The Beginning

As I situated the body pillow between my legs, and tried to relax, he wrapped his arm around me and gently pulled me into his chest, his legs behind mine, until we were spooning.

Normally I can't sleep this way, I get too hot and fidgety, but I was simply too tired to do anything about it. So I reached to my bedside table for the remote to my a/c, turned it on low and lay there. Hoping that sleep would find me.

Behind me I felt Brad snuggle into my hair, and then he was talking to me, softly. "Just relax. Tell me about Z. Where'd you find him?"

And so I started babbling about finding Z at the shelter, John and his boyfriend Chris going with me. Knowing I wanted to find a dog that felt right. After our third visit to the shelter, we met Z. At some point I just drifted off to sleep, because the next thing I knew there was a buzzing coming from my floor, an arm across my chest and below my breasts, a leg wedged in between my own, and a warm erection pulsing between my legs.

It was sunny out, morning had come, and I'd slept like the dead, not moving an inch. I lifted my head to look around and figure out what was buzzing when I heard Brad hoarsely whisper behind me, "Morning". It came out sort of sleep slurred. I turned my head to look behind me and there was Brad, with a big smile on his face, and I felt his hand move to cup my breast.

"Morning." I slurred back. Mornings were never my favorite part of the day. "Is that you or me?"

His smile grew bigger, "Me I think, yours was ringing in the other room earlier." He made no move to answer his phone, instead his hand was wandering down to my waist. I felt his erection pulse between my legs again and couldn't help my reaction, i pushed back against him, loving the feel of him, loving the fact that he was horny, awake, and wanted me.

I felt his hips and his hand move at the same time, he positioned himself and slid into my already wet and waiting core and a sighed and gasped at the same time as he gently, but firmly, filled me to the hilt. His hand had moved down to my leg and he lifted it gently from behind to get better leverage and then he was lazily fucking me, gently but firmly from behind and I was in heaven. I didn't know what to do with my hands so I reached around to his hip and held him to me as he continued to trust into me.

I hadn't had morning sex in ages, and this was the best morning sex I could imagine. He kept thrusting into me and I kept pushing myself back on to him, meeting him each time, we stayed like that for only a minute before he pulled me to his chest and brought both of us to our knees. Then he was guiding my hands up to the head board until I held onto the rails, then his hands were on my hips and his gentle nudges became long, thrusting swings of his hips as he started to really thrust into me. Each stroke became longer, and more forceful, "Oh God, Alice, you feel incredible" as his thrusting sped up and became more forcefully. I was pushing myself back on to him, meeting him thrust for thrust. "Oh God, Brad, Yes!" I couldn't think, he was everywhere. Neither of us could last long, I was coming nearly constantly, I could feel his whole length, the ridge of the head of his cock, plowing into me, the girth stretching me and filling me, he was buried so deep I thought he was going to crawl in and make a home for himself. And then his was thrusting faster, shorter lengths as I clenched him harder, loving the feel of him, and then we were rocking the bed as he was plowing into me so fast I couldn't keep up and I melted beneath him, "Oh god! Yes. That's it, Oh god I need to feel you come." And then I did, like a spark being set off and I came, gripping him harder and harder as I felt him swell and the heat of his cum filling me up.

After the last jet hit, he was leaning on me, his arms on either side of me, his head on my back. I could feel his chest heaving as he tried to catch his breath. "Oh god, Alice. What are you doing to me?" I felt him twitch inside of me as I squeezed every drop from him.

I couldn't think, I couldn't speak, and then I just collapsed and he followed me down, turning us just a bit so all of his weight wasn't on my back. I just lay there, panting and trying to breath. I felt like I'd exploded and all the bits and pieces of me were just beginning to take their usual place.

We lay there until the buzzing on the floor started again. He was getting softer inside of me but I didn't want him to pull out. I loved the feel of him inside of me. I knew then that whatever may happen, I'd changed, and the feel of him inside of me was something I was going to want every day, every night, and as often as possible in between. And then I remembered, as if I'd somehow been struck by lightning. This couldn't last, he didn't live here, he lived in Chicago, and I was not going back to Chicago after finally making a life for myself here in this city I loved.

I felt as if I'd been gut punched and body sort of jolted and sighed all at once.

Immediately I felt Brad wrap his arm around me, "What? What's wrong?"

"This won't last. You've got to go home, and then I won't feel this anymore."

There it was, my worst fear. The reason I was so nervous when we met. This was wonderful, he was wonderful, the sex was amazing, and he was going to be leaving tomorrow night to go back to Chicago. I only had him here with me this weekend, and then our lives would go back to what they had been before, but for me that would be emptier.

I was never one to sleep around. My emotions are too tied up in my hormones. It's too hard for me to separate one from the other. This is what I had feared. But I didn't know how relationships worked, and I feared them almost as much as I now dreaded his return to Chicago.

He nuzzled my neck, "Don't go there. We have a few days, we'll see how it goes. Slowly. We'll figure it out." There was such confidence in his voice that I almost believed him, I wanted to believe him.

