Incompatible

"Now?" she murmured, lightly dragging her nails across his shoulders while her heels scraped his lower back.

"Lemme get the condom," he said, planting another quick kiss on her face before pulling back.

"When was your last partner?" she surprised him by asking as she held on to his forearm.

"Uhhh," Reed tried to recall, "my last girlfriend and I broke up in January. There's been no one else since then."

"My ex-fiancé and I split up a year ago," Hana told him. "And I have an implant in my arm." She pointed about three inches below her left armpit, which Reed squinted at without his glasses but surmised was some kind of birth control method. Then Hana sat up and held both of his hands in hers. "I want to feel you, Reed. Nothing between us."

"That's good enough for me," he grinned, lifting her lush black hair up and away from her neck before laying her back down. "But are you still sure about this? All of it, I mean."

"Get inside me or I'll do that thing to your nipples again," she kidded, secretly touched by his restraint in such a heady moment. But it didn't last long, nor did she want it to.

"Ma'am, yes, ma'am," Reed obliged, prying her lips open as his tongue delved in with an unrelenting kiss. It was when his erection insistently pushed into her at the same time that Hana moaned against Reed's mouth and reflexively arched her hips up to receive him. He shivered when he was buried all the way and broke away from her mouth to look down at her heart-shaped face.

Hana's eyelids fluttered and her chest heaved. Her hair was spread out above her head on the pillow, and her lips were slightly parted as she adjusted to the sudden feeling of fullness. Reed quietly took in how utterly gorgeous she was in that moment. It was when she tilted her head upward for another kiss that he knew she was ready.

He moved slowly at first but was soon breathless against her neck, unable to ignore how tightly she enveloped him. Hana mewed near his ear each time he pumped into her, then outright wailed when he sped up further.

As soon as Reed felt her legs stiffen and saw the look of bliss that overtook her face, he let himself freefall and explode within her, squeezing his eyes shut and shouting her name into her hair.

She continued to grip his back even as they both writhed in the afterglow and fought to regain their bearings. Reluctantly, Reed pulled back and ardently kissed her until he felt himself slipping out. After they each cleaned up, he emerged from the bathroom and relished the sight of Hana's sweet curves as she lay curled up on her side of the mattress.

"So I take it you might want to keep seeing me?" his voice rumbled low in her ear as he tucked himself back into bed behind her and fit his body against hers as the outside spoon.

"No, you were horrible," she deadpanned. "God-awful." Reed softly chuckled to himself as Hana swiveled her body around to face him. "Do you want to stay the night?" she seriously asked him. "If it makes a difference, I don't want you to go." He smiled as he shifted his arm to support her head, then pulled her closer.

It was refreshing how direct Hana was, Reed thought. She may have been the first person he knew, romantically or not, with whom he never had to guess. Communicating with most people was something of a subtle power struggle, he found; a silent game full of subtext that was played to avoid losing the upper hand. With Hana, there were no games.

"I would love to stay," he said, kissing her nose, "as long as we go back to the waffle place tomorrow morning. It's by my apartment and I'd like to change clothes."

Hana giggled and burrowed her face into Reed's chest, falling into the deepest sleep she'd had in months.

***********

"I have a question about last night," Reed started as he and Hana were toweling off from showering together the next morning. "You pointed to your arm and said you had an implant? I didn't know what that meant."

"But you had sex with me anyway?" an amused grin spread across Hana's face.

"Well, the two big issues with unprotected sex are STDs and pregnancy," Reed defended himself. "So after we seemed to clear the bar with when our last partners had been, I figured the arm thing had something to do with birth control."

"What if it didn't and you barebacked me on an assumption?" Hana asked, solemn and sombre. Reed froze for several seconds before he saw the corners of her mouth inch upwards.

"Oh, you're going to get it for that," he said, tossing her towel on the counter and throwing her over his bare shoulder. He set her down on the bed and lay atop her, covering her face with kisses before zeroing in on her lips. As they were both still naked, Reed got rock hard in seconds.

"You don't even want an answer to your question before fucking me again?" Hana breathed, pressing her thigh against his cock. He darted downward and pulled her knees apart in response.

