Orchid - A Midspring Night's Dream

Her stomach muscles did some contorting, and then she was cumming. She rifled her hand up and down the length of it, but because it was still somewhat soft the head whipped around wildly, and that caused her to spray what would count as a very large load, under any circumstances, in pretty much every direction. Some went straight, dotting his chest here and there. Some streaked across the inside of her thigh. Some doubled back on her in a high lobbing arc.

A few very ambitious droplets even landed on her lips. Gill noticed this in particular because a drop or two had landed on his tongue, hardly surprising given his open-mouthed staring, and he liked the idea of them both tasting her. Whether or not any made it into her mouth, he couldn't say, but he definitely swallowed. And was intrigued.

After a full minute of panting, and running her hand up and down in slow strokes to work out every drop, most of it now pooling on him, she shifted forward onto her knees and kissed him. Gill fell into it madly, and even though he was quite content just kissing her, and loving how good it made him feel to make her feel likethat, and make facial expressions likethat, he was still as hard as iron inside of her.

He didn't need to be told to go slow. He kept one hand on her lower back, just above the swell of her cheeks, to keep her in place, and worked his own hips in a long thrust. He found the combination of anal and reverse missionary a bit more complex, up and back rather just up, but she was kissing him and it felt so good. When he backed out almost all the way, she moaned into her kisses, and that set his skin on fire. It felt like what she was trying to say, with each whimpered sound, wasI miss you, and so he pushed back in again.

She arched her back a little, head rising, and Gill immediately took the opportunity to crane his neck a little and wrap his lips around her nipple. It hardened, delightfully, between his lips, pressing into his tongue, and her pained cry was one iota of stimulation too much. He wrapped both arms around her torso, pulled her down, and thrust up like he was trying to drive through her. Eve planted both hands on the bed, teeth clenched, and held her pose.

Because she stayed up like that, head lifted, staring up near the head of the bed, Gill was able to see a look of bliss slide over her features. Calm, relaxed bliss. He was a raging torrent, pulsing and clenching and squeezing, but she was perfect contentment made flesh. Pink-haired serenity.

Gill fell back to the bed with a gasp, arms flung out in both directions, and Eve began to draw loose blankets and sheets toward herself as if to make a little nest on top of him. She laid her head on his chest, tucked her arms in against his sides, and stayed there while he panted.

***

When Gill woke, it was still incredibly dark. There had been a sound. Loud-ish, maybe. It had woken him from a dream, so his brain couldn't make sense of it. He sat up, planting his hands on the bed to keep his balance, and his right hand settled on a warm spot on the bed.

And then his brain caught up, and he remembered someone had been in the bed with him. And wasn't there now. That had been the front door. She'd left. He sat up further and peered into the dark. Her purse was still on the chair by the door. Maybe she hadn't left-left?

"I didn't wake you, did I?"

Gill heard her voice pretty clearly even though she was outside.

"Sorry. I really appreciate you calling me back."

"Yeah, no, I know. You were just trying to help."

"I love you too."

He suspected she was on the phone.

"I had to put it on silent. That's why I didn't see when you called earlier."

"Because."

"Because... I was busy."

"Yes."

"Ican't be cheating on Todd because Ibroke upwith Todd."

"No,Kit. I told you. It's over."

"You're supposed to support me, and not judge me. God, you act like you never took a guy home because you were lonely."

"Oh. Okay. That's very different andnot just you being a giant hypocrite."

"Gee, let me think. You're not out at work. You're not out to your neighbors. You're not—"

"It is, when you keep comparing us like our situations are exactly the same."

"What I'm sayingis that it's easy for you to sit there and tell me that it's better to tough it out. You tripped and fell into your dream relation—"

"Yeah. Fine. Go back to yourbig warm bed and your—"

And then it was quiet, except for the very soft sound of heavy breathing, punctuated every few seconds by a sharp sniff. Gill laid back down in bed just in time as, a few seconds later, Eve came back inside. She sat down on the other side of the bed, and stayed there for several seconds. Her shoulders were only moving very slightly and her head was tipped forward, with her chin to her chest. Gill couldn't decide whether to say anything or not, so he just watched.

After a minute, Eve reached down to take off her shoes, and slid in under the blanket and sheets still wearing her top and shorts. Then, when she couldn't get comfortable, she rolled onto her back. Then, again, when she couldn't get comfortable, she rolled onto her side so that she was face to face with him. After staring blankly for a minute, she seemed to realize that his eyes were open, and she seemed to shrink back.

"How much of that did you hear?" she whispered.

