Nerdcam Pt. 11

"So... Wanna fool around, or wait 'til everyone's asleep?" Anna asked. After a moment's thought, she added, "I'd feel bad if we kept him up, since he has to get up in the morning and travel again."

"Novelty aside, is your heart set on fucking in my old room?" Jack asked.

"I mean... Novelty aside, it doesn't really look like your room any more. Did you- You're not gonna say 'let's fuck in the kitchen,' are you?"

Instead of answering, Jack posed another question.

"Did you notice that the cellar door has a bolt on both sides?"

"Um..."

"The workshop part is under the den, so we'd be further from the bedrooms. And that table -- the legs are bolted to the floor."

Anna frowned.

"What, were you scoping out places to fuck all day?"

"No, I was just thinking about it earlier while we were sitting around." he shrugged.

"Huh."

"And the floor is cement, so it's not gonna be all creaky if you walk on it. Or bounce up and down on it."

Anna gave him the arched eyebrow.

"You wanna bounce up and down on cement?"

He stepped up to her, leaned down, and gently bore her back onto the bed.

"Nooo..." he began to answer before dipping for a kiss.

"Mm. Then-"

"I was thinking that if we put a comforter on the table," he shifted to kiss the corner of her jaw, "and, hypothetically, 'bounced up and down' on it..." he nipped her ear lobe.

"Oh. Yeah, that might-"

He left off sucking at a spot alongside her throat to add, "Then the only noise concern would be, mm, finding something to put in your mouth."

"Tss." she tapped him lightly on the back of the head. "Mm, not like you've ever had any trouble with that."

Jack lifted himself on his elbows.

"I've been meaning to mention, this dress looks amazing on you."

"Thanks. Hey, now that we're alone and I don't have to worry about it, you wanna, uh," she got a silly smile, "unleash the beast?"

Jack had a slow moment.

"Well, if you really can't wait-" he started to roll over and reach for his fly.

"No, goofball," she corrected, "I meant mine. This dress is a little bit see-through-"

"I noticed that."

"Yeah, so I wanted to make sure my tuck was good. I had a couple of these new-fangled patch things, and I figured now was a good time to try one. Works good -- not as comfy as just extra underwear, but holds better without being like... duck tape."

At the mention of duck tape, Jack looked momentarily aghast.

"Well, now I'm curious." Jack commented, sliding off the bed to crouch before her.

"Don't band-aid it all at once, and you should be fine." she advised, hitching the dress up and wiggling while working her panties down over her hips and ass to reveal the article in question.

Jack slipped her panties the rest of the way off, then surveyed the 'new-fangled patch thing.' Easing one hand between her thighs, he found that it felt a bit like a moleskin patch -- dense, semi-flexible, soft outer layer. Anna spread her legs and cleared her throat, reminding Jack what he was supposed to be doing.

"It really is like a patch, huh? Like a big, crotch shaped patch." he observed as he began working at an upper corner with a fingertip.

"Aw, you're worried about hurting me, huh?" she teased as he very slowly peeled the material back. "It's not sticky down the center, so..."

"Ahh," Jack nodded as his efforts began to reveal her soft shaft. "Oh good. I'd hate to hurt myself doing something like this, but pain is one thing. I'd feel way worse if I managed to hurt you."

Anna sniffed in amusement, but agreed while reaching a hand down to ruffle his hair, "I tease, but tucking -- or untucking -- is definitely a better safe than sorry kind of activity."

She gave a long 'mmmm' as he gently lifted her cock from it's tucked back position, shifting a bit and feeling the slightly odd sensation -- sometimes experienced after good sex -- of her balls descending again.

"Mm, freedom." She smiled. "Thanks. That's better."

Jack nuzzled in for a moment, planting a light kiss on her soft, foreskin covered tip. He then rose to stand with the patch held up uncertainly, stuck to the fingers of his right hand.

"Uh. Is this like, reusable?"

"Maybe? But I don't see myself using one again for a while, so... just roll it up before you put it in the trash, I guess?"

"Gotcha."

He saw to that, then returned and stood regarding Anna where she still lay on the bed.

"Anything you wanted to do while we wait for them to fall asleep, or are you good just laying there with your dress up, all balls-out?"

She raised her head just enough to look at him.

"I mean..." she let her head drop again.

"You know me -- I'm not complaining. Although," he moved to sit down on the bed next to her, "I have this funny feeling that if I were laying around like that, somebody might poke fun at me."

Anna raised an arm as if volunteering to answer a question in school.