"Nope," he said, burying his face in her snatch and licking as swiftly as he could while she moaned and plunged her fingers in his hair. She loved how he gripped her legs and held her down, not minding how much she squirmed. Hana's lower back arched as an earthquake shook her to her core, but before she had recovered, she felt Reed gently turning her onto her side.

"May I do that again?" he asked, covering her back with his front and spooning her.

"Do you want to make it to that waffle place or not?" she slurred, grabbing the arm that had snaked around her torso.

"We could just have toast or cereal here, then go back to my place together," he suggested.

"Then in that case, I guess we have extra time," Hana looked slyly behind her into the two lipid pools that were Reed's eyes, then got onto all fours without breaking eye contact.

"Jesus Christ, Hana," Reed groaned in disbelief, his erection now aching as he scrambled to get behind his lover and sink himself inside her. When they slumped over on the bed together minutes later, out of breath and famished, Reed still couldn't manage to let Hana go.

"It's a good thing it's a Thursday morning and most of your neighbours are probably at work, you noisy girl," he smiled against her back, his arm still around her.

"You have the gall to do what you just did to me and blame me for enjoying it?" Hana panted, entwining her slender fingers in his. "I know I'm off work because we don't have an event scheduled today, but why are you off?"

"I'm one of the newbies at the paper and I work weekends," he reminded her. "So I get two days off in lieu in the middle of the week. Usually I'd go back home to Niagara Falls to see my parents, but I guess not this week."

"Maybe not for a few weeks," Hana told him before tenderly kissing him and bounding out of bed.

Fuck, I'm in trouble, Reed thought as he watched her slender curves glide toward the bathroom. After he took his turn cleaning up, he came out to see she was already dressed and making him toast with jam.

"I'm a grape jam kinda girl," she told him as he put his plate on the table. "I also have cereal if you're a strawberry jam kind of guy, though."

"No, this is one way we're actually compatible," Reed smiled. "I'm the only one I knew up until now who loves grape jam."

"Wish it would make up for me boycotting coloniser holidays," Hana winked at him as she waited for the coffee to fully percolate. "Um, the arm implant actually is hormonal birth control." Reed started to chuckle.

"You should kick me to the curb if I haven't figured that out by now," he said, taking a bite of his toast. Hana smiled shyly, hoping she wasn't verging on over-explaining.

"It's semi-permanent and you have to replace it every couple of years. I used to be on pills until I found a few of them missing one day when I was with my ex-fiancé." Reed looked up in surprise. "We didn't live together and he swore up and down he hadn't done anything with them, but I couldn't ignore my feeling that he was trying to baby-trap me.

"So I ended our relationship and got a form of birth control no one could mess with," she went on. "My family was not impressed."

"I don't mean anything by this," Reed started, "but I would think you were pretty young to have a fiancé."

"Maybe. I'm 23 now," Hana said. "Both my sisters were already married by my age, and my brother was married when he was 25.

"This guy and I met at our mosque, and he seemed thrilled with how progressive I was despite coming from an orthodox family. Meaning, I would sleep with him whereas that's usually a huge no-no until the wedding night. I should have seen the signs long before the pill thing."

"Seems like you're kind of the black sheep of the family," Reed said.

"You said it," Hana smiled, pouring herself some coffee. "Our break-up was a huge scandal in our community. I couldn't tell anyone I called off the wedding because he messed with my birth control since apparently, I'm not even supposed to know what that is until I'm like, 30." Reed grinned.

"So I convinced my family to let me move here, which used to be my aunt's apartment when we all first got here from Palestine," Hana said. "And I agreed that I would stop going to our mosque and essentially stay out of everyone's hair except for when I took shifts helping with catering."

"That's harsh," Reed grimaced. "They cut you out for not letting yourself be cornered by some asshole?"

"Joke's on them 'cause I'm into that shit," Hana smiled. "Attending mosque was something of a chore for me. I'm deeply into my roots, but I'm not into the gossip and cliques that happen in a setting like that. It was like some silent competition as to which family was the most pious." She put a bowl of instant oatmeal in the microwave and cooked it for a minute.

"Also, it's not that bad because I go back to school in a couple of weeks," Hana went on, "and I don't have to deal with my siblings' passive-aggression anymore at work."

