Picture Perfect

Chapter 2

My phone buzzing in my pocket alerted me to the text from Corin. I miss you. Come over. I hadn’t expected him to get home for another couple of hours and the surprise lessened shitty mood.

I parked the restored LaSabre, the car I’d inherited when my grandfather passed away, on the curb in front of Corin’s mom’s house. His parents were in the middle of a divorce, so Corin split his time between his mom’s house and his dad’s apartment across town.

As I shut my car door, Corin’s arms wrapped around my waist and pulled me into a tight squeeze. My love had a good fifty pounds more of pure muscle on his 5’11” frame than I did on my entire six-foot tall body. “Hi,” I grunted with the impact.

“Get back in the car. I told Mom we’d pick Sarah up from gymnastics. I’ve been driving for three-hours and she gave me money for gas,” Corin said. Sarah was Corin’s seven-year-old little sister—one of the other reasons he split his time between his parents.

A few minutes alone with s*x-personified? I didn’t need to be asked. The last time I saw Corin in person was during fall break in October. Texting, emails, and Skype helped ease the ache of separation, but there was no substitution for the genuine article. I slid back into the driver’s seat and unlocked the passenger side.

“What are you doing for Christmas?” Corin asked, fastening his seatbelt.

“I don’t know. I kind of have to get through Thanksgiving first.” I started the car.

“Sarah and I are at Dad’s this year. We might go to the cabin.”

“Cabin?” I asked.

“Dad’s mid-life crisis purchase,” Corin said. “I asked if I could have a friend over.” The corner of his mouth twitched, the blonde hairs on his upper lip catching the light.

“What time do I need to show up?” I asked navigating the suburban streets with ease.

“We need to talk,” Corin said once his seatbelt was fastened.

My heart plummeted into my guts. “About?”

“Nothing bad.” He grinned.

Corin’s smile made me comfortable—the sort of smile that lit his whole face and made his cornflower blue eyes glow. “What’s up?” I asked as I leaned forward to see around the giant hedge at the entrance of Corin’s neighborhood. Driving a behemoth like the LaSabre made pulling into traffic oncoming traffic precarious.

“I’m ready to do it.”

Goddamned, lady. The gas is on the right. A blue-haired granny in a rusted Buick was going at least twenty under the speed limit. “Which it?” I passed the other car. Corin and I had never done it as in anal. I didn’t pressure Corin for s*x, ever. Sometimes I wanted to, but not everyone learns to ride a bike without training wheels.

“You know, it. Come out. Tell my parents at least.”

“Oh, that it.”

Corin looked at me sideways and I flushed hot, embarrassed that he’d caught me thinking of being ball-deep in his tight ass. God, Corin’s ass was nice, the bubble-butted physique of an athlete. Thinking of making him sweat was making me start to sweat. “And maybe that other it.” He reached over and ran a finger down the inner part of my right thigh.

“Not while I’m driving, babe.” I’d almost stomped the gas hard enough to send us into the backseat of the Toyota ahead of us.

“Sarah’s practice doesn’t end for another half hour.” Corin checked his phone. “We could park behind the theater.” He licked his lips and bit into his lower one. Jesus, f**k me now.

“They tore the theater down,” I said as calmly as possible. The old movie place behind the mall was our place, the place where we’d hooked up last year—behind the run-down old building. “They finished demolishing it a couple of weeks ago.”

Corin frowned. “Can we go by there anyway?”

“It’s nothing but an empty parking lot,” I said.

“Please?”

“Yeah, sure.”