"Me. I would. Probably compare you to Homer Simpson or something. Oh, actually, there is something."

She scooted across the bed to reach over the edge to where she had left her luggage. Shortly, she moved back to the middle of the bed and sat up with a black zippered case in her lap. It was about half the size of a normal laptop case. Jack watched curiously while she took her time unzipping it and having a look inside.

Finally, without saying anything, she held it out to him.

"This isn't gonna be like the end of Raiders, is it?" he asked, accepting the case.

"We'll see." Anna replied evenly.

Several days earlier...

"Okay... What now?"

Anna stood at the stove in Jack's apartment, hand towel draped over a shoulder, tongs in one hand, a pot lid in the other. Jack stood behind her, peaking over or around her from time to time.

"Now we say the magic words."

Anna twisted a bit to give him a look.

"Which magic words?"

"Klaatu Barada... Something or other." Jack supplied theatrically.

"Uh huh. You're helping me make pot stickers, not save- Wait, are you referencing The Day The Earth Stood Still, or the Evil Dead movies, or...?"

Jack smiled to himself.

"It warms my heart that you came up with both, but... Lemme have a look." He stepped around her and incautiously shifted one of the Chinese style dumplings, then sucked his finger for a moment. "Mmp. Yeah, time to pour in that water we measured and put the lid on for a few minutes."

Anna tsked.

"We have tongs so that doesn't happen." she pointed out, setting down the tool in question to pour in the water.

While she did, Jack moved around behind her again. Pressing in close, he curled his arms around her.

"Yeah, but I like it when your hands are full." he teased, tipping his head down to kiss her neck.

"Mmm."

She placed the lid over the pan, then reached a hand up and back to the back of his head and, rolling her own head to the side, stole a kiss.

"Okay, how long is a few minutes?" she asked when they broke the kiss.

"Exactly three, actually."

"Oh," Anna noted the time on the digital clock face between the dials on the stove. "Guess I shouldn't start doing something else and get distracted then."

"Yeah. You've really been on a streak of not burning things lately, so-"

"Watch it, Nerd. The tongs are still right here." she returned in a menacing tone, lifting them and snapping them a few times in his general direction.

"This is no time to get freaky, Sweetcheeks." Jack kept up the comical rejoinders as he gave her a squeeze, then stepped back to sit down at the table.

Anna shook her head, smiling.

"Y'know, sometimes you really are a stereotypical guy. A little more clever than most, but-"

"Well, as long as we don't lose sight of that important distinction."

"And by clever, I mean smartass."

"Yes dear." He monotoned, erasing and re-sketching part of a panel on a proof for his webcomic.

"Ew." Anna made a face.

She pulled a couple beers from the fridge, setting one on the table for him. Opening her own, she took a pull while lingering to watch him sketch. After a time, Jack reached for the beer, clearing his throat loudly as he did. Anna blinked.

"What, don't want me wa- Oh!"

Jack smiled to himself while she turned to check on the potstickers.

Pulling the lid, she checked that nothing was burning yet.

"Um," she took up the tongs, looked at the beer in her other hand, had a drink, then set the bottle down. "What now?"

"You just turn them over and watch them 'til they're nicely browned and every so slightly crispy on both sides."

"So I'm just gonna keep cooking them? Tsss. And I was worried-"

"Yeah, but if you left the lid on, they'd keep steaming. Then they'd end up too soft, instead of nicely browned and, uh-"

"Ever so slightly crispy?" Anna quoted sardonically.

"Right."

"Alright, Rain Man."

"You'd bring dishonor on our house." Jack added.

Anna smirked at his dire tone. She hunted up a dish, lined it with a paper towel, and, when they were nicely browned and ever so slightly crispy, began transferring the dumplings out of the pan.

"Want a hand? I could get the-"

"Nope. Sit. I got it." she insisted.

She plated fried rice and what she called 'zingy' cucumber salad for each of them, then set the dish of pot stickers, along with a couple ramekins of sweet and spicy sauce, between them. Jack set aside his sketchpad and pencils and things.

"Aaand some of those extra chopsticks you grabbed from the takeout place last time." she handed him a pair before sitting down opposite him.

"Preparation." Jack affirmed before digging into the food.

The two ate in silence for a minute or so.

"Mm, 's good." Jack commented.

Anna smiled, finished a bite, and took a drink.

"Thanks. It's always more meaningful when you talk with your mouth full."

Jack nodded, shrugged, dabbed at his face with a napkin.