Reed nodded, remembering she'd told him the previous day during their walk that she was going into her second year of her master's degree. Luckily, she would soon be working as a teaching assistant and didn't need to pick up catering shifts anymore.

"That's another thing Talya and I have in common; she doesn't attend synagogue either because apparently, the same social politics happened there. Maybe it's religion in general, I don't know." Hana toasted another slice of bread for Reed and slathered it with grape jam.

"Hmm," he said. "I'm not sure I can give you the Catholic point of view because my brothers and I begrudgingly go to mass twice a year because of our mom."

"Christmas and Easter?"

"Oh wow, you've been talking to other conflicted Catholics, I see."

"Yup, high school friends," Hana said, sitting down at her circular kitchen table across from Reed, pouring some maple syrup into her oatmeal. "They found mass to be boring. Is that what happened to you?"

"No," Reed said, somewhat seriously. "The child molestation scandal that came to light in the early 2000s is what happened to me. I told my mom I morally objected to the church and I would only go twice a year for her, but I refused to do my confirmation when I was 12. For Italians, that's like, slapping the Pope in the face." Hana giggled.

"That's also when I decided I wanted to work in news," Reed went on. "If not for those journalists in Boston who broke that story, the world may still never know what those priests did and what the church covered up."

Hana eyed him for a moment, silently spooning her oatmeal.

"Do I have jam on my face?" Reed asked.

"No," she smiled. "I never should have assumed you were a corporate shill. If I'd known you were the type of journalist who had a social conscience, I would have called you when you gave me your card."

"To be fair, a lot of us are corporate shills," Reed shrugged. "And a lot of us grow into corporate shills as we age and become more established in our careers. Feel free to dump me if I ever turn into that."

Hana ruffled his hair, then went to pack herself an overnight bag while Reed did the dishes. She reveled in how good he felt standing close behind her on the subway about a half-hour later. As one of his arms slipped around her waist while the other hand gripped the pole, Hana felt herself blush when an elderly lady seated in front of her caught her eye.

"It's okay, dear," she said to her as she rose to get off at the next stop. "This is the best part. Enjoy it and make it last."

Another half-hour later and Hana's calves were pressed across Reed's lower back while he hovered over her in bed, reveling in her desperate cries as he pleasured her from one climax straight into a second.

"Why do you keep pushing even after you make me come?" Hana breathlessly asked once her body stopped shuddering. "I thought I was going to black out when you did that. I mean, in a good way, but still." Reed held her as tight as he could and brushed his lips against her cheek.

"I was just listening to the old lady on the subway," he said flippantly. "You know... enjoy it and make it last?" He loved how Hana shook as she laughed against his chest.

After they each used the washroom and got dressed, Reed opened his bedroom door again to let his puppies back in.

"Who took care of them all yesterday when you were with me?" Hana said while cuddling with them on her lap some time later. The strain of the previous day's epic walk had taken its toll and they decided they just wanted to laze around at home.

"My second oldest brother, Mateo, and his wife don't live far from here," Reed called back from the kitchen. "They drop by if I know I'm going to be out all day, which happens sometimes for work." He put down a cup of tea in front of her and tossed a couple of dog biscuits to his puppies.

"I kind of get what you were saying about family pressure," he said to Hana's surprise. "I'm the third out of the four of us, and my older two brothers are already married. I feel like every eyeball in the family is on me right now.

"And not even just my own family. There are maybe a hundred extended relatives who ask me every time we all get together when I'm going to make it to the altar."

"You're only 25," Hana said, taking a sip of the cardamom masala chai.

"Yeah, and my parents were married when they were 19 and 20 so according to them, I'm five years late on the draw."

"Are you sure this is a good idea, then?" Hana asked, waving her fingers back and forth between them. "Maybe you should be trying to find Ms. Right instead of wasting more time."

"This," Reed said, sliding over to Hana on the couch and putting her tea cup back down on the coffee table, "is the best worst idea I've ever gone through with." He tenderly kissed her mouth, then made his way down to her neck before he felt her fingers gently push against his chest. Pulling back and looking at her face, he understood.

"We've been doing this a lot over the last 18 hours, haven't we?" he asked. Hana nodded with a small smile.

