“To have her here in bed with me, breathing on me, her hair in my mouth — I count that something of a miracle.” Henry Miller
Xavier woke up, looked around his room, but there was no sign of his overnight guest. He dragged his feet into the living room while rubbing the top of his head back and forth. He had very little sleep for more than a couple reasons. The storm that finally seemed to be letting up, had kept him awake most of the night, Pepper laying up against him was reason number two. The third reason was the one that he was most confused about—his physical arousal. He had never before been in bed with a woman, but he never had the desire to either. So why had his body reacted?
He walked into the living room and there she was. He looked at her like he was seeing her for the first time. She was an attractive woman. She was on the floor, sitting Indian Style, still dressed in the attire she wore when she entered the world with a pile of books around her and on the coffee table in front of her.
“Do you ever wear clothes?”
“Uh, not if I’m at home and there’s no one around.”
Xavier looked around the living room and then back at her.
“Okay, okay, I’ll put on my clothes,” she said. “Dang, I don’t see why you’re making it such a big deal.”
She got up off the floor and started talking about one of the books she was particularly interested in while Xavier shuffled toward the kitchen.
“You’d be surprised at all the things that have been kept from us as a people. I’m telling you, reading those books is a real eye-opener.”
“Yeah, for real though.” She walked into the kitchen with the book in hand. “I ate a bowl of Cheerios. You definitely need to hit a grocery store, my friend.” She laughed and gently popped him on the shoulder with the book.
The doorbell rang, catching them both off guard. She looked at Xavier and Xavier looked at her.
“Guess this will be a good time for me to get dressed,” she said as Xavier left out of the kitchen and walked toward the door.
“I would think so,” he said, shaking his head but not visibly upset. He understood that this was just who Pepper was. She was carefree and totally comfortable with who she was. It made him feel rather good that she felt comfortable enough around him to be herself. He hoped to be like that one day—not give two cents about what others thought, but he had a ways to go.
He looked back over his shoulder to make sure Pepper was gone and then he opened the door.
“I guess you turned your phone off since you had company last night,” Ian said, storming into Xavier’s apartment, flinging his hands in the air. “I’ve texted you God knows how many times this morning and I’ve called you at least five times.”
“Oh, I guess my phone is dead. I forgot to put it on charge last night. But hey, you’re the one who hung up on me last night. I tried calling you back and you didn’t answer. Now you want to come up in here this morning and go off on me.”
“I didn’t hang up on you. I thought you hung up on me. The phone must have died. Yours or mine, I don’t know, but that was foul what you did last night, and all because of some girl. Man, what’s up with you?”
“Xavier, you should get you somebody who won’t be ready to slit your throat just because you don’t report to him every minute of the day—or night,” Pepper said, appearing in the doorway, still not fully dressed, but putting her dress over her head and then stepping into her shoes.
Ian turned three shades of red when he saw her come out of Xavier’s bedroom. He looked at her like he could have chewed her up and spit her out and then gave Xavier a look that could kill.
“She’s still here? You better have a good explanation.”
Xavier was growing upset at Ian’s behavior. He sounded on the verge of being abusive and Xavier didn’t like that. He’d never seen the guy explode like this, and they weren’t even in that kind of a relationship.
“Look, you need to calm down, man. I don’t like the way you’re coming at me. First of all, this is my apartment. I don’t have to answer to anyone about who I have at my place. As for you and me, we’ve never established guidelines about a relationship. And truthfully, the way you‘re acting now, it makes me second guess us.”
Ian started yelling and cussing.
“Look, you need to leave. Get yourself together and maybe we can talk later after you’ve calmed down.” Xavier told Ian, trying to maintain his own self-composure.
Ian rolled his eyes at Pepper. She smiled and winked back without Xavier seeing her do so, and Ian stormed out the door.
“Um, that didn’t go over too well,” she said, giggling. “You wanna go get some breakfast now that the rain has let up? It’s on me,” she offered.
Xavier, again, shook his head in wonderment. “Yeah, I am hungry. Let me get dressed.”
While they enjoyed breakfast together, Xavier expressed his sorrow about Ian and how he had hurt him. “I mean, Ian is a good guy. I really like him.”
“When someone shows you who they really are, you should believe them,” Pepper said. “That was not a good look on Ian. His behavior was way out of line. Dude came off like a mad man. You better watch out. This could turn out to be one of those crazy domestic situations.”
“I don’t think it’ll go that far. I wouldn’t let it anyway.”
“You do a lot of reading, right?”
“Do you even have to ask me that? It’s obvious.” He took a bite of his waffle.
Pepper took a forkful of eggs, picked up her jellied toast, and popped the food in her mouth. “Look, I know you’re gay, and I don’t have a problem with who you sleep with. That’s totally on you. But I like you, and I’d like us to be friends without someone like Ian going off every time we hang out.”
“Yeah, I feel ya. I don’t like that either, but I could have explained things a little better to him, so I won’t put all the blame on him.”
“I’m just saying, you don’t owe him an explanation, and then again, I don’t want to be the cause of friction between you and him.”
“I got this. I can handle my own.”
Pepper smiled, thinking to herself, and so can I.