The Sinful Obsession

Chapter 7

If she didn't live literally across the street she could still come over whenever she wanted, but it was so convenient that she could come over all the times she wanted despite other life obligations and things that kept them busy otherwise.

If she lived across town he probably wouldn't see her literally every day- but it was great getting to see her literally every day. She spent the night a lot, which was more than fine by him. But she still very much lived at her own place.

They'd been dating for just over two months when he realized something about the whole situation bothered him, though it took him a bit longer to pinpoint what exactly it was. If she did live across town it would probably be too soon to even think about bringing over a ton of her stuff. But she didn't even bring over any of her stuff, not even a little.

She kept a spare change of clothes that she never used since it was more like a last resort thing if she couldn't go back to her house to choose a better work outfit in the morning. Which she never ended up needing to use. The only other thing that she kept at his place was a toothbrush (and toothpaste). Nothing else. She never even left a single pony tail holder. Or one of her small puzzle books filled with crosswords or Sudoku (which she had a million of). Never left a pencil on the table. Nothing.

He got that it was the whole convenience thing, but he wanted more than just a single outfit and a toothbrush.

“You know, you could leave some stuff here if you wanted,” Jake said trying to be as subtle as possible. Amy already knew he was weird about stuff like that, and she had told him that she was totally fine with him being weird with stuff like that and she understood. But even when she didn't mind him being weird he still felt super weird while he was being weird about it. He was still so cringy about stuff, but she could uncringe him because there was only so much cringe that he was capable of feeling until it just canceled out.

She was weird in the exact opposite direction. Jake was super closed off- more so than most- but Amy had literally no shame. It was unnatural for people to be as open and honest as she was. Normal human beings had at least an ability to feel awkward. Whenever Jake started getting all rambly, shifty, and incredibly uncomfortable she was supposed to feel at least a bit of vicarious awkwardness on his behalf. That was how humans worked. Awkwardness was contagious – except for Amy, somehow. When he got all weird and awkward about serious stuff it didn't make her feel uncomfortable at all, and didn't even make a difference. Obviously she noticed when it was happening, but she wasn't like a normal human being who felt awkward when the person they were talking to obviously felt so overwhelmingly awkward. It was unnatural how open and comfortable she was when he had been all red faced and fidgety for the past 10 minutes when they were talking about serious feelings and junk.

So yeah, she was weird in the exact opposite direction. Which worked out pretty well most of the time. She could uncringe him in no time, and didn't even feel awkward about uncringing him and helping him not feel awkward. So it was good. Weird, but good.

“You don’t have to do that. It’s not like it’s a long trip to pick up what I need,” Amy said as she twittled her pencil on the page she was finishing in her Sudoku book. She had mindless things that she did with numbers, and mindful things. Mindless was like Sudoku that she did when they were just watching TV or something together and she wasn’t even paying much attention to the problems in front of her, but she was still doing them correct. He told her that she wasn’t supposed to exert brain power when she was relaxing, but she said it was a calming thing to do occupy herself. She said if she actually wanted to challenge herself she would have pulled up some expert level difficulties, but when she was bored and just wanted to do stuff without thinking about it she just used medium.

“Well, if you wanted to I wouldn’t mind.”

“Really, it’s not a- oh!” Her head shot up to look at him when she realized what exactly he was offering. “Oh, you’re doing that whole drawer thing, aren’t you?”

“No? Yes? Maybe? I don’t know. Am I?”

He didn’t set out with the intention of doing a relationship milestone or something, but he wasn’t opposed to it. He didn’t say it for the symbolism, he just kinda wanted some of her stuff here. Which was weird since it was her belongings- and he didn’t even care if it was just junk. He just wanted her to keep something more than a toothbrush and some clothes. She didn’t even keep one of her Sudoku books or even a phone charger over here.

“Seems like it. And you’d be okay with that? That wouldn’t bother you?”

“Why would it bother me?”

“Usually that starts cause of convenience, but I can’t exactly use that excuse. I also thought- like you live alone in your one story house and I live with Kylie in my two story house, and I think maybe it would be different if either you had a roommate or if I lived alone- I just don't want you to feel like I'm slowly taking over your place. You're the one who always says he's bad with stuff like this. I just thought it'd be best to keep my stuff down to a minimum,” she shrugged.

