Chapter 713: Refuge In Respite
What an extremely typical-looking room I managed to find myself stuck in. Like, I’m not even joking, or digressing, no, not at all. This was a perfectly normal room right here.
Call me weird, but I was seriously expecting something more... otherworldly. A girl’s bedroom might as well be an entirely foreign plane of existence in and of itself, but no, just four walls and a ceiling-a bedroom like any other, comprising of the usual movie posters, the usual marks of achievements lining the shelves, and the usual drab gray of curtains bleeding with the dim white of moonlight through murky window panes. A bedroom almost no different from mine.
Yet even so, despite being surrounded by the reassurance of familiarity... when it came down to it-I’m still in her goddamn room.
“How long am I supposed to stay here for?”
The mattress gave a slight quiver, like the sway of a rickety boat on gentle tides... except here the rocking sea was made personified in the form of an affectionate young woman blissfully resting her head up against my shoulder, her arms lovingly entangled around mine.
“For as long as it takes,” Amanda answered, the fragrant smell of soap and shampoo afresh shooting pleasant surges up my brain with every whiff I took. “Why? Bored of me already?”
“Exactly, can’t wait for you to get out of my sight,” I deadpanned. “Truth is, I’m only with you to hang with your father. He’s an amazing guy.”
.....
“Oh, no, I should have known you were too good to be true,” She played rightfully along, feigning despair while also huddling up closer to me than ever before. “Ahh, how could I have ever been so blind?”
Furtively, I peeked down at her again... seeing the serene closed-eyed expression on her face, and easily finding my gaze drifting over to the towel loosely wrapped over her naked body that was dangerously close now to unraveling completely.
“You’re not gonna change?”
She lightly snorted at that. “Do you want me to?”
“I don’t know why you’re even relegating that decision to me...”
“Because I want to know what you want, and if you want me to change I’ll change right now but just be well-informed-you’re still here in the room, you know?”
“I can leave.”
“Leave?” She was giggling now, shifting in place a bit, the towel coming undone a little more. “Now why would you want to do that?”
“Not really a good look peeking in on a girl while she’s changing... according to my sense of decency, it’s not something you should really be doing.”
“Okay, who killed my darling boyfriend and replaced him with a total prude?” Amanda stared up at me, her bafflement only equalled by her amusement. “You’re acting like you haven’t seen a girl naked before. And we both know that just can’t be right, right?”
“Well... yeah,” I attempted a feeble response. “I haven’t seen you naked though.”
There it was again, that sharp sultry glint in her eyes, an enticing smile basking her expression with an air of allure, and unabashedly she tugged down her towel with a finger, exposing the voluptuous curves of her bare breasts toward me.
Then with a forward lean, her finger a single tug away from her exposing her whole, she asked me with a low spine-tingling simper, “Do you want to?”
At the ripe, hormonic age of twenty-four as I was, it goes without saying my libido was plenty strong and ferocious, but as it so happens... my willpower was stronger.
“You are aware your father’s just one hallway away from barging in on us, aren’t you?” I asked, suppressing every and all illicit thoughts. “You’re playing a very dangerous game trying to seduce me now.”
“Oh? But I thought it was the thrill of death that excites you, wasn’t it?” She questioned. “I mean, going by your track record so far... seems like this kind of thing would be right up your alley.”
“I don’t almost die for no good reason,” I defended myself. “I always need a good reason first before I go risking it all.”
“How about brightening up your girlfriend’s increasingly dour night,” She suggested, her towel continuing to slip off her more and more. “Is that a good enough reason for you to risk it all?”
My hands reached out toward her, and Amanda braced herself, breath stiffening. I felt the cold of her skin, the softness of her slender body... before I promptly pulled up her towel and tightened the knot... much to her blatant dismay.
“Go get dressed, Amanda.”
“Apparently not,” She hung her head. “Why do you have to be such a gentleman sometimes?”
With a disappointed huff, she stood up, walking over to her wardrobe, swinging it open to reveal a treasure trove of appealing outfits, many of which I’ve yet to see her wear.
Amanda dropped the towel in a narrow clump across her feet, and I had to immediately veer my eyes elsewhere and somehow against all my impulses as an active member of the opposite sex, keep away from the overpowering temptation of flicking them right back.
Because I know if I saw her now in all her glory... there was no absolutely no way I’d be able to keep my sense of reason. Horny does scary things to a man.
“You know, I still think you should have just lied and said Ash was just a friend,” Amanda said, speaking as a blurred pale outline in the corner of my eye. “It would have saved you a headache of an interrogation.”
“And again, how long would I have to keep that lie going if I do? When we get married-”
“Married?”
Hearing the genuine surprise in her voice almost had me looking back at her, but thankfully I caught myself just in time.