"Almost exactly half of it," Gill said, softly, and was rewarded by an exhausted chuckle.

"Doesn't say much for the walls in the place."

That made Gill blush.

"I'm sorry you had to hear that."

"You don't have anything to apologize to me for. She should be apologizing to you." Then, after a second, he added, "I mean, I assume that was your sister?"

Eve nodded, and wiggled deeper under the blankets. This wiggling brought her a little closer to him, so Gill matched her.

"Yeah. She has a, uh... an unconventional relationship."

"If that's what she wants, then good for her."

Eve narrowed her eyes, very slightly, and said, "It's so easy to talk to you."

This was something he had heard many times in his life, but pointing that out felt like some kind of needless flex on his listening skills. Instead, Gill just nodded.

"Like, I feel like I could tell you anything."

Gill asked, "Do you have something you want to talk about?"

This did not have the reaction he had hoped for, as she immediately sniffed hard, and then sniffed again. Then, under the blanket, he felt her foot slide closer to him. Searching for him, and his legs, Gill thought, so he shifted his hips and slid one leg closer to her. She immediately hooked her leg around his, and it felt nice. Ice cold, but nice.

"God," she whispered. "Your leg is so warm."

"Everyone always tells me I'm a furnace," Gill said.

"Ahhh," she said, "fire jokes. It's been a while." Gill wasn't sure how much of his expression was visible in the dark, but it must have been somewhat there for Eve to notice his confusion. "I burned down a building. Technically, I burned down two buildings, one time, but the other one doesn't count."

"And, that's why no one talks about fire around you?"

"Or buys me candles for birthdays," she said, "or even, sometimes, I swear she hides them when I visit. I swear I see the dust rings. I'm not crazy."

"Did something happen?"

At this, Eve clammed up. She pressed her lips tightly together, and huddled in on herself. Her legs were still frigid, though, so Gill opened his arms to her, and she immediately rolled toward him with her back against his chest, and sighed.

It felt good to hold her.

"I used to work at this plastics plant. Near the end of high school. I was... working up the courage to transition. Kit and I had been seeing a therapist, and were taking blockers, but she'd only just started taking estrogen. I think she might have just started to socially transition. Wearing a dress. Makeup. That kind of thing."

"Okay," Gill said.

"I'd been kinda seeing this guy I worked with. His parents owned the plant. His mom and his step dad. They were assholes, an-and he was too. He was a huge asshole, but when no one else was around he could be really sweet. We made out a lot on the clock, and fooled around. Everyone knew he was a screw-up, but I didn't care. I just wanted his attention.

"Everyone thought he was totally straight. He wasn't out to his parents at all. He had a girlfriend, but that was fine with me. I didn't really want to date him. I just wanted to fool around with him and have him whisper nice things to me. And as far as anyone else was concerned, we were just two...guys hanging out in the back room." She paused for a second to catch her breath. "Taking too long doing inventory or whatever. But..."

Then she was quiet for a second more.

"I don't think I've ever told anyone about this. I think Kit thought she was doing me some kind of favor by not asking, and by pretending nothing had happened."

GIll asked, "What happened?"

"The first time I showed up to work as a girl, the first time I dyed my hair pink, suddenly things got very uncomfortable. His parents came down hard on him, because, like, everyone knew we'd spent a lot of time together, and his way of dealing with that was to act like he was completely horrified by me. Hell, the night before, he'd put my hair in pigtails. It'd still been brown then, but it was long enough. He didn't have a problem with me being feminine, but he was a coward when his parents decided to care. He couldn't have anyone thinking he was gay, so I got, like, not even the brush off. He went out of his way to be mean to me in front of others, so nobody got the wrong idea.

"That place didn't like to fire people, because that meant unemployment benefits, so they did this thing where they would make your job as hard as possible to get you to quit. I'd seen it happen a dozen times, and when I realized it was happening to me, and that no one was going to stand up for me, despite the fact that I was really good at my job, I just... I lost it. I snuck back in one night and made it look like an accident. The neighboring warehouse was attached by a little shared lobby area, and that burned down too, but it was empty at the time."

"Hang on," Gill said, squinting into the dark as he thought. "If he didn't want people to know he was gay, maybe, why would it be a problem if he was fooling around with a girl?"

Eve went silent, and twisted at the hip. As she did, she turned her head owlishly, and peered at him. She didn't say anything; she just looked at him for several long seconds. "You're not kidding. That's how you see me? As a girl?"

"People just... are. Why and how are usually a big waste of time."

