Page 132 of Seasons of Love
Could I fuck my frustrations out on Jimmy? The thought alone is enough to kill my boner, so I turn off the water and dry myself with the towel Ellis left for me.
I go to grab my clothes when I realize I didn’t bring them to the bathroom with me.
“Fuck.”
I pace the bathroom, but there’s only one solution. I need to go out and grab my clean clothes.
Wrapping the towel around my waist as tight as possible, I open the bathroom door and almost bump into Ellis.
A shirtless Ellis.
“I’m…um…”
I’m not sure which of us is mumbling, but we both stare at each other for what seems like forever until he breaks the silence.
“Sara decided she didn’t like her lunch today. It’s totally my fault. She was waving her arms, and I wasn’t paying attention, so when she knocked my hand, it all went flying,” he mumbles as he lifts his hand, holding the shirt dirty with Sara’s food.
“Oh, Ellis, I’m so sorry. I’ll buy you a new one if that one’s ruined.”
“I’m sure it’s not. I was just going to change. You should too,” he says, going to the end of the hallway and disappearing into a room I’ve never been in.
I look down and remember I’m almost naked. My dick is noticeably half-hard, and I think I’m going to die of embarrassment. It’s clear I made Ellis uncomfortable.
Well, at least that clears any chance of my dreams coming true.
I grab my clothes and get dressed, not bothering to go back to the bathroom since there’s no sign of Ellis.
Sara’s plastic bib is surprisingly clean, as are her clothes, so it seems Ellis’s shirt took the brunt of Sara’s mood.
“What’s up with your lunch today?” I ask her.
She cries, so I pick her up to calm her down a little.
“It’s okay, baby. Sometimes, I don’t like my lunch either. And I always feel like throwing it at Gerald. But we don’t do it to Ellis, okay? Because he’s nice to us.”
I always carry formula and extra food for Sara, so I take a fruit jar from her bag and feed it to her. She eats it all without fuss, which is a relief, and I give her one of her favorite cookies to chew on.
When Ellis comes back, he’s wearing a pair of jeans and a shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. The shirt is untucked, just like the first time I saw him at the soup kitchen.
It looks great on him.
“Ready?” he asks.
“Yeah.” I strap Sara into the stroller and quickly wash her jar and cutlery before placing them back in her bag.
Ellis says Alice’s house isn’t far, so we can walk.
This isn’t a part of town I’ve walked in before because it’s not on my way to work.
The houses are all really nice and have beautiful front yards. It’s like everyone is proud of their neighborhood.
“This is a really nice area,” I say.
“Alice lives in our grandparents’ old house, so everyone kind of knows everyone around here. But yes, it is. It’s why I tried to get a place as close to her as possible.”
We arrive at a white colonial-style house with a double garage on the side and a beautiful front yard with peonies planted all around it instead of a fence. There’s a large rose bush in the middle that looks like it’s been there for generations.
“This is it. Are you ready?” Ellis says.
