Ri and Grey Ch. 01

The skin of the fingertips was warm as they fluttered down the center of my back. The sensation causing me to shiver. I wanted to feel more, to know the true feel of his touch. But I knew there was little chance of that. He was my best friend and simply didn't see me as someone with whom a relationship was possible. "Ri, when are you leaving on your trip?" I asked as he started to more powerful strokes to work the kinks out of the muscles of my back.

"I fly out tomorrow evening at seven, why?" He asked starting to put some real pressure into the movements across my back.

I groaned as he hit a truly tight muscle and began to work the tension out. "Because I was wondering. You know I worry when you travel." A sigh escaped my lips as I felt the muscle begin to relax with his ministrations.

"That I do know, but I don't know why. I mean you know it's for work and you know I do my best to stay safe. What worries you about my traveling?" He asked me. His hands paused on a muscle just at the edge of my back and I longed silently for his fingers to drop the slightest amount and brush across the side of my breast.

The need for his touch wasn't a new thing in my world. I had wanted to be more to him than just a friend since the day we met. But it seemed the world had conspired against that. Either he was with someone and I was free or, like now he was free and I was in a relationship. I had never bothered to say anything because I couldn't bring myself to risk the friendship that had become so much a part of my life. I knew I had better give him an answer to his question or he would start asking others that I wasn't ready to answer. "I worry about all my friends, you know that." I arched my back against the pressure of his fingers as he went back to working the muscles.

"You do at that, but I have never seen you stress out over something as simple as one of them going to a business meeting."

I hated this conversation, and we had a version of it before he left for any trip that took him out of the city. I was tired of fighting my heard and my head. "What do you want me to say." I snapped rolling onto my back. My entire body seeming to explode when he didn't react fast enough and his fingertips brushed my nipple as I turned over. Being topless around him had never been a thing until that moment. In that single heartbeat my entire world changed. I gasped for a breath that seemed to have been sucked out of me and I could feel my face becoming the color of a ripe tomato. I couldn't see a graceful way out of it so I payed perfectly still and prayed he didn't notice that both of my nipples had become pebble hard.

The next words out of his mouth told me I wasn't that lucky. "I want the truth." He tilted his head as he looked at me. There was something in his eyes that I couldn't read. I watched as he lifted his hand slightly and after seeming to rethink whatever it was he was going to do dropped it to his side.

I laid there for a long moment thinking about how best to answer him. I didn't think I was ready to tell him the truth, at least not all of it. "You are important to me, you always have been." I silently hoped it would be enough of the truth to get me by.

He sat there leaning back against his elbows. The look in his eyes still unreadable. "Something tells me that isn't everything, but for now I will take it." He smiled his silly little quirky smile and once again my heart melted.

Dropping my head against the pillow I sighed, "Thanks for the back rub. You want to go to the beach with us tomorrow?"

He looked at me again with a tilt of his head, "sure, why not?" His response was quick and had a lilt of laughter. "You think it's a good idea for us to hang out together? Your husband isn't real fond of me you know."

"He has no problems with you, it's me he has issues with. He thinks I'm cheating on him." I rambled pulling myself into a sitting position and tugging my shirt back over my head.

"Why in the hell would he think that?" Ri asked.

I let myself laugh for a moment. It wasn't really funny, but I knew my marriage was going down like a sinking ship. I hadn't married the man for the right reasons in the first place, and that made for an extremely rocky marriage. I was still trying, but I knew my dear husband was beginning to look at other options.

"Because he is looking at everything in a skirt. He wants an open marriage, which I think is nuts."

He shook his head at me. "Him... an open marriage?" Ri looked more than a little confused.

"Yes and an open marriage. However since it's not something I ever wanted, I figure it's because he found something he wants to play with." I wasn't looking at Ri, I couldn't bring myself to admit I was a failure at anything in front of him.

I felt the pressure of his hand on my shoulder. "You know I think the man is an idiot right? Why in the world did you ever marry him?" It wasn't the first time someone had asked me that, yet I still didn't have an answer I was willing to say. The truth was I had married him so the child I was carrying at the time would have a family. Little did I know at the time I wouldn't be able to keep my son.

"It doesn't matter the why, all that matters is that I did." I held my ground. My reasons were mine and even Ri wasn't going to get me to voice them until I was ready. "So back to the beach idea. We were, well I was thinking a BBQ with friends. He's inviting some of his friends. I figured you might be interested."

I watched as Ri got up off the bed. He began to wander around the one room apartment almost as if he were looking for something. "Okay. I'll go, but only on one condition." He said from where he had stopped and was facing my computer.

My heart nearly skipped a beat, "what is your condition?" I prayed you couldn't hear the hope in my voice.

"It's easy. I want you to make me a promise. You promise me that you will do whatever makes you happy in this world. That you will try for that dream I have always seen hiding in your eyes and I will spend the day at the beach with you and the creep you married." He hadn't turned around to say any of it and I was glad. I hurriedly wiped away the tears that were slipping down my face. There was no way I was going to let him see them. I knew my voice was going to give away enough as soon as I opened my mouth.

"Why does that matter to you?" I asked even as I realized my voice was shaking.

He spun around, and the anger in his eyes came as a surprise. "What the hell... its not like anything I say really makes a difference." He paced back toward me.

Hating when he was angry with me I swallowed back my first thought and took a second to chose my words correctly. "Everything you say is important to me. You are important to me. Why in the world would you think otherwise?"

The anger hadn't faded when he spoke again, "Nothing, never mind... its too late anyway." He shook his head and I watched as the anger slipped from his eyes to be replaced by his normal cockiness. He didn't say anything else, he just turned and walked out of the apartment.

I didn't know what to think, my heart was racing and all I wanted to do was shout for him to come back. What I did was sit on the edge of the bed and wonder if things were ever going to go the way I wanted them to. As I was sitting there the phone on the bedside table began to ring. The sound of the ring tone I had set for my husband caused a sigh to escape from my lips. I answered it before it could get very far. My husband was not one to be left waiting.

"Hello." I forced my voice to be cheerful.

"Are you still at the apartment?" his voice came through the phone and not for the first time I had the urge to toss the thing across the room.

"Yes dear. I hadn't been planning on leaving for another thirty minutes, I know your boss doesn't like it when I get there too early."

"I got out early. You need to come get me." His voice was sharp almost cutting with its tone.

"On my way." I answered deciding not to tell him that Ri had been there.