We lay there with our thoughts for another moment, and then I felt him slip out of me. A sort of sloppy, slurping feeling that had me blushing again. I tensed, and stirred, "I should probably go to the bathroom, and you should probably find out who's trying to reach you."

I have so many trust issues I could start a bank, I didn't know what his life was really like in Chicago, any more than he really knew what my life here was like.

I held me closer to him for a moment, and then let me go. "You're probably right."

I felt like lead had entered my chest and was taking up root on my lungs. I reached over to the bed post and pulled on the robe I kept for emergencies, and bolted for the bathroom. I didn't have the courage to watch this beautiful man, this incredible lover, get up from the bed and find his phone and answer it.

After my ablutions I peeked out of the door, only to find Brad leaning against the wall, his jeans on again, but not all of the buttons done up. "Mind if I have a moment?" He asked, a smile in his words and on his lips.

"Oh, yeah, of course." I blushed again. I was always one to blush quickly. I opened the door more fully and let him in as I sneaked past. "Do you want some coffee? Or tea?"

"Whichever you're having is fine." he said as I tried to duck past him, but he caught me in his arms and leaned down to kiss me, quickly, gently, as if we'd been doing this for years. His smile reached his eyes, but I was sure that only panic was reflected in my own. He sighed, kissed my forehead, and then released me so he could use the bathroom himself.

I scurried into the kitchen and and started the coffee, then dashed down the hall to the front room where I'd left my purse, and my phone. Three missed calls from John, and two texts from Wade asking if I was going to come down to sell my art in the Quarter today.

Distracted from my panic, I texted Wade to let him know that I wasn't coming down today, finally telling him that I had company in town, and then called John back. "Hey babe, what's up?"

"Oh, nothing special. I wanted to check in with you and see how last night went. Did you meet him?"

John and his boyfriend Chris were two of my closest friends, and of course I'd told him about Brad coming to town this weekend. I'd been nervous and while John was all smiles and confidence that this would be a good thing, and Chris was smiles but in a bland sort of 'oh boy, let's see how this turns out' sort of way, the truth was they both cared and both of them wanted to see me happy. As all happy couples want to see their friends happy.

I blushed, again, and grimaced at the same time. "Yeah. We met at Cafe du Monde and then walked around the Quarter for a while, and then we went to the bar, and well, he's here now. I was just making coffee." It was then that I looked at the time, nearly noon. I never slept this late anymore, not even on weekends. "Oh crap! It's that late already?"

John just laughed, he was happy for me, and trying not to let me think about my fears. "I guess you had a good night. I was going to ask if you wanted to go see Chris and have brunch, but it sounds like you need to wake up still. Want me to swing by later?" John usually came by on Saturdays and we'd walk all the dogs together down by the river.

"Uh, let me get back to you on that. He's still here and I don't know what he wants to do."

I was walking back to the kitchen, taking cups down, reaching for the creamer, and generally going through the motions while we chatted for a few minutes. John wanted to know if/when he and Chris were going to get to meet Brad, and I was panicking, as was my tendency when anything good happened. I was waiting for it to fall apart, and I couldn't get past the fact that Brad lived in Chicago.

I was so caught up in my thoughts that I was barely listening to John and didn't hear Brad come up behind me. I yelped and jumped when I felt Brads arms wrap around me from behind. "Who's on the phone?" he mumbled as he nuzzled my neck.

"Hum, oh, John."

"Good morning John" Brad said, loud enough to ensure that John heard him through the phone.

"Oh, god, that's a great voice. Well, okay, I'll let you go. Let me know when we can come by and meet him." You could hear the excitement in John's voice. He wanted me to have something, and someone good in my life, and he'd decided that Brad was going to be that someone and something.

"Okay, I'll talk to you later" I mumbled, and hung up the phone. "The coffee'll be ready in a few minutes." We could hear it percolating in the background.

I felt Brad's sigh and chuckle against my back. "You've gotten into your head, haven't you?" He asked in a sort of amused and tolerant tone.

"Sorry, I can't seem to help myself. I just can't turn it off."

I could feel Brad shaking his head against my hair, which I was sure was everywhere and frizzy. "What if we pretend that I'm not visiting, but that I live here, and we're going to spend the day together, getting to know one each other in person after all these months talking on line?"

And though I was nervous, we did. I made breakfast, then texted John that we were taking Z down to the river to run, and he joined us wit his two smaller dogs that were very bossy when around Z, and of course Z let them be. We walked, and talked, and let the dogs run into the river and around the end of the world. John and Brad got on really well, and later he took the four of us to dinner so he could meet Chris and be vetted by my closest friends.

That evening, instead of going out, after dinner we all gathered in my back yard, the lamps that John, Chris and I had installed offered a soft glow, we used my phone for music and sat around the back porch as the dogs played in the yard, and we talked well into the night. Finally the boys left, and it was just Brad and I.

I'd been trying all day not to think about the fact that tomorrow night he was going to get on a plane back to Chicago, or that I was going to be doing laundry and getting ready for the week ahead. We were resting in the chairs around the table the boys and I had scavenged, my feet were in Brad's lap and he was rubbing my legs and watching me. We hadn't said anything for a while, both of us just watching the other.

