Something Intimate

After the EMTs and Ian's boss arrived at the scene, Ed decided to make a cut for it as soon as he was given pardon. Debriefings was not his kind of thing, and after what had gone down that day, he had ultimately decided that he had way, way much better things to do with his time.

            Devon had been ordered to one of the EMT vans and was being stitched up when Ed had walked over with a small silver object in his hand.

            "What am I to do with this?" Ed asked as he plopped Melissa's little silver Motorola into the back of the van.

            "Checked it for memory, and contact info?"

            "SD card had been removed, and the rest of the unit got fried. They made sure to cover their tracks..." Ed trailed off as his iPhone started to buzz in his right pocket. "...anyway, I'm late for a prior engagement. See you, dude."

            "Yeah, have fun," Devon replied before twitching, and then he continued to swear at the EMT who was busy working on his shoulder.

 

Ed arrived home way before Ian were to arrive, that was for certain, but what stumped him the most was that as opposed to JR's Volkswagen GTR, stood Aaliyah's little Fiesta.

            He pulled into the garage and got out of his car. His arm cramped ridiculously much, but he paid no mind to that fact as he slammed his door and made his way inside.

            He walked into the kitchen, grabbed a glass and filled it with water. Drinking half of it on one go, he threw his keys onto the counter and made his way upstairs where he found Aaliyah propped up against his huge mirror-wall, busy checking to see if her hair was all in place. She had heard him coming in and hurried to make herself seem somewhat presentable, at least for Ed's company, that is. JR, the one of the three she only knew by initials, had assured her that they would have a lot of privacy the next few nights as she arrived at their home just before he was going out.

            "Oh!" she said with a start as Ed came around the corner and entered the room. She turned around with one last flick of her hair, having decided that the way it looked just had to do. "Hey," she then said and made her way to Ed, who had pulled a pistol from below his arm and put it on the small shelf directly to his right as he walked into the room, much to Aaliyah's surprise.

            "I missed you..." he said and embraced her. He felt like he did not - could not - let her go for at least another 24 hours. But then he figured that he could not hold her being full of dirt, sweat, blood and just general grime.

            "Before we do anything tonight, I need to have a proper shower."

            She gave him one look, kissed him on the cheek and took his hands. "Come on," she said and slowly led him out his room and down the short hallway.

            Ed let himself simply be led as he looked at her. And all he had to do was look for him to know that she might just be the one, as Ian had put it back when he first spoke of Danny.

            Aaliyah had let him to the bathroom, gave him one kiss and slowly removed his dirt-ridden turtle neck, followed by his white long sleeve, and then his pants.

 

Ed and Aaliyah went out after they shared the shower. She felt that he needed to be treated to a bit of fun and insisted on driving him to a spot that her dad had used to take her back when she was still a kid.

            "We used to come here and watch the stars," she said as they made their way down one of the botanical garden's fields. "Right before closing time is when you see the most beautiful things."

            "I don't need to wait until sundown to see something beautiful," Ed said and kissed her on the cheek before looking up again, "but it sure is something else," he finished and hugged her tightly.

            He thought of asking her right then and there if she would consider spending the rest of her life with him, but then remembered something else Ian had said while speaking of Danny for the first time.

            'sure,' he had said, 'not that I am going to pop the question any time soon.' And that had been just enough to make Ed rethink the situation.

            As they were kindly asked to exit the Botanical Gardens about half an hour later, she drove him home, and said her goodbyes as she had to get home in order to prepare for a meeting she had early the following day, but not after promising Ed that she would exclusively be his for the entirety of the day after that.

 

Ed spent the next morning inside his room, cleaning up the place. Moving things around was a surefire way to kill time as well as relieve his frustrations. He had been angry at himself for not proposing when he had. But then again, he had been angry that he had even thought of proposing as the last time that he did decide to move even remotely fast, things did not end well. And he couldn't put Aaliyah in the same danger as he and Ian was. But then again, wasn't she already in danger?

            Ed pushed his bed all the way against the opposite wall as that thought crossed his mind. He turned the bed around in its place, and decided that it looked good where he had moved it, and turned to his dresser.

 

He had gone on for a good hour before his cat let out a simple meow, which made him snap back to actual, immediate, real world problems. In a way, his cat coming to fetch him was a blessing in disguise. He needed to chill the fuck out, as Devon would put it, and spending a few minutes with his cat was a nice little way, other than moving furniture about, to get at it.

            Moving downstairs, Ed's cat leaped into his arms, as if she knew that he just needed some attention from someone who couldn't open their yap for a change.

            He ran his fingers through her sharp hair and put her down onto the kitchen's island counter, then proceeded to prepare her food for her.

 

Right after he had managed to feed his cat, and ultimately seemed to chill the fuck out, Aaliyah pulled into the driveway. She wore what seemed like an extremely skimpy dress, if it could even be seen as one, as Ed saw her get out and hurry inside.

            "Wow," he said as she turned the corner and walked into the kitchen. "Just, wow..."

            She smiled brightly as her face became a bit red. "Hello to you too, handsome!"

            Ed moved closer and kissed her extremely intimately, before backing up a bit in order to clear his mind, even just to be able to breathe.

            "I bought us some champagne! Your favourite," she boasted. Ed didn't bother to ask her how she had found out what champagne he liked best, but she was spot on. Instead, he simply smiled and turned around to retrieve two whine glasses.

 

They had spent at least an hour in the kitchen simply talking and drinking. Ed had told her in quick succession a few highlights of his many trips all over the globe, and then asked her how her meeting had gone.

            As she spoke, Ed could not help but see nothing but her beautiful brown eyes, and her cute little smile. His mind kept flicking to the question he had never asked, and then he battled to suppress it.

            "Everything okay?" she asked as she finished. She had noticed that he was more out of it than usual.

            "I'm fine," he said with a wry smile, "I'm simply admiring the beauty that is before me."

            "Oh?"

            "Oh it's true," he said and picked her up and put her onto the island counter. Ed then proceeded to run his fingers loosely over her arms. "I was admiring the way your arms connect with everything you say -- how you move them without even knowing that you do." He then moved his fingers over to her thighs, "and how your thighs hold you together, moving elegantly with the rest of your body. And your neck," he said as he caressed her neck and then cradled her head in both of his arms, "oh, I don't know what to say other than it is the bane of my self-control."

            Ed kissed her lightly at first, then opened his eyes, looked at her, and kissed her again. "I love you," he finally said in-between pauses to either kiss or undress her. And then he stopped.

            The sudden realisation of what he had said dawned on him. But she was merely smiling. He looked at her, worry in his eyes, but then it all seemed to fade away as she leaned closed and kissed him on his forehead. "I love you too," she the said too, cradled his head in her small hands, and continued to make out with him.

            He put his right arm underneath her legs, and his other around her back, picking her up, and continued to kiss her as he carried her upstairs and into his room.