Breathe

I wandered dreamily into La-La Land Coffee hand in hand with Chace Keaton.

I was dreamy because he gave me an orgasm with his mouth but this time he also used his fingers at the same time. It was awesome.

I was also dreamy because after that, I started to give him an orgasm with my mouth but ended up giving him one with my hand all by myself. I kissed him while I did it. I kissed him. And it sounded and felt nice.

I was further dreamy because after that we had a shower and I talked Chace into grabbing breakfast at La-La Land.

This wasn’t hard to do.

I just said, “Let’s save time, skip breakfast at home and get something from Shambles and Sunny.”

Since his soapy hands were on my na**d wet skin and his eyes were watching his hands move, he answered on a distracted mutter, “Works for me.”

Watching him watching his hands, I figured I could ask him to build me a model of the Sistine Chapel with miniature true to life detailing then a shed we could display it in, advertise it and sell tickets and he would have said, “Works for me.”

I liked this. It made being na**d and wet with Chace in the shower not weird or embarrassing.

It made it a lot of other things. Like beautiful. And it made me feel a lot of other things. Like desired. Cherished.

And powerful.

I made a mental note of this for future reference.

Last, I was dreamy because Chace and I went to the grocery store before La-La Land. I didn’t know why this made me feel dreamy. It was an everyday thing, going to the grocery store. But somehow doing an everyday thing, just like the day before, lazing around and watching TV, seemed magical when I did it with Chace.

This didn’t mean it wasn’t relaxing the day before. Sometimes fun, sometimes sweet like when he chuckled at the antics of Shawn, Gus, Lassie, Juliet and the crew from Psych. I loved it that he liked that show and I loved hearing his comfortable, laidback laughter. I didn’t suspect he was comfortable and laidback a lot. I didn’t suspect he laughed a lot. I didn’t like either. It might be characters on a TV show giving it to him, still, I liked that he had it.

So even though we just picked up bits and pieces for Malachi and we weren’t there long, for some reason I knew I’d remember that first trip to the grocery store with Chace for the rest of my life. Like a fantastic vacation. A special birthday party.

A wedding.

This dreamy feeling stuck with me as I entered La-La Land for maybe the thousandth time, but this time the first time with Chace (which was also special) and it stuck with me in a big way.

I saw Shambles immediately. He was wearing a pair of those round, John Lennon glasses with bright green shades in them. He had a rainbow colored tie-dyed bandana tied around his forehead, the top of his shaggy blond hair bunched weirdly at the top and hanging low to his shoulders out the bottom.

He took one look at us, his arm shot straight in front of him, his finger pointing back and forth between Chace and me and his mouth started moving to say loud words.

“You! With you! Together! Groovintude!” Then he dropped his arm and shouted, “Sunny! Baby! All those coffees to go separate and now they’re here together! Proof! Our sweet Faye landed the hot police guy!”

This was the exact time my dreamy feeling ended and heat hit my face.

Sunny ran in from a room at the back as Chace, reading me again, dropped my hand and slid an arm around my shoulders, pulling me protectively close to his side. With no other choice and because it felt good, I slid my arm around his narrow waist.

Neither of us was able to say a word.

This was because Sunny clapped while jumping up and down and shouting, “I like!”

We made it to the counter (unfortunately) and Shambles looked at Chace, “No offense to your brethren, dude. There are other hot local federales but none as hot as you.”

“Shambles is a guy,” Sunny leaned in to inform me of a fact I knew, “but he’s comfortable in his manhood so he’s capable of spotting hotness and has no problem sharing his opinion. He’s not my style,” she jerked her head at Chace, “but I think every member of the sisterhood would agree on some level your guy is a hot guy.”

This was not in doubt.

“Um…” I mumbled.

“I appreciate the compliment but I think you both get Faye’s a little quiet so I’d also appreciate it if for her sake you’d be a little more cool,” Chace said in a quiet voice that nevertheless held authority at the same time it was weirdly gentle.

I tipped my head back to stare at his profile, amazed he could pull this off at the same time not surprised at all.

“Right,” Shambles whispered like he’d been shushed in a library and not gently told off by a hot guy cop. Then he looked at me and he said, “Sorry Crimson Stargazer.”

By the way, if you were a regular, and Sunny and Shambles liked you, they gave you a hippie name. I knew this because, while getting to know Lauren and Lexie, I learned that they called Lauren “Flower Petal” and they called Lexie “Midnight Sunshine”. Usually, they just called me “Star” for short like they called Laurie “Petal” and Lexie “Midnight”.

They were weird. They were hippies. They were the only hippies I knew so I didn’t know if they were weird hippies. What I did know was that they were sweet.

“It’s okay, Shambles,” I said, smiling at him.

“It’s cool you read ‘cause reading is cool,” he went on softly. “It’s cooler you’re not reading and, instead, standing close to a hot guy.”

No truer words were ever spoken.

My smile got bigger.

Shambles smiled back.

Then he jumped as he whirled, moving to his espresso machine and crying out, “Hazelnut latte and triple shot latte, coming up.”

“We need breakfast, Sunny,” Chace said and she jumped to the case filled with Shambles’s homemade baked goods.

“I see you’re having a good effect on the hot guy already, Star,” Shambles said to me while fiddling with that coffee grinder thingie. “He never gets anything out of the case. The only alternate he orders is one of my smoothies with a scoop of protein powder. The only reason I have protein powder is because he and Midnight’s hubster ask for it in their smoothies.”

“The hot guy has a name, Shambles,” I said quietly, smiling through it and hoping I didn’t sound like I was being mean. “His name is Chace.”

Shambles, showing he took no offense, threw a goofy grin over his shoulder at me and replied, “We know his name but I’m the kinda guy who calls ‘em as he sees ‘em.”