Eventually Brad broke the silence, "So what do you usually do on a Sunday?"

I smiled, "Well. Usually I'm out here gardening between loads of laundry. I told you I hang dry everything?" He nodded, but kept quiet. "Well, usually I spend the morning out here before it gets too hot. Then I'm in the house for a while, cleaning and the like. I usually start the crock pot and a loaf of bread around 10. Then it's off to the store for groceries for the week. Then home to finish the bread and whatever I've started making for the week. Then it's studying, or writing, and generally getting everything in order. Around 8 I usually brining in the last of the laundry and do any ironing that needs to be done. Then I usually watch a movie on my laptop in the living room, make a salad for dinner, and head to bed around 10. Nothing all that special. Why, what do you want to do tomorrow?"

For a moment he just watched me, then he smiled, and said, "That sounds perfect."

I just laughed, surely not. Surely a day of domestic bliss did not sound perfect to this man. Once he'd told me he had his laundry done for him, not just his dry cleaning, but everything; and he had a maid who came in and cleaned his apartment three days a week. How could my day of house work, chores, and cooking sound perfect to him.

Sunday afternoon I took him back to his hotel, then waited while he gathered his things (we'd stopped by on the way to the river yesterday so he could change) and then he wanted to go grocery shopping with me, so we took my car out to Wal-Mart and I did all my grocery shopping for the week, which really isn't much as I grow so many of my own vegetables. Then I took him out to the kosher grocery store I shopped at in Metairie. He seemed content to just walk with me and let me babble about this or that research or recipe as they came to mind.

When we got back to my apartment he helped me load everything in, and then unpack all the groceries. I'd started a loaf of no-knead bread before we'd left so the kitchen was warm, almost too warm, and smelled of yeasty goodness when we got back. I tried not to watch the clock as time marched ever onward. And then it was 6 o'clock, time to take him to the airport. He'd offered to take a cab, but I'd waived him off and told him it was silly to spend money on a cab when I could take him. Z and I followed him out to my car once more, and we drove to the airport. I was heading to the curb to let him out when he asked me to park instead, so I found parking in the shade, cut off the engine and waited.

"Won't you walk me in?" He asked.

I didn't know what he was thinking, but I knew it would be too hard for me to watch him walk down to the terminal and board his plane, so without looking at him I shook my head. "It's too much for me, I'm sorry. I can't watch you walk away." I was looking down at my hands, and then his hand was there, taking both of mine from my lap.

"I won't be gone for long. I have a meeting tomorrow, and a few more between Tuesday and Thursday. May I come back Thursday night?"

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. He was coming back? He wanted to come back? So soon. But what about his life in Chicago. I snapped my head up to look at him. "You're coming back? So soon?" The shock I was feeling was evident in my voice and Z moved behind us to poke his head into the front seats.

Brad was smiling at me, like he had been the night before when he said my home day sounded like a perfect plan. "Of course I am. You didn't think this was just a one-time thing did you?"

I'm fairly sure my jaw dropped onto my lap. "I didn't know what to think. I mean you live and work there, and I live and work here."

"Well, I was waiting for you to bring it up again before I said anything, but I've decided to come back, and I'm hoping you'll have me. I can work remotely most of the time, and fly up and back for important meetings and depositions. But for the most part I don't need to be in the office all that much. I'd already brought it up to my partner before I came down, just in a hypothetical sense. We worked out most of the general stuff, but we'll sort out the details. Besides, he's always been the better face of the firm and he enjoys trial more than I do. I can keep the back end stuff going from here, for the most part. Like I said, I'll have to go up a few times a month for meetings and the like. Maybe you'll join me sometimes?"

I felt like I'd be run over by a truck. Here was the man who made my head spin, and yet made me feel like I was attached to the earth, and he was offering to basically move down to New Orleans, for me, after a weekend together. I couldn't speak. I could only look at him in shock. "Are you sure?" I finally squeaked out.

"I've been sure for a very long time, you're the one who needed to catch up." His smile lit my world that night.

And so Brad moved in with me, he flew up to Chicago every other week, sometimes once a week. He and his partner decided to keep his apartment but use it as a business asset, letting clients and guests use it for meetings whenever we weren't using it for his own meetings. I flew up with him once a month usually, visited friends, did some shopping, he'd take me to the theater.

When I went back to school in the fall I went up to Chicago with him less often, and his trips there became shorter and shorter. After about six months we started looking for a bigger apartment or house so each of us had an office. We finally found a house Uptown that had great lighting for my art and writing, and an office that he turned into a haven of the industrial world and it's legal concerns. His partner and his wife would come down a few times a year and stay with us.

It felt like it happened so quickly and then about 18 months after we met we were married, in a small, civil ceremony. John, Chris and many of our friends from Chicago and New Orleans joined us for a big wedding party. But Brad knew that family gatherings made me nervous and he kept it all very casual, just a big party to celebrate. No toasts, no wedding like events. Just good friends, good food, good music and lots of silliness.

About a year later Brad and I met Fred, and while many things changed, all of the important ones only changed for the better.