“Just a hypothetical,” I quickly clarified. “If we get married, there’s no way I can hide her or the others then, and what do I say? ‘Hey, Mr. Collins, I’d like you to meet the other love of my life aside from your daughter. Oh! And also have you met the other, other love of my life? Ah, I almost forgot, here’s the other other other-‘”
“Alright, I get your point,” She interrupted. “But if you’re truthful, if you tell him... actually what have you told him?”
“I dipped my toes in the pond first, poked around... asked him what would happen if Ash was more than just a friend.”
“And?”
“He says to never speak or see you again... that I shouldn’t be toying with your heart, and to stay far away from you,” I parroted his response in the same monotone intonation. “Of course, it’s not like I don’t see where he’s coming from.”
“Yeah, sure,” Amanda stiffly sounded, and that little smudge in my peripheral vision began to move with much more aggression. “But if he thinks he can actually separate you from me just like that, then my father has got another thing coming.”
“He’s only got your best interest in mind,” I reminded her.
“See, the man gives you a cold-blooded threat, and you’re sitting here defending him. If by the end of this, he doesn’t agree you’re the only one for me, I don’t even know anymore.”
“Night’s still young,” I glumly muttered. “I’ll think of a way to get on his good side.”
“Any moment now, maybe,” Amanda drew closer, and with a glimpse, I saw that she was fully clothed now, but even more suspiciously, she had a peculiar smile on her face. “You’ll find that you won’t have to worry about all that at all just yet.”
It took me a second to process her words in my head, seeing her in casual, loose-fitting garments was a sight that I needed a moment to appreciate first and foremost.
“And what does that mean?” I said, blinking, staring up at her lingering mischievous expression.
But instead of a forthcoming answer, Amanda opted instead to plop herself back beside me on the bed, huddling just as close, clinging just as tight.
“So,” then she perked up, ogling me quite intensely with a newfound sense of curiosity. “Marriage, huh?”
Okay, maybe, I should have used something else as an example.
“You’re not gonna pull out a ring and propose to me now, are you?” I asked, darting around for any signs of glimmering diamond.
“Already gave you a ring, silly,” She said. “Besides, if anybody’s going to propose anything... it’s going to be you and only you.”
My mind hearkened back to that sketch I saw brimming the screen of her monitor, and somehow it just added a whole ‘nother layer to her usual playful demeanor.
“A little too soon to be thinking this kind of thing, don’t you think?”
“Hey, you brought it up first,” She said, pointing fingers. “Stoke the flames of that fire first, now it’s beginning to heat up.”
“So why are you still stoking it?”
“Because it begs the pressing question of who,” She explained, a pondering, desiring tone trailing her voice. “Who, if you were to propose, if you got down on one knee, if you pull out that small little box of ‘I do and forever’... then which one of us would you choose to put a ring around our finger first?”
I’m beginning to sense a pattern of questions I can’t give a definitive right answer to. It started with Mrs. Collins and her probing, carried on by Mr. Collins and his questioning of my integrity... and now here’s Amanda continuing forth the legacy and capping it all off with the most unanswerable inquiry of all.
Ash came to mind first, but so did Amanda, and also Irene, Adalia-goddamn it, there was no first place... there was just only them.
“You’re looking like you’re giving it some serious thought,” Amanda remarked, “Don’t worry though, it’s not an ultimatum,” She then clarified, smirking at me so coy. “Just a hypothetical.”
This girl...
“Meaning to say I don’t have to answer?”
“Nope,” She said, laying off with both her gaze and goading. “I’m just having fun. As you said, a little too early to be thinking of something so far away.”
Again, that drawing of hers, every minute detail, every stroke of every outline, flashed in my head. The joy showing in her face then, the same joy showing in her face now...
“Do you want me to?” I asked.
For a brief second, Amanda looked uncertain of an answer, the desire of knowing, and the apprehension of knowing, both rousing to the surface in the dark browns of her eyes.
Then all of a sudden, in the midst of silence, something exploded. From outside her bedroom, there was the sound of something crashing into something.
I looked over with appropriate confusion, but Amanda on the other hand, smiled with the comprehension of knowing and expecting something that I clearly didn’t-and all thoughts of marriage and answers were instantly thrown out the window.
“Well, that didn’t take long at all...” She said, before turning to me, and taking her arms off mine. “Dad and I are quite similar in a number of ways, you know?”
Appropriate confusion, bewilderment, I showed... before her increasingly devious expression.
“For example,” She went on, just as another loud tumble resounded from somewhere close. “When it comes to alcohol, he and I have some trouble overestimating our limits.”
Then it finally clicked for me.
“You were waiting for him to get himself drunk first?”
Another crash.
Beaming, giggling, Amanda firmly nodded.
“You’re welcome.”
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