The Other Way : Three

                    Damn Near  Adorable

-

It was raining when I woke up, tangled up in my heavy dress in the cocoon of Jasper’s bed. The fluffed silk at my chest had wilted dramatically and my hair was a goddamn disaster. Jasper was still in his own clothes, dress shirt bunched around his waist and his own hair just as bad as mine, snoring into his pillow. All of the covers had been kicked off onto the floor and I could smell him all over me. We must have gotten rather cuddly in our sleep last night.

We tended to do that when we were drunk.

One glance out the window at the unexpected clouds hanging heavily against the sky and a surge of hope rushed through me. Rose hated the rain, complaining about the awful things it did to her hair. This lessened the likelihood that our scheduled shopping/torture excursion would actually occur today.

She wanted to go on the hunt for swimsuits.

Commence rain dance.

I took a shower in Jasper’s bathroom, just for kicks, while he snored softly to himself in bed. His enormous shower was tiled in pretty blue pieces flecked with silver while my own bathroom was rather plain soft green and cream combination. His shower head rained down like the second coming and I secretly loved using his shampoo, heavy and spicy instead of my usual sweetened flowery options. I peeled out of the dress and glared at the deep red marks etched across my ribs from the stiff corset contraption, sort of hating Rose for them even though she never said anything about sleeping in it. Probably because that was a given.

Basics: Don’t sleep in your party dresses. Don’t walk across lumpy lawns in heels. Don’t talk to strangers and definitely don’t hold hands with them.

Don’t think about Edward and those tattoos.

Especially in the shower.

Jasper was still asleep when I emerged, freshly shaven from armpit to ankle in case I couldn’t fend Rose off, watery grey light only beginning to brighten the room. His fluffy grey robe was singing my name from the hook on the door and I wrapped myself up in it, trailing the belt behind me on my way to the kitchen, content to let Jasper’s alarm wake him as usual.

Lunch today was chicken salad spiked with curry powder, studded with green grapes and walnuts. Crunchy stone ground crackers. Sweet baby carrots and a single jumbo sized peanut butter cup to stay in his good graces. I finished with his lunch and was sitting on one of the barstools with a cup of coffee and the newspaper when Jasper appeared.

“Good morning lovely.” He kissed my forehead as he passed. “I was wondering where my robe went.”

He was dressed in black slacks and a pale blue shirt that made him look like a damn angel, skin lit from somewhere underneath, pearly and translucent. The deep blue wing-tips that were practically black and shiny enough that I could see my face in them if I looked hard enough. His curls were edging beyond wild and moving onto out of control. I reminded myself - again - to make him an appointment to get it cut.

“You took a shower in my room.” Jasper spoke up around a mouthful of cereal, eyeing me slyly as though he’d caught me doing something far worse.  

“How do you know?” I squared my jaw, daring him to accuse me of hair in the drain, even though his robe sort of gave it away.

“Your little wet footprints all over the floor,” he chuckled. “It was damn near adorable.”

Jasper shoveled down the rest of his cereal in record time, thieving more than half of my coffee in the process before he was shrugging into his jacket. “I’m in meetings all morning, but I certainly wouldn’t mind if you kept me included on your decision making today. My phone will be on vibrate.” He grinned at me, all sorts of devious. He was clearly looking forward to my shopping trip with Rose today much more than I was, not shy about openly ogling the skimpy swimwear Rose picked out for me. There were times I was certain that they were in on this thing together..

“Jasper,” I leveled him my sternest look, trying not to smile. “You’re not allowed to enjoy them as much as you obviously do.”

“Why not, Sweet Pea? What is there not to enjoy?” He craned his neck to peek down the crack in his robe and I clutched the neck of it together. “You do things to swimsuits that should be illegal.”

“I don’t understand you at all,” I said honestly. I really didn’t sometimes.

Jasper shook his head at me with another of those wistful smiles on his face, as though he was trying to find the comedy in a not-so-funny joke. “Just because I don’t sleep with you doesn’t mean that I don’t find you wickedly attractive.”

I tried not to blush while he ensured that everything he needed was in his briefcase and checked out the contents of his lunch sack.

“Shit Bella, really?” He plucked the container of baby carrots out of the bag and scrunched his face at me. I tried my hardest not to roll my eyes when I spoke, blush fading away.

“I put a container of ranch in there. Try to eat some of the carrots with it.”

NEXT