“Anyone ever told you you think too much?” He smiled, and Amy shook her head at him with a soft chuckle because he told her that all the time. When she was worried about something and getting more and more anxious the more she started thinking about all the ways it could go wrong. He'd come and drag her out of it, out of thinking about everything that could go wrong and making her forget about all her worries for a bit so her brain could just have a break from her semi-regular anxiety spirals.

“Seriously though, Ames, you've been thinking way too hard about this. Way too hard. You wanna know what I've been doing while you've apparently been analyzing the number of stories and the number of roommates? I've been swatting your pens off the table like a passive aggressive cat so they'll roll under the couch cause you need to contribute to this mess but you just won't.”

At that admission Amy gave him her seriously? Are you insane? Are you even human? Look she always gives him when she's just dumbfounded by some of the weird s**t he pulls on occasion.

It really is a look of hers that she has on retainer especially for Jake Perry. The look where he breaks her brain for a second and she squints with an is anybody actually that dumb? Look before she remembers that yes, Jake Perry really is that dumb.

“Sorry?” He offered with the most innocent smile he could muster for optimum forgiveness. “That made it sound more planned out and intentional than it actually was. I wasn't like hiding and planting your pens so you couldn't find them or something. It was more of a bored jerk cat swatting things off the table just cause it's a cat. I swatted lots of pens off the table and when they landed on the floor I picked them up and put them back on the table, but if they rolled under the couch from a skillful swat I did nothing about it. You won't even leave a pen here unless it's been cat swatted under the couch and you don't even realize it. I think there's three under the one your sitting on right now. From like a month of swatting. Sorry about that.”

Without a word Amy ducked over the front of the couch, head upside down and hair on the floor peering underneath for any pens she could see.

“Oh come on, man,” Amy groaned two seconds later as she wriggled her hand underneath the couch trying to reach at least one pen that she had a chance of getting to while still laying on top of the couch. He watched her struggle upside down, hair swishing on the floor as she hung off the edge of the cushions and tried to stretch far enough to reach it, when suddenly she popped her head up and her hand emerged victorious from the depths holding a pen.

Her cheeks were a little pink from all the blood rushing to her head and her hair was all over the place from the sudden whip it got, and he couldn't help but think about how cute she looked in that moment. Even though it was maybe all his fault and he should probably feel at least a little bit bad instead of thinking about how cute his girlfriend looked after dealing with the minor inconvenience he caused.

“You know this isn't normal human behavior, right?” She shook her pen at him. “Turns out I'm just dating a cat.”

“Like I said: Sorry?”

“You're ridiculous. You and your crazy cat antics,” Amy shook her head with only a slight tad of exasperation, which was probably the best reaction he could hope for. “I guess I should be glad you have enough house training to not be swatting glasses off the counter, huh?”

Truth was though, after two months of dating Jake Perry, this was actually something that seemed pretty normal to her. Jake's weirdness became her normal so quickly.

She liked his weirdness.

When she stood up to walk over to him he looked mildly frightened at first, but she just came and sat down on the arm of the couch beside him. Well, technically above and beside him, since sitting on the arm of the couch meant she was a whole head higher than him, and was using his shoulder as an elbow rest as she looked down at him with a teasy little smirk and patted him on the head.

“Aw, you're just like one of those pets who thinks he's people!” She teased him, and okay, he probably deserved that. He definitely deserved that.

“Really though, Jake. I've been trying to keep my stuff over here to a minimum for your benefit. It's not like I just hate the idea of some of my stuff existing on this side of the street. I thought the less over here the better for your comfort level. I thought you'd be more comfortable with that,” she kiltered off with an unconvincing shrug.

“Where on earth did you get that idea? Did you get it from me? Have I been unintentionally giving off that vibe or something? Did I say something or do something that gave you the impression that I didn’t want tons of your stuff here? Because that was the exact opposite of what I actually want. You need to contribute to some of this mess. Some of my messy house should be at least 10% Amy Sanchez mess by now. You've earned that. With all the time you do spend here you should have amassed a 10% mess of your junk out of the 100% mess of my home. The only things you keep here are a toothbrush, one outfit, and three pens under the couch. Did I do something that made you think I didn't want you to leave any of your stuff over here at all?” Jake asked with genuine concern. She could tell by the look on his face that he was worried and felt horrible for doing something to make her think that.

