The Lovely Garden by Emma Mohr

going.” He removed himself from my arms and missed him already. An ache that I wasn't used to. A need of him that bothered me. Only day two and I'm already getting needy. I need to get out more.
    Charles opened his refrigerator and peered inside for a total of ten seconds before turning back to me. “Ready?” I hadn’t even made it to the island to lean against.
    “You didn't even write anything down.” Was he a memory wizard or something? I had to write everything down just to remember it.
    “I don't need to.” He rubbed the back of his head. “There isn't anything I don't need.” Ah. Well, that explained that.
    “Oh, that's just sad. I thought you were an adult.” I cocked an eyebrow at him. Which reminded me. “How old are you, anyways?” Another thing Jenny failed to mention. Maybe he was older than he looked and she thought I would say no? Or it just slipped her mind. More than likely, it was the latter.
    My change of tone surprised him, but he still answered. “I'm thirty-five.”
    Six years older than me. Not too bad. Honestly, I was expecting him to be a little younger, but it wasn’t too much of an age difference to make me uncomfortable. “I'm twenty-nine, if Jenny didn't tell you.” I was sure she hadn’t. Though, just by working with Billy and going to Jenny’s parties, he probably knew more about me than I did him. That was, if he even bothered to ask her anything about me. Not like I did, though I didn’t know he had an interest, and I had been too drunk to remember him.
    He moved to me, wrapping his arms around my waist, and nuzzling my neck. “You’re so young.” I pulled away enough so he could see the incredulous look on my face. “I’m just joking.” Who was telling bad jokes now? “I’m sad to say this, but you’re not the youngest woman I have ever dated.”
    “I’d ask you what the youngest was, but it really isn’t any of my business.” My hands roamed his chest and stomach. His stomach tightened at the light touch of my fingers. Someone was a tad ticklish. “As long as she’s not going to come back and try to steal you away from me or something.”
    “The only woman who’s going to take me away from you is my personal assistance, Rebecca, because I’m not allowed to have fun on my days off.”
    Ooh. Must be rough. Though, I wouldn’t mind a job where I got a personal assistant. It would make my job so much easier. I wouldn’t have to get up and get my own coffee, much less Jerry’s, my boss. I was in no way, shape, or form his personal assistant, but he loved to treat me as such. Really ticked me off. But hey, having a job you hated was better than not having a job at all.
    Charles ran his fingers through my hair. “We better get going so we have time for other things.” The way he said “other things” sent a pleasant tingle down my spine.
    “Lead the way.”
     
    When we returned to Charles’ house, arms laden with our spoils, I was exhausted. I wanted nothing more than to just go take a nap or a nice, long bath. Something, anything that didn’t involve physical labor of any sort.
    That man had run me ragged. He had dragged me to four, yes four, different fucking stores. Who the fuck goes to four grocery stores? Seriously, who? Every one of them had what he needed, but he still dragged me to all of the others. I had wanted to rip his head off by the end of the trip. He must have sensed that since he hadn’t said a word. Or he was just as tired and cranky as I was.
    I sat on a stool at the island, watching as he put away his food. Watching him move relaxed me. He was surprisingly graceful, his movements fluid and dance-like. I wonder if his mom had dragged his to dance class as a child. My mom had tried that with me, and I promptly quit after the second class. I ended up face-planting in front of the entire class and was so embarrassed I couldn’t bring myself to keep going. It hurt my mom’s feelings, not that she had said anything, but understood.