RYDER
My fingertips glided over Kelli’s clit, moving with a practiced rhythm. She writhed beside me, tightening her grip around my erection, sliding her hand back and forth faster. I groaned and smirked, pressing my finger pads firmer against her bundle of nerves, leaning in for a kiss before she pulled away, giggling.
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KELLI
Only the sound of our forks scraping ceramic plates filled the dining area. Ryder and I were having dinner, and the silence between us was strangely quiet, almost unsettling.
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RYDER
“Hey, Ryder!” I heard someone shout from across the street. Before I could even see who was calling, I was already waving as I made my way down the block.
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KELLI
Ryder’s melodic voice drifted through the condo and into my bedroom, gently pulling me from sleep. The soft notes of a piano floated through the air, making me blink my eyes open. The early morning light filtered in through my curtains, causing me to squint as I looked around my room.
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KELLI
I pumped my foot on the potter’s wheel, my eyes focused on the clay as it spun beneath my hands. It covered my fingers as I moved them with a conscious grip and practiced precision, watching as the shape of the clay transformed before my eyes. I really should have been sleeping, but it was a Monday night, and I was home alone, wide awake after 11 p.m. The bright light above me, giving off a studio-like effect, shone down on my hands, highlighting the intricate patterns I was embossing in the soft, wet surface. There was something so satisfying about feeling the clay turn in my hands on the potter’s wheel, molding at every touch I made. It was the epitome of being creative.
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RYDER
It was the rustle of my sheets when she rolled out of bed that woke me. The room was pitch black, with only the distant hum of cars on the road outside and the faint sound of Kelli trying to sneak out of my bed.
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KELLI
“And have you decided what you’d like to have?”
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RYDER
Bright green strobe lights flashed all around me as I leaned back in my seat and opened my legs wider to get comfortable. Rap music reverberated around me, and I bobbed my head to the bass in the beat, lifting the rim of my shot glass to my lips to toss the contents back.
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KELLI
Ryder trailed soft kisses from my shoulder blade to my neck, releasing easy breaths that I could feel against my skin. I closed my eyes and ran my fingertips up his back and through his braids, turning my face in the direction of his kisses. His lips met mine and we both moaned the moment we made contact, parting our lips soon after. I had no idea what hour it was at that moment and it honestly didn’t matter. I allowed myself to be out of my head and in the moment.
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RYDER
“Sour patches,” I said as I dropped a box of Kelli’s favorite candies into her lap. “Your funky ass chips, and a bottle of water.”
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KELLI
The smell of bacon crackling on a hot skillet woke me. I didn’t realize it was what woke me until I inhaled the air and turned from my side in bed onto my back. I opened my eyes to my ceiling and sighed with relief. Stupid, but these days, whenever I opened my eyes in this condo and on a bed, I said a silent prayer that I wasn’t in Ryder’s bed or that he wasn’t lying next to me. The sex was great, but the morning after was way too sobering due to my hang-ups about us.
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RYDER
Humming a melody I couldn’t get out of my head since that morning, I tightened my grip around the stems of the flowers I carried in my hand as I followed the scent of clay down my condo’s corridor. When I walked into the condo, I inhaled the air, smiling to myself at the vision of Kelli working at her pottery station in her bedroom. I don’t know how Kelli was taking the whole “let’s chill on this” life we’d found ourselves in, but I wasn’t taking it well. For the third night in a row, I didn’t fall asleep until I got tired of tossing and turning in bed. And when that didn’t work, I sat at my desk with my notebook, jotting down random lyrics and ideas for songs until my eyes got heavy.
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KELLI
I opened my eyes to the tiny disco ball hovering overhead and hanging from the ceiling. Closing my eyes, I exhaled and held my lids tightly closed while shaking my head. For another night, the third night in a row, I’d fallen asleep beside Ryder. Without even turning to check beside me, I knew I’d slept in the same bed as him because this was his bed. His disco ball. His room. And we’d had sex together again.
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RYDER
I lowered my black shades over my eyes the moment I stepped out of my building’s front door. Showered, fresh, and in need of both answers and food, I stepped to the curb to cross the street.
“Hey Ryder,” I heard as I crossed. The voice was from one of our town’s newspaper vendors who waved as well.
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KELLI
I blinked my eyes awake and groaned the second my tired eyes caught a glimpse of the sunlight pouring in through my windows.
I inhaled the air and detected traces of the earthy clay I worked with and the natural oak wood of my shelves where I stored my pottery projects, both completed and in progress. My lavender and eucalyptus essential oils lingered in the air as well, but there was something new I smelled.
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KELLI
I balanced the takeout bag in one hand while trying to slide my key into the front door’s lock.
The Thai restaurant I stopped by earlier was short on staff, so I couldn’t help but volunteer to assist them with their late afternoon and evening rush.
The restaurant’s owner, Anong, was so grateful for my help, and I was happy to give it.
There wasn’t a business in Rose Hill I didn’t help in. We were a town of small businesses. Our shop owners relied on the people of Rose Hill to keep things opened and running. Young and old, and of all races, we were a community, and that’s what I loved the very most about Rose Hill.
Which is what I always try to explain to Ryder.
As soon as I got the key in the lock and turned it, the door gave way and opened to the view of Rose Hill and the man who was just on my mind, Ryder, sitting on the couch, staring at the TV. A TV that was off.
I glanced at the TV, then back at Ryder. “Hey?”
He looked over at me and chucked his chin, refocusing on the blank screen.
“Okay.” I snickered to myself. “It’s that kind of Rose Hill return, yet again.”
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RYDER
“Thank you,” I said to my driver as I pushed the door open. “Have a great rest of your day.”
The moment my feet touched the concrete of the sidewalk, I inhaled a valiant breath. My chauffeur, who picked me up from the airport, dropped me off in front of the building that housed my condo.
Mine and my best friend Kelli’s condo.
I sighed.
I was back in Rose Hill, New York. Again. Always back in Rose Hill when things didn’t go as planned.
KELLI
“Have a good one, Robin,” I said to a customer as I handed her a Bellyful logo bag. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
She smiled back at me, accepting her bag. “Yes, you will.”
I snickered as I closed the register and walked from behind the service counter.
“It’s all yours, Shawn,” I said to one of our cashiers. I pointed at him next. “And remember what I told you.”
He chuckled, then licked his lips. “No flirting. Got it. I’mma be good, promise.”
I rolled my eyes while suppressing my smile. “Yeah, okay. Hard to believe when you’re doing the very thing I told you not to do right now. Stop licking your lips, okay? Because why are you licking your lips?”