When he didn't do anything of the sort. He didn't do anything or say anything to make her think he wanted that. But he was already starting to feel bad over something that he thought might have happened based on her reaction. When he shouldn't feel bad at all because nothing of the sort happened.

“No, nothing like that. I guess I kinda just assumed because of the situation. Nothing to do with you or any of vibes of yours,” Amy said with an affectionate smile and ruffled his hair. “Promise. I guess I didn't really think that much of it either. Just an automatic assumption, I guess. Assumption from the situation. Not a thing to do with my snarky kitty cat.”

When Amy went from ruffling his hair just now to stroking his hair to keep going with the cat joke and petting him he didn't even try to stop her. Or move away. Even though he knew she was just trying to be funny with it as a light joke on him for pen swatting pay back it felt really nice actually. So he didn't even give a snarky quip to her snark cat insults or move his head or anything. Cause Amy stroking his hair in a petting manner rather than the normal running fingers through hair manner felt surprisingly relaxing.

And there was the smile on Amy's face as she kept going, that little knowing and slightly smug smile where he could tell she knew exactly what he was thinking, and how much he liked it too.

“Well, what about the situation is so assuming?”.

“I mean… I don’t know,” Amy shrugged as she thought a bit more, because even she knew that was a pretty terrible answer. “I think it would be different if either I lived alone or if you had a roommate. But I live in my two story house with Kylie and you live in your one story house alone, and I didn’t want you to feel like I’m slowly taking over your place. Usually leaving stuff at each other’s place in a relationship starts because of convenience. Which doesn’t really apply since it’s only a 30 foot walk between my house and yours. Well, it’d probably be 50 feet if we’re counting the walk across the street and from the curb to our doorsteps,” Amy corrected herself because of course she had to be accurate. It wasn’t like the distance of 30 feet or 50 feet actually affected her argument at all, but she wouldn’t be the Amy Sanchez he knew if she let a miscalculation like that slide when it was completely inconsequential in the first place and she was only trying to illustrate her point.

Not like Jake would be able to fact check her on that. He was never good at estimating distances- If she just said it took 20 feet to cross the street and get to each other’s houses he would have believed her. If she said it took 200 feet to cross the street and get to each other’s houses he would have believed her. He wouldn’t even be able to accurately guess the number of feet if they were both outside right now and he was actually looking at the distance between them. He sucked at guessing length that long, and Amy knew he never would have thought to question her. The correction was for her benefit only since he wouldn’t be able to tell and didn’t care about the difference. The correction was for her sake only, but it still made him smile because that was just so her.

Sitting on the arm of the couch and leaning back as she pet him like a cat when she was doing math in her head was very Amy Sanchez, and everything Amy Sanchez made him smile.

“Anyways, without the convenience excuse if I just kept leaving more and more stuff here over time- I didn’t want it to seem like I was taking over or sneak moving in if I just left junk everywhere.”

“Amy, my home already is junk everywhere,” he laughed. “Long before I met you. The last time my living situation was this organized I was 24 years old and still living with my mom. Doing the whole fiscally responsible thing when I was in college getting my bachelor’s degree cause it was a whole lot cheaper to pay the gas for a 45 minute commute to university than getting a dorm at some far away place. Still, you get the point. My living situation hasn't been this clean and organized in years. I'm not even exaggerating- the last time my living situation was this orderly was when I was 24 years old and my mom's house was my living situation. All the years since wherever I was living was a black hole of mess and chaos. Don't you remember how black holey my house was when we first met? Total disaster zone. My home hasn't been this nice and neat, like, ever. You were rearranging my bookshelf the other day because you said it bothered you that it wasn’t in alphabetical order! How can you be worried about your junk making a mess in here when my junk has never been been so orderly since it was introduced to your neat freak OCD tendencies? If you brought in whole boxes of your crap and just dumped it all on the living room floor and strewn it about every which way my house will still be cleaner than it was before I met you. You know that’s true. How could you be worried about leaving just one puzzle book when you knew all of that?” Jake chuckled and reached up to stroke the loose strands on her temple that had fallen free from her pony tail with his thumb.

He had the sweetest look on his face with probably the most affectionate smile she had ever seen, and it just wasn’t fair when he gave her looks like that. She could never think of what to say when he looked at her like that.