"By the way, how's the work on the comic coming along?" she asked. "You've been working on it most of the day."

He made a point of emptying his mouth before replying this time.

"Not bad. Some ideas kind of fell into place, and, y'know, I'm always looking to get ahead on it a little bit. Not exactly a cash cow, so... It's good if I have some leeway to take on commissions or other projects."

Anna nodded, helping herself to another dumpling.

"Speaking of which..." He trailed off.

"Hmm?"

When he met her eyes, but only smiled, she rolled said lovely eyes.

"Don't be shitty." she said when she had swallowed her bite of dumpling. "Speaking of which what?"

"Well, this guy contacted me about doing some work. He does his own indie comic. Does a limited print run, of, like, actual physical mags, and then has a website. I guess he was looking around at people who already worked online. Doing comics, I mean.

"He asked if I'd be interested in doing the art for an issue of his comic. Heh. The name is French. 'Outré.'"

"Ooh. You're in demand now, huh? Kinda sexy. What's his comic about?"Anna asked.

"Ah, well I guess that was part of why he was interested. It's like, episodic or whatever, and it's kinda like the twilight zone or one of those concepts -- where it's mostly mundane, but there's one weird event or thing. And it plays out how that would affect everything else.

"He read Sonder. Thought that with the semi realistic art style and all the practice with a sort of slice of life plot, I'd be a natural choice."

"So that's why you've been so busy."

"Yep. The pay wouldn't be much, not surprisingly, but he said he'd put a link to my site somewhere on his, and a blurb 'about the artist' in the back of the print mags, besides the usual artist credit. Like free advertising, so that's good. Asked me to do the art for an issue to be released early next year."

"Have you contacted him and said yes yet?"

"We've been messaging back and forth about it, but I haven't given him a definite answer yet."

"I don't know, Nerd." Anna said.

He stopped with a slice of cucumber halfway to his mouth.

"You can't spare three minutes to get freaky while we wait for potstickers as it is." She pointed out.

Jack gave a combination nod/shrug/eye roll, and went ahead and munched on his cucumber.

Anna swallowed a bite of dumpling, then put on her best dramatic soap opera starlet.

"I have needs, Jack!" she had trouble keeping the smile off her face by the end of it, though.

"You need a little Sean Connery treatment, by the sound." Jack quipped.

They shared a laugh.

"Anyway, I tried to be spontaneous and give you a quick handjob just yesterday." Jack pointed out.

"We were in public." she pointedly pointed out in turn.

"Yeah, but I made sure we were in the blind spot of the cameras."

"We were getting groceries."

"I know. The eggplants gave me the idea. And I had some tissues, so-"

"Alright, alright, funny guy," Anna waved him to silence, "Seriously, though, you should go for it, as long as you think it's not too much."

"Thanks Love."

"And if you actually get too busy and I feel neglected, I'll just start borrowing your hand at night."

"Hm. That works for m-"

"I need to find a feather, so I can tickle your nose afterwards." she added in a thoughtful tone.

"That took a turn."

Anna's evil smile made an appearance.

"But um... There was actually more to it." Jack said.

"More?"

"Well, the whole being busy, time crunch thing."

Anna took a long swig of beer.

"Well?" she nudged when he still hadn't elaborated. "What, does Nic Cage want you to help him steal a historical document or something?" she pressed.

"No. Uh," he took a breath, sighed, "You know how I said I'd talk to my parents? About visiting so you can meet them?"

"Yeah." she straightened a bit, suddenly losing all interest in the food.

"They said we should visit for the fourth."

Anna stared.

"Of July." he added slowly, catching her eye and raising his brow.

"Yeah, I, yeah, the fourth. I just... I guess I forgot about visiting, so I forgot to be nervous about it. Until now."

"It's not like we're leaving tomorrow. I wanted to run it by you, check our schedules, see if we can actually swing it."

"Right." Anna's eyes drifted, then snapped back. "The fourth is like, next week."

"That's true." Jack agreed, spearing another slice of cucumber. He perked up then. "We can always tell them we can't make it. Short notice. Whatever. Think about working something out later."

Anna gave him a look.

"If we leave it up to you, it'll be years later."

Jack looked about to say something, then just smiled and raised his hands in a gesture of surrender.

Anna was undecided for a second, then gave a little snort of amusement.

"Always joking, but you really hate actually arguing about anything." she observed.

"Mm."

"Which is good..." her tone suggested that good was sometimes a poor substitute for satisfying. "Maybe we can schedule an argument while we're at it. Maybe middle of August when nothing's going on."