Eve turned a little more, neck stretching, and she kissed him once, but her lips were wet with tears. Gill, instead of meeting the kiss and pushing for more, just wrapped his arms more tightly around her, and Eve fell into him. Within a minute, she was using his arm as a pillow, body turned toward him and huddled in as close as possible.

***

When Gill woke up, his heart fell. The bed was empty. He didn't remember falling asleep, but Eve had fallen asleep first. There had only been a short time in between when she was sobbing and when she was breathing heavily (if not quite snoring), and Gill hadn't been awake for much longer after that.

The bed was cold beside him now.

The realization that she was gone, and the nested realization that her being gone actually hurt, was followed by the thundering realization that he had three missed calls from Jennifer within the previous hour. He rolled to the edge of the bed and held his phone in his hand, staring down at the alerts on his phone.

Hey babe, you left the house already? Didn't think you had anywhere to be today.

Call me back when you can, okay? I'm worried.

He pushed the little green callback button, and it answered on the first ring.

"Babe! Hey! I was wondering!"

"Hey," Gill said. He normally had a very even affect, but this was flatter than normal.

"I just got home, like, forty five minutes ago. I was surprised you weren't here! What's uh... what's going on?"

Gill had thought it would be hard, but once he started it got easier. "I stayed at a motel last night."

"You... what? Why? Why would you... why would you do that? Babe?"

"I'm gonna need to stop by, later on, for some clothes. You don't have to be there, but if you do... you know, if you want to have someone else there with you, that's okay."

"Why would I need to have someone there with me? What the fuck are you talking about?"

"It's over, okay? I saw you when you were leaving. You know it. I know it. Let's not do this."

"Babe," she said, laughing the most tense, joyless laugh Gill had ever heard. "Babe, come on. Talk to me. Please. I deserve that, right? After all that we've... I mean..."

"I'm not mad. I just... I wish you'd talked to me."

"I'm here now," she said, rushing. "I'm here now. Talk to me. Babe, please."

Gill shook his head, and said, "Jen. Don't."

"Baby?"

"I'll be by this afternoon. Maybe two or three. I don't know. I'll let you know when I'm on my way."

"I love you."

Gill started to repeat the sentiment, getting as far as "I..." before his brain kicked in and he shut his mouth. "I'll message you later."

"Baby?"

Gill was proud of himself for hanging up the phone when he did. He didn't let himself get dragged into a confrontation he knew he would lose. He couldn't debate or argue like Jennifer could. Given the chance, she would talk him in circles until he was begging her to takehimback.

He stared down at the phone in his hand for a long minute. He needed time to change gears. He didn't want to keep thinking about Jennifer, but it was hard to let go after so many years. Even though he knew it was over, and even though his feelings for her had been depleted, it was scary to think about letting go. He had heard someone talk about cults and MLMs once, and they'd used a term that stuck with him: sunken value. The idea that, past a certain point, people need their investment to work out, or have meant something, so they double down, and double down, and double down even when they know they shouldn't.

Gill had overlooked a lot of red flags over the years.

He just kept staring at his phone, both his death and his salvation. Both paths were right there.

He picked the latter, and she picked up on the third ring.

"Hello?" She sounded not just surprised but incredulous.

"Hey," he said, "it's Gill."

"I know," she said, and it sounded like she was smiling. He liked the sound of her voice when she was smiling. "It's a little bit uncool to reach out this soon, you know."

"What can I say," Gill said. "I'm not cool." He knew that his own smile was coming in his voice through as well.

She made a sound somewhere between wonder and skepticism. "Ehhhh.I'd say, like, seventy percent cool."

"Oh, that high?"

"I'm feeling generous. Plus, you figured out pretty quick that I put my number in your phone, so that counts for some." After a short laugh, she added, "Not a lot, but some."

"I'll take it," Gill said, smiling. "Are you busy later?"

It took her about one heartbeat longer to respond than he was expecting, and her tone was softer when she said, "You want to see me again?"

"I do," he said. "I really, really do."

//Author's note: A big thank you to Omenainen and my good friend Skulltitti for helping me workshop this nugget of an idea into a full fledged story. The first story with these two, originally titled A Midautumn Night's Dream, was a story I wrote very early in my creative career, and although I loved the characters and the direction, I felt like I hadn't given them the story they deserved, or the closure they had earned When I incorporated them into my series Orchid, I tried to fix those things, but it always felt like I'd jumped too far, and left too many things unspoken between the then and the now, to get to the conclusions I wanted.

This time around, I think I finally got them off on the right foot.//