Amy just smiled softly at him, almost sheepishly, but he knew what that meant. When she placed her hand over his own that was cradling her cheek and smiled down at him, he knew what that meant. She wasn’t always the best with words either, or even talking, really. And one of the wonderful things about Jake was that she didn’t have to be. She didn’t have to be good at anything, and she didn’t have to try to be something she wasn’t because she wasn’t good enough. She didn’t have to feel bad about not knowing the right things to say when her boyfriend said sweet stuff to her and she didn’t know how to return the sentiment. That was something she always felt pretty inadequate about in previous relationships - not knowing what to say back to someone she cared about, and she couldn’t help but feel like she disappointed them by not saying anything or saying the wrong thing.

She didn’t have to worry about that with Jake, because just a soft smile and a simple touch was enough. That was enough to communicate how much what he said meant to her. Just the smile and affection in her gaze right now was more than enough for him to understand. He didn’t need any words from her. She wasn’t good with words in situations like these, and the great thing with Jake is that she didn’t have to be. How she was was enough. She didn’t have to do anything more than be herself. That was enough. She was enough.

She closed her eyes and leaned into his palm that she was still holding against her cheek and sighed. When she opened them back up a few moments later Jake’s smile had gone from sweet and quirked into something mischievous and before she had a chance to even wonder what he had planned he wrapped his arm around her hip and moved his other hand from her cheek to get a hold on her upper back and suddenly pulled her down from her position on the armrest and into him. It was all so quick and fast she actually squealed at her sudden and unexpected controlled drop. Jake held her to him so in the course of three seconds it went from him sitting up on the edge of the couch and her sitting on up on the arm rest right next to him to Jake lying on his back on the couch with Amy on top of him. It took about 0.2 seconds of the both of them lying there for them to break out into laughter.

“You’re such a weirdo,” she said through her laughter.

“You’re such a dork,” he shot back, and it just made them laugh harder.

 They had gotten into the habit of spending most of their nights together pretty quickly. They spent five to six nights a week together in the same bed, on average. Before that was their established routine, back when Jake was her new boyfriend and not just her boyfriend he always had to be so freaking adorable about it and ask if she wanted to have a sleepover that night.

“I'm getting the feeling you just want to have a sleepover with me every night,” she teased him when they were spooning one night on their 6th sleepover in a row.

“Uh, yeah. Duh. Are you just now getting that? I didn't think that was a big secret. I thought that was pretty obvious by now. I wasn't trying to be subtle about it. Are you just now getting that I ask you if you want to spend the night every night because I want you to spend the night every night? Did that just slip past you or something? Why on earth would I ever not want to spend the night with you? I only invite you to a sleepover every night cause apparently I still have to invite you every single night when I always wanna have a spoony sleepover with you on all the nights,” he murmurs, kissing the back of her neck sweetly (he was big spoon that particular night).

“Oh,” she said after a few seconds of silence. “Oh. Really? You just... you just want me to stay every night? Invitation or not? You really- you really want to stop asking and just have me assume that you wanting me to stay over every night is a given? Seriously? You want that? Are you sure?”

“Amy, why on earth would I ever want to sleep alone when I could be sleeping next to you?” He sighed, his voice all sleepy and his breath warm on her skin as he pulled her closer. “Cuddling and falling asleep next to my super awesome girlfriend is the best. You're already aware of how much of a clingy sleeper I am. When you're not here I have nothing to cling to. You're my favorite thing to cling to. And cuddle with. Clinging, cuddling, it's all the same thing. So yes, I would be very happy with you realizing that me wanting you to stay the night on any and every night is a given. If you want. Whenever you want.”

“Yeah, sounds good,” she couldn't help but smile. “Wouldn't want to leave you all alone and scared without your big spoon protecting you from the dark, would I?”

“You know, that joke doesn't really work when I'm being big spoon tonight, right?”

“Remind me to say it tomorrow night, then,” she smirked, settling into the feeling of Jake's quiet laughter rumbling in his chest. Settling into his warmth and closing her eyes to drift off to sleep, feeling his smile as he kissed her shoulder blade sweet and featherlight. Amy just sighed, completely content.

 “Besides, you already have a drawer at my place,” Amy mentioned later that night, sitting criss cross on his bed as he was digging through his drawer trying to find his favorite pajama pants that he swore he just washed and put back yesterday.