Jack gave her the hairy eyeball.

"I'm kidding. Mmmostly. I do feel like we might be missing out on make-up sex."

"Hmm." Jack scratched his stubbled chin. "I think you've done it."

"What?"

"Come up with a good reason to visit my folks."

"Such a whine-ass."

A short time later, Jack was washing the dishes and handing them off for Anna to wipe dry and put away.

"I'll talk to Mr. Lintz. I checked my phone for the day. It's a Thursday, so maybe I could just take a couple days off and make it a four day weekend."

"Yeah. Or you could volunteer to work Saturday and Sunday as a trade off. And then we'd have an excuse for not staying." Jack suggested cheerfully.

"Mm" Anna wasn't really listening. She wiped the same plate for the third time, staring off. "I should get some new shoes."

"Don't you have a whole shelf of-"

"Those aren't meeting your in-laws for the first time shoes." Anna informed him airily.

She then went on to explain the necessary qualities of footwear appropriate for such an occasion. Jack nodded, focussing on her face and letting her voice fade into a pleasant background noise. When she was quiet long enough that he guessed she had finished, he spoke up.

"That's fine, sweetie. Just one thing."

"What?"

"In a thousand years, anthropologists are going to wonder why somebody rubbed a hole in that plate."

"Huh?" Anna glanced down, realizing she was still wiping the same, by now very dry, plate, and laughed. "Oh, pfft. Okay, Nerd."

*

Over the next several days, the two buckled down, in a manner of speaking. They still made time for each other, just not quite as much as usual. Jack spent more time working ahead on the comic and Anna spent a bit more time at work.

Not that she was worried about hours. When she broached the subject of taking time off for the holiday, Mr. Lintz had suggested a compromise. His explanation of the compromise had turned into something of a story. The short version was, he had an old friend named Burt who was a retired High School librarian. Since retiring, Burt had a lot of free time. And by Mr. Lintz's estimation, Burt was spending far too much of that free time griping to his friends about how bored he was and how nobody ever visited him, etc etc.

So Mr. Lintz hatched a plan to give Burt some part time work at Shelf Indulgence. Perfect work for a retired librarian. After Anna gave him a crash course, he should be overqualified to watch the place. The physical shop, anyway. Jerry would be around to help, and to run the online store, of course.

*

Wednesday evening saw the couple cruising along under patchy clouds, through intermittent rain, with Anna behind the wheel of her old Honda. Not the most auspicious start, but Google said the weather at their destination was supposed to be perfect the rest of the week.

On a whim, Jack found Anna's purse and dredged her phone from it's chthonic depths. A little more digging turned up a cable and charger plug. Taking just the cable and setting her purse aside, he connected her phone to the car's sound system.

"Music?" Anna asked. "I've got some playlists on there, if you go to, um..."

"Ah, I see."

Among the playlists were a series labelled 'For Driving,' and numbered one through five. Jack queued up the first in the series. The sun had gone down, and it was just getting dark, on which Anna remarked.

"Oh, nice timing. I put this in specifically for driving at night."

Jack checked her phone out of curiosity as the silence on the track was broken by synth tones leading up to a sound which gave the unmistakable impression of the revving of an engine. The track was something called Sega Sunset by a band or person or possibly artificial intelligence called Lorn. By the end of it, he had to admit, listening to Sega Sunset felt like a movie montage of driving the freeway in the middle of the night. Nothing but the glint of reflectors on the road, or the on-off stripes of stark white light from overhead lamps.

"That's like, a whole mood." Jack commented.

Anna glanced over.

"I like it." he added.

"Good. Me too." She was quiet a moment, then, "Hey..."

"What's up?"

"Your family celebrating the Fourth -- is that gonna be a big thing? Like, a lotta people?"

Jack noted a certain false nonchalance in her manner. He patted her thigh reassuringly.

"I wouldn't worry about it. No more than a hundred or so, tops."

"A hun-" she looked over sharply, aghast for just a beat before she remembered who she was talking to. She rolled her head side to side, loosing a deep sigh.

"Jack... Ass. Jackass." she frowned. "How did I never put that together? I mean, I've used it, but-"

"It's my name. Yeah. I wasn't gonna say anything." Jack took up a long-suffering tone. "Aaand now I get to look forward to that for the rest of my life."

"Yeah, and knowing you, you're gonna hear it a lot." Anna smirked. "But seriously, I don't even know how much family you have. You don't talk about them much. Except that uncle that's in prison."