused himself to use the facilities. Had she ever been that way?
No, the military, marriage, family, school, the job, other things filled her life. Out of habit she checked her phone, then shook her head and put it back in her pocket – relax for a few hours, she told herself.
When the barista returned from using the facilities, he stood in front of the booth for a moment, then slowly slid in next to her. Joss watched as he ran those elegant fingers over her hand, sending tiny shivers through her body. He leaned forward and Joss told herself, it's just a kiss, and she lifted her head and closed her eyes, meeting his lips.
His kiss was surprisingly gentle and Joss found herself leaning into him, tasting the beer on his lips, a hint of coffee in his smell, the smoothness of his chest as her fingers touched the skin above his open polo shirt.
"You're so beautiful," he whispered, as he deepened the kiss, his tongue swirling with hers, his hands running through her hair. He paused, looking down at her and she knew he had practiced this next line in the men's room. "If I told you that I wanted to make love to you tonight, what…would you say?"
The noise in the bar seemed very far away. Joss looked down at the table, then met his eyes. "I'd say that another one of your prayers was being answered," she whispered back.
Recognizing the astronomical rents in the city, his company maintained a complex for management trainees and other staffers, not far from the bar. "It's nothing special, but the rent is low, and at least for me, close to work."
When they walked into the tiny apartment, his roommate practically dropped the mixing bowl he was using to consume a gargantuan mound of cereal. ""Well, hellloo –"
"She's not interested," the barista said as he led her to his bedroom.
His room was small, surprisingly neat, the only furniture a double bed and a dresser. "My dad was in the military - daily inspections when he was home. I learned real fast that if stuff wasn't where it belonged, it wound up in the trash. Good training for living in a shoebox like this." He turned to her, eyes uncertain and Joss was struck by how young he really was. "It's probably not what you're used to –"
Joss pushed him against the wall, kissing him. The first time was a blur, tangling clothes and limbs, their bodies bumping against the wall as he lifted her in his arms, thrusting deep inside her.
They fell on the bed and Joss ran her hands over his dark frame, amazed at how perfect he was - there wasn't a blemish or a bruise or a scar on his body.
It was as though he had been made today, never lived before, never been touched.
She took one of his biceps between her teeth, savoring that perfect dark plum skin, licking it slowly as his breathing slowed.
He ran his hand over the scars on her waist. "This must have hurt," he said. "I hope the other guy got it worse."
She thought of parking garages and hallways, bullets and bomb vests. "Much worse," Joss whispered, as she covered his mouth with her own.
He was ready again soon and she pulled his body forward so that his feet rested on the floor. Kneeling between his legs, Joss caressed his calves and thighs, teasing him, watching his cock bob and jerk, the beautiful dark skin becoming suffused with a rosy glow, her touch making him harder and harder still.
She drew her fingernails across his skin, at first lightly, then harder and harder, smiling as he grunted, as his hips began to thrust forward. She lapped the head of his cock with her tongue, darting it in the slit and then rimming it, first one direction and then the other.
His head was back, eyes closed. Joss leaned forward, kissed him. "Watch," she whispered as the mouth he'd stared at slowly enveloped his cock, inch by inch. When she knew he couldn't take any more, she straddled him and took him into her body.
He didn't notice her wiping the tears away.
She spent the rest of the night and much of the next day with him. His roommate had drunk all the milk, so they ate handfuls of cereal straight from the box.
"Let me buy you dinner," the barista said as she dressed to leave in the late afternoon gloom. He had neatly folded her clothes and hung up her coat while she had slept.
"Another time," she lied.
"That night – when I gave you my card – was there - a guy?," he asked, as Joss put on her coat.
"Yes." Blue and silver, black and white flashed across her mind.
"Then why…" he shrugged, his head just barely tilting towards the bed.
She touched his face. "I almost died a few weeks ago."
"I don't get it."
"You will, someday." She walked out into the afternoon darkness.
A/N: Next, we'll start to learn why Reese and Carter's relationship has changed so drastically, and Chapter 5 is called Eyes Wide Shut.