“I do? How? I’ve never stepped foot inside your house,” Jake looked over with complete confusion. It wasn’t exactly that he had been going out of his way to avoid ever walking past Amy’s doorstep, but two months was a bit of a stretch for him never actually walking inside her house when she lived across the street. He’d been on her doorstep, yes, but still hadn’t passed the threshold yet, and he was beginning to wonder how long it would take for her to comment on it.

“I have a drawer for when I steal one of your super soft jackets and wear them home. They’re kinda on rotation. I switch ‘em out when they start losing their Jake smell. You haven’t noticed me doing that?”

“Guess not,” he shrugged.

“Speaking of which, why haven’t you stepped foot inside my house yet?” Amy narrowed her eyes, and he had a face slapping moment for even bringing it up. Though it was a sure thing she’d already noticed it and just waited til now to talk about it (he was the one who didn’t notice things like jacket rotations or whatever).

Jake made a few hems and a few haws that pretty obviously weren’t going to cut it. Especially with the pointed look and raised eyebrow from Amy as she tapped her fingers and waited for an actual answer from him. She wasn’t going to let him go without one.

“Seriously, Jake? Come on, I know you must have some reason. Even though I know there’s a 75% chance it’s gonna be ridiculous. Just tell me what it is,” she signaled to him with a circling finger to get to the point.

“I was worried my avoidance of your place was starting to come off as rude by now,” Jake admitted, scratching the back of his neck. “It’s just - it’s just you and me here. When you live with your friend it’s just so much easier and less intrusive spending time together on this side of the street. Instead of me being the third person in your house, you being the second person in my house that will be completely empty if I’m over at your place with you. Like privacy or something. Also, your roommate intimidates me.”

“You won’t even meet her. She’s not that scary,” Amy scoffed and couldn’t be more wrong.

“Her threatening text messages are very scary.”

“Wait, what? What are you talking about? Text messages? Has she been texting you?”

“Like I said: very scary,” Jake reiterated.

“Why haven’t you told me that before? When did she start texting you? Why didn't you tell me? She's been threatening you? Over text messages? Why are you just telling me all of this now? Why didn't you tell me my friend's been threatening you through text? When did you guys even exchange numbers? Did you guys meet and just not tell me or something? She's actually been threatening you? Why did you wait until now to tell me my roommate started texting you threats? How long has she been doing that? She's been threatening you?”

Amy looked utterly appalled and completely worried. And from what he gathered she had absolutely no idea what he was talking about, so the worried and appalled look was actually pretty appropriate. Though her worried face at the imaginary scenario she implied was pretty ridiculous - like it was some secret kept from her on purpose and she was worried about what possible reason he could have for keeping it a secret at all. Like her friend threatened him to keep her threatening texts a secret, or intimidated him into silence with some sort of promise of bodily harm if he told Amy her scary friend had been contacting him. Until this very moment he had no idea that it was a secret.

“I thought the texting was your idea. Like ease into acquaintances. She said you gave her my number to get to know me. She texted me for the first time like two weeks ago. And getting to know each other quickly devolved into threats from your very scary roommate. I thought you knew since it was your idea in the first place. I’m getting now that it wasn’t actually your idea, was it?”

“I never did that. She must have just swiped your number from my phone. I’m gonna kill her. Kylie’s been threatening you? I am so sorry. I’m gonna kill her, I promise.”

