Normal Functioning Adult by Samantha L. Valentine

Author:Samantha L. Valentine
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Shawline Publishing Group Pty Ltd
Published: 2023-05-02T05:01:55+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

It’s late morning and I’m absent-mindedly scrolling through my phone while I listen to Zoe’s slow, steady breaths.

She stirs and her eyes flutter open. ‘Morning,’ she says, stretching.

‘Hey, Zo,’ I say, hoping she doesn’t pick up on the remorse in my voice.

She hops out of bed and heads down the hallway to the bathroom, her luscious nakedness on display, the lovely roundness of her arse gently swaying side to side.

After the couch last night, we moved to the bedroom where the sex went on and on. Hands, tongues, toys. I couldn’t get enough. Luke was a distant memory. Another lifetime. But this morning, in the harsh light of reality, guilt about sleeping with her is whittling away at me and I’m thinking about him again.

‘You want a coffee? Something to eat?’ I ask when she returns.

She slips back into bed and slides her arm across my waist. ‘You’re cooking for me?’

‘I’ll cook you some toast.’

‘That’ll do,’ she says, and then kisses me with a tenderness that suggests she thinks this can go further.

I find some clothes and head to the kitchen. It’s a cool, drizzly day, and the fresh earthy scent of wet soil floats through the open windows. Zoe appears wearing my dressing gown and sits at the bench. I listen to her talk about her job as we eat toast and drink coffee, the fizz and chemistry from last night gone. She tries to drag me into the shower with her, but I decline. I need to think, and I can’t do that when she’s naked in front of me.

I’m at the sink when she emerges dressed in her clothes from last night. She wraps her arms around me and presses her lips to my cheek. I jerk my head away and she drops her grip. I turn to face her.

‘You’re kidding me. You’re seriously going cold on me?’ she says.

‘I need some—’

‘You need? What about what I need?’

‘I can’t give you that, Zoe.’

She shrugs. ‘You haven’t even tried. How can you go from last night to this? I don’t get how you can be like that.’

I stare at her. She knows why. ‘We have tried; it didn’t work.’

‘So, you can have a relationship with Luke but not with me? You are capable of being with someone then?’

‘That’s different.’

‘How?’

I can’t explain that, and even if I could, she wouldn’t listen, so I give her the same reason I always do. ‘You want too much from me. It drains me. You indulge me and let me wallow.’

Hurt and confusion creep into her eyes. ‘That’s because I care about you. I can be tougher if that’s what you want.’

I brush a strand of hair from her lovely face. ‘You can’t, Zo. It’s not you and I don’t want you to change for me. You need to be with someone who will love you the way you want to be loved. That’s not me. I’m sorry.’

She takes a step back, anger igniting in her dark eyes. ‘Then why did you

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