"I'm a little sore," she said. Reed dropped his head forward, embarrassed.

"Geez, I'm sorry," he told her. He was aghast that Hana may have thought he was only using her for her body, and the very idea appalled him regardless of whatever deal they'd agreed to. Getting up off the couch, Reed promised himself he wouldn't try to touch her again unless she initiated it, even if that took weeks.

"I'm really sorry, Hana," he said again. "I'm not usually--"

"What games do you have on your Xbox?" Hana interrupted, eyeing the console beneath his TV. Reed turned around, surprised but relieved she wasn't disgusted with him.

"I... I have a GamePass so the choice is yours," he said, reaching for his controller and checking the batteries in his spare controller. Minutes later, she was beating him at Mortal Kombat.

"It looks like your brother's soul is mine again," Hana smirked, punching in the combination for a kill shot as Reed's character staggered on the screen.

"You memorized all the kill codes?" Reed said in incredulity. "This is the third time we changed characters and you've done all their final kill moves on me." A discomforting thought occurred to him. "Are you--I'm really sorry about earlier." Hana gently bobbed in low chuckles.

"Reed, I'm not upset. And even if I was, I wouldn't show it in such a roundabout way like creatively killing you in Mortal Kombat. You didn't know and you backed off right away." She paused and looked down at her controller. "Not everyone does that." Reed's stomach lurched.

"Did he hurt you?" he asked, thinking of Hana's ex. "Do you know where he lives now?"

"Easy, Sonny Corleone," Hana smiled. "He tried and wouldn't accept the no, then I kneed him in the groin and left. Then I discovered he was messing with my pills and dumped him. No horse heads needed."

"For your information, Luca Brasi put the horse head in Jack Woltz's bed," Reed smiled. "After Catholicism, The Godfather trilogy was our religion growing up."

Naturally, they spent the rest of the afternoon and evening watching the Godfather movies. When Reed felt Hana's head slump against his shoulder toward the end of the third one, he turned off the TV.

"Let's get you to bed," he whispered, trying to get her on her feet.

"Did Michael and Kay's daughter get killed yet?" Hana mumbled.

"What? They kill off Michael and Kay's daughter?!" Reed exclaimed in mock horror. "How could you spoil it for me like that, Hana?" He looped his arm around her and walked her to his room, then helped her get undressed for bed.

"I'll keep a key for you on the coffee table to lock up when you leave tomorrow morning," he told her as he pulled the comforter over her shoulders. "Just in case I have to go to work before you wake up. Goodnight, sweetie." Remembering his promise to himself from earlier that afternoon, he withdrew his hand and turned in the other direction.

Reed let out a contented sigh as he drifted off to sleep, just as he felt Hana circle her arm around his waist and mold her warm front against his back.

***********

When Reed's phone alarm went off Friday morning, he first reached toward the nightstand to shut it off, then reached behind him for Hana. He sat up with a start to find she was not only missing, but her overnight bag was also gone. After he put on his glasses and made it out to the living room, he saw his spare key was still on the coffee table.

What an unbelievable two days, he marveled on the subway to work an hour later, just as his phone buzzed.

Sorry for ghosting you, Hana had texted. We have a wedding this morning and they wanted us to serve breakfast as well. Forgot to tell you. Can't keep texting because my sister's giving me the stink-eye. Xoxoxo.

Reed knew he was smiling all the way through the day but he didn't care. He knew he was smiling throughout the rest of August and even into September when Hana headed back to school but still didn't care. He was just grateful that despite doing her thesis and working as a teaching assistant, she managed to make time to see him.

"Maybe I should write off my entire kitchen table as office space on my taxes," he joked to her in late October while she was marking a stack of undergrad essays. He sat across from her, piecing together quotes for a freelance article.

"Don't push it," she gave him a wry smile. "They just put you on Monday to Friday so we're back on the same schedule again. Just be a good boy and we can keep our weekends together."

"A good boy is the last thing I intend to be, Ms. Farouq," he said seriously, getting up from his laptop and stalking around the table with his eyes fixated on her.

Since his apartment was closer to the University of Toronto campus than hers was, she came back to his place when she had late afternoon tutorials to teach during the week--especially as the days got shorter and the weather turned colder.