“Well I feel a bit dumb now,” Jake said with more of an amused look than anything at her insane best friend being completely insane, which was a better reaction than she was having at her insane best friend being insane. “Totally fell for that one. Though, in my defense, it's a lot harder to tell if someone is lying over text than in person. And it was pretty reasonable. Saying you gave her my number to get to know each other a bit more and ease into acquaintances seemed pretty believable at the time. It sounded like something you would do. Especially if your friend was introverted too, and it would be better or more comfortable or something than meeting an annoying people person like me in person for the first time. It seemed reasonable. Pretty believable, right? Then the threats started coming in. I haven't mentioned the threats since cause I was hoping that your scary roommate would warm up to me soon, and I wouldn't have to tell you that your get to know each other plan that was supposed to be all laid back and easy blew up spectacularly because your best friend really hates my guts. I've just been ignoring the threatening texts until they got better and not-threaty. I thought it was your idea though. The texting, not the threats. I didn't bring up that your idea of getting to know each other devolved into threats cause it wasn't that big a deal, and I didn't want to make a big fuss about how your idea of getting to know each other probably wasn't going as well as you planned it to go. And you never asked me about how your laid back acquaintances plan was going like it wasn't a big thing in the first place, just like an idea you tossed out to your friend just cause, not like something you were actually invested in. I thought you never asked about it cause it was more like one of those 'why not?' ideas than one that you thought actually mattered. I didn't want to make a big deal about how your why not casually throwing it out there idea was failing pretty hard after you put it into practice. I was more thinking 'why make a big deal about a just for the hell of it why not idea?'. But I thought it was your why not idea that you obviously knew about since you were the one who came up with it. I haven't been talking about it cause I just didn't wanna make a big thing of it. I didn't want to complain and make a big deal about how your get to know each other idea wasn't really working. I thought I was not complaining about something that didn't really matter and you already knew about. I just didn't want to make a big deal about it.”

She was instantly less worried when Jake said he genuinely thought she knew. She knew both Jake and Kylie better than to think that there would have been anything close to illicit happening with secret text messages between her best friend and her boyfriend, though she was worried about why she was just now finding out her boyfriend was being threatened by her best friend (and worried about what kind of threats she was threatening). She trusted them both wholeheartedly and knew that she didn’t have to worry about a secret text message thing being something worrisome relationship wise. She was worried what reason was bad enough that her boyfriend was being threatened by her roommate over text messages and why she was just being told all of this now. No specific reason came to mind, but she knew it had to be bad.

She stopped worrying at all when Jake explained to her that he was just finding out she didn’t know about it this second too. Not about the threatening part, obviously, but getting to know each other over text message part that her horrible best friend made up.

“I am really sorry my insane friend has been threatening you. I don’t know what I’m going to do to her yet, but I’m gonna do something,” she reassured him calmly, and Jake laughed. "Also, I think you're the only person who would ever consider threatening text messages 'not that big a deal'. Most people would think that's a pretty big deal, or at least a medium deal. And you like, what- didn't say anything cause you would feel bad making a big fuss over such a small thing? That's a small thing to you? You're impossible," she chuckled, shaking her head in affectionate disbelief. "I can't believe that's genuinely not a big deal to you. You didn't want to make a big deal about it," she laughed again.

“She says she resents me for taking up so much of your time. She was hoping you’d meet a nice guy who lived 20 minutes away so you’d only go see him whenever you were done being a perfectionist for the week cause you’re a workaholic. You guys used to be roommates in college, right? In an actual dorm? She says I ruined her plans of living in a huge bitchin’ house with her best friend by living across the street and making it so easy for you to be a perfectionist workaholic on your laptop at my place and stealing you or something. Here-”

Jake tossed his phone to her and she fumbled with it and dropped it with a sucky catch, but it landed in her lap when it fell through her hands, so no biggie. She grimaced at him- she always told him not to throw stuff, especially expensive electronics, but of course he never listened.

“I don’t see any texts from Kylie,” she mumbled as she scrolled through his phone.

“Oh yeah. Her number is saved in my phone as ‘don’t read after midnight’. So if I wake up at 2 AM still half asleep I don’t mistake the new message from a normal person because I forgot the only person I know named Kylie is a straight up psycho.”

“Oh my god, I’m gonna kill her,” Amy gritted as she read through the first of the very intimidating and very scary text messages her best friend sent him.

“Can you pretend you found out cause you were snooping through my phone or something? Cause I think she might kill me if she finds out I told you.”

She brought more stuff over in the week following that conversation. Things to keep there. Leave there. More than just her last resort outfit, and more than just a toothbrush in his master bathroom. Jake thought his home looked a lot better with more of Amy's junk in it. A whole lot better. She also laid out about 20 pens on the coffee table in the living room a couple days after as a subtle, little jab to poke fun at his cat swatting confession.

“You think you're so clever, don't you?” He laughed when he saw the line up.

“Yup, very,” Amy smirked, placing a kiss on his cheek as she walked by.

 One day not long after, he noticed she left the novel she was in the middle of reading on one of the stands in the living room. He knew it was intentional. He gave her the spare key that was formerly kept in his junk drawer the next day, smiling so wide as he watched her add it to her key chain.