"Thank you for the breakfast. You didn't have to bring it to my room, you know," Phoebus says, coming out to the living room, where I sit at my desk, furiously scribbling down notes. "You could've asked me for help to move the table out of your room."
I shrug without turning around and say, "Not my fault you're a heavy sleeper."
When I see his expression darken in the corner of my eye, I know that we're thinking about about the same instance. "Yes. How fortunate."
I can hear from his footsteps that he's walking away, probably to lie on the couch again.
"Where's Venus?" he asks after a moment of silence, and I groan, banging my head on the table.
"By Hera's saggy left armpit, get over her!"
Venus is what Apollo calls a breathtaking woman (but if he could lie he would call the most beautiful woman in the world), what I call the worst thing that happened to us, and what most people would call a Sailor Moon cardboard cutout.
"You didn't throw Sailor Venus away, did you?"
A guilty silence follows his question. "I can neither confirm nor deny that statement."
He makes a sound of outrage and I say, "You're a god and apart of a boy band. Just buy another one."
"It wouldn't replace the memories."
"No, and that is a good thing. Speaking of which, there's some rules you need to follow," I say, still engrossed in the giant study book I have in front of me. My terrible posture has caused a tension in my back and shoulders, but I really don't have the time or the masochistic tendencies to go to my chiropractor.
Seriously, who uses a rock to get rid of back tension?
"Rules? You're giving a literal god rules?"
"Yes, you arrogant fuckwaffle, I am. One, you are not allowed to do the mindfuck on me."
"I've used the mindfuck, as you put it, once on you. And that was because-"
"Doesn't matter," I say, continuing on as if he didn't speak. "Two, keep the innuendos to a minimum."
"But-"
"Three, I'm not hiding you from my boyfriend."
His surprise in his voice is almost comical. "You have a boyfriend?"
"Yes and he should be dropping by any second now." I don't tell him that the only reason I'm dating Levi is so that I can move on, try to convince myself that I'm not still hopelessly in love with him.
Right on cue, the doorbell rings and I groan as I get up, feeling sore in many different places from sitting for so long.
"Hey babe," Levi says after I open the door. He kisses me and I let him, breathing in the scent of his masculine cologne.
As always, he looks every bit the handsome, brooding frat boy with his gray sweatpants, taut white shirt accentuating his muscles, and a face that has been the sole factor in getting some women into his bed.
"I've missed you," I murmur, but he's no longer paying attention to me. To be fair, I would be staring at the boy with wings rising out of his back like some ethereal angel on my couch.
"Is that Felix Avery from that boy band? Why is he... in your apartment? And are those...wings?"
I eye Phoebus with distaste at the alias he gave himself, who looks back at me with an innocent look, but I have more important things to worry about.
"He's...a cosplayer," I say lamely. Phoebus lets out a snort, but regards Levi with curiosity. In contrast, Levi openly gapes at Phoebus like he's grown a third head, which honestly might be less weird than the wings.
"What is he cosplaying?"
"The Bible."
"I'm going to see myself out," Phoebus says before winking at me and retreating into my bedroom.
Once he closes the door, Levi relaxes, pulling me down to the couch in a tumble of limbs.
My heartbeat picks up as his fingers brush along the sensitive skin of my neck. Our relationship has always had lots of physical touch, probably because that's how it started.
But the heat he sends through my body is a dark, carnal one. The kind that makes you want to sink into a bed and never leave, not the kind that makes you feel like you're floating, like you could fly away with that person.
I try to stifle my murmurs of pleasure, knowing that Phoebus is in the next room. I don't know why - it's not like he would give me the same liberty. Then again, he never let me see him with a woman back then - he insisted that even hand holding was rated R, despite that being how we met in the first place.
"Stop. I won't be able to keep quiet if you do that," I say as his strong fingers keep toward the waistband of my shorts.
"You don't really think I need to use your lower body to make you scream, do you?" he murmurs, letting his fingers travel back up to the soft skin under my shirt.
Distractions are nice, but they're impossible when the thing you're trying to distract yourself from is in the next room.
He seems to sense my reluctance and chuckles, a low laugh that appeals to every carnal instinct I have. He rolls off of me, and I feel the absence of his body pressing against mine "We can stop. You can come over tonight, yeah?"
"Really?" I say dubiously. "You're not concerned about the boy staking out in my apartment?"
"Why should I be? You're not a cheater, Addie."
Right. I try not to let the guilt show on my face.
"Thanks for understanding."
When he leaves after we watch three episodes of F.R.I.E.N.D.S snuggled together on the couch, I let out a huge sigh and return to my desk to continue studying.
I hear the bedroom door open. In my periphery, I can see there's amusement on his face, but also another emotion I can't decipher. Which is odd, because he's usually an open book.
"Addie?" he asks, looking like he's one step from laughing.
"Shut up. I told him not to tell me El."
"What a catch."
"I know."
"You're so different. How did you even meet?"
"We both realized that we were each other's favorite fuck." It was true - I had been having one night stands everywhere, but I came to realize that a friend with benefits was much more efficient than a different person every night. And we had been so compatible together that we realized being exclusive would ensure us the maximum time together.
One night stands aren't for sex, they're for two strangers pretending to be whole., and I very much needed to pretend to be whole after leaving Phoebus.
His voice is playful when he says, "I bet he's not as good as your first time, huh?"
"Shut up."
"On lonely nights, did you press your legs together, hoping to quench your desire for me? Did you sleep with him to fill the void of loneliness in your heart? "
"Shut the fuck up," I say, my cheeks flaming because he's not wrong.
"I'm jealous. If you ever break up, can I have him?"
"He's my boyfriend."
I hear the sound of footsteps nearing and I can tell he's peering over my shoulder. "I was wondering what you were studying. Is this the MCAT?" A grin spreads across his face and I want to slap it off. "Do you want to go to med school because of me?"
My silence is all the answer he needs for his grin to get wider.
But it was true. After he took me to homeless shelters and I watched him heal with his touch alone, I realized that I wanted to do that. Improve people's lives.
But since I was not the god of medicine or healing, I have to go through eight years of schooling to do it.
I just hope the ceaseless tension in my muscles is worth it.
Every one of his nerves is aware of his presence as he bends closer to get a better look at the book, brushing my neck in the process. It makes me painfully aware of how much more his touch affects me than Levi's.
But then there's a knock at my door. "Shit," Phoebus breathes.
One moment he's there, and the next he's not and I'm left wondering why he didn't just do the disappearing trick when Levi came.
I walk over to the door with apprehension, wondering who could possible provoke such a reaction out of him.
a/n: Who do you think it is? Adeline is so adorable but also so complex that she's been really fun to write.
Thank you so much for checking this part out! love,
-isadora