Nellie and the Diamond Gala

He stayed there for a moment before pulling out and collapsing beside me. When I looked over, his face was shining with sweat and his hair was matted against his forehead, but his eyes were closed and a smile of pure elation played gently on his lips.

When J.P. and I hooked up, it was usually fun. We didn't tend to take things too seriously, we laughed and teased each other, we fucked hard and fast and passionately. That night couldn't really be described as just fun. It was fun in the way that it was enjoyable and amazing and I came hard enough that I might have had a legitimate out-of-body experience.

It was fun in the way that I could see it happening again, in the way that I almost yearned to curl up against his body and rest with his arms around me. I couldn't, though. It was one thing for me to do that when I hooked up with Ben, but J.P. and I weren't like that.

"Um," I said softly, and he opened his eyes. "Would you mind passing me the towel I left on the floor?"

"Fuck. Sorry, yeah, let me..."

He rolled over, grabbing the towel so I could awkwardly shuffle to the bathroom and clean up. When I returned, J.P. was still lying on my bed, but he had pulled a sheet over himself. Again, his eyes were closed, and one arm was tucked behind his neck.

"You've made yourself comfortable," I remarked.

J.P. laughed and opened his eyes, fixing them on me.

"Come here," he murmured.

I stiffened, which he noticed.

"Come on, Nellie," he sighed. "Just come sit with me for a bit."

"That's not a good idea."

"Please?"

It was the tone of his voice more than anything that made me even more certain I shouldn't go to him, and at the same time, made me disregard that certainty and crawl beside him on the bed. The arm tucked behind his head curled around my shoulders and we both exhaled, almost relieved as our bodies touched.

I was content. I was comfortable. It terrified me completely.

After a while, his fingers started tracing small patterns on my shoulder.

"Nellie, can we talk about—"

"No."

He sighed. "Would it really be so bad if—"

"Yes."

He fell silent, and I felt guilty.

"Come on. You can't stand me," I joked. "Remember? I'm your sister's annoying friend, I tease you all the time, I make lewd comments..."

He laughed, an easy, casual kind of sound. "Right. And you think I'm hideously ugly."

"Just the worst. I can't even look at you."

Before long we were laughing, and it was only when he pulled me in to kiss me that we stopped. It lingered just a little too long, and both of us refused to acknowledge it. We refused to acknowledge the fact that I fell asleep against his chest, that he woke me up a few hours later when he got dressed to go back home, and that he kissed me again in the darkness of my room, softly and sweetly and so unlike J.P. that I thought I might have dreamt it.

I left the next day, walking stiffly to my car and loading my suitcase in the trunk. Just before I left, Anne-Marie barrelled over from next door.

"I did not see you and Jean-Paul leave last night," she said brusquely.

"I tried to find you before we left," I replied. "Sorry. You know I was only there because I had to be."

"Hmm," she said, grinning. "Also, my brother was not home when Remy and I returned last night."

I shrugged. "Maybe he went out after we got back? Ask him when he gets home."

"He is home now, and says he went out to a girl's place after the gala, but won't tell me who." She looked at me pointedly and I stared back blankly.

"Well, you'll have to ask him again, I guess. He didn't say anything to me about going to a girl's place after dropping me off."

"Really," she said, her eyes gleaming with laughter. "That is so funny, because Jean-Paul said if I really wanted to know, I could go ask you because he told you on the way home."

I rolled my eyes. "J.P. is just fucking with you, Anne-Marie. He knows you apparently want us to get together. What's more likely, that J.P. is playing a game with you or that I know who's place he went to last night?"

She finally conceded that her brother was probably just teasing her before hugging me and wishing me a safe drive back home. After she left, I got into my car, glanced back at the Marchand's house, and caught J.P. grinning at me from the driveway as he walked past Anne-Marie to his car.

I could almost see his eyes sparkling playfully as he raised a hand and waved. I rolled my eyes, flipped him off, and backed out of the driveway.

Before pulling away, I glanced at him in the rearview mirror. J.P. blew a kiss at me and I laughed.

He was such a bastard.

**

Special thank you to Bebop3 and OneAuthor for their feedback and editing. The next Nellie story, Nellie & The Dragon Tattoo, will be released August 2020.