There's a cadence to Hap and Bella's arrangement. He comes into town every few months, and they meet, for a night or a day or a weekend as Hap's schedule permits. In between, they talk, usually with Bella initiating: long-distance flirting and phone sex interwoven with less erotic but no less intimate conversation. Tension winds back and forth between them until it sings a high, steely note when plucked. They see each other, go to bed together; the tension snaps and releases with a twang and a sigh, and the cycle begins again when Hap takes off for home.
Until last time, when Hap came to town and Bella, instead of laying herself in his hands, introduced him to Mel.
When it wasn't after midnight, and Bella was able to reread their conversation with a clearer head, she found the whole thing annoying and embarrassing and wryly amusing in about equal measure. She's fairly sure she knows where she went wrong. Hap likes being the center of her attention, and offering to make him the center of someone else's didn't please him. He called her bluff -- which wasn't a bluff, she continues to tell herself -- and now they both have to deal with that.
If he expects her to do anything less than her best by him, though, she thinks he doesn't know her at all. Mel is a very good top, serious and attentive, fairly flexible. Though, she categorically doesn't submit to men, as far as Bella knows. Still, if Hap enjoys a craftsperson, he'll like her. Bella does. And Bella will be satisfied with a job well done.
This does not stop her from finding the introduction mildly excruciating. It's the way Hap smiles at Mel, all charm and interest, genuine interest, the way he takes off his glasses to lean in and talk with Mel, as if Bella is a pretty personal assistant who can be politely ignored. As soon as handshakes have been exchanged, Bella excuses herself and goes off to be grumpy in the Bower's upstairs common room.
And over the next few weeks, she does not text Hap.
The distance does actually help, she finds. Fine. She can admit to a crush. Not the first time for someone in her line of work, and ultimately harmless as long as it doesn't go too far. Good for both of them to take a step back, probably. Make sure her other regulars feel seen to. Chip away at her debt and sock away contacts and information for a rainy day.
Yet the tension still builds. Slower, in the background, but there, a pianissimo tone rising up the octave. And when Bella gets wind that Hap is coming to town again -- to see Mel -- she decides, why not? See how he is. See how she feels, seeing him. And he'll be with Mel in the evening, so there will be a natural end to the afternoon.
This place has good specials.
The place she suggests is one where they once nearly made a scene with a customized phone app.
So her reasons aren't devoid of pettiness. Sue her.
no subject
There's a cadence to Hap and Bella's arrangement. He comes into town every few months, and they meet, for a night or a day or a weekend as Hap's schedule permits. In between, they talk, usually with Bella initiating: long-distance flirting and phone sex interwoven with less erotic but no less intimate conversation. Tension winds back and forth between them until it sings a high, steely note when plucked. They see each other, go to bed together; the tension snaps and releases with a twang and a sigh, and the cycle begins again when Hap takes off for home.
Until last time, when Hap came to town and Bella, instead of laying herself in his hands, introduced him to Mel.
When it wasn't after midnight, and Bella was able to reread their conversation with a clearer head, she found the whole thing annoying and embarrassing and wryly amusing in about equal measure. She's fairly sure she knows where she went wrong. Hap likes being the center of her attention, and offering to make him the center of someone else's didn't please him. He called her bluff -- which wasn't a bluff, she continues to tell herself -- and now they both have to deal with that.
If he expects her to do anything less than her best by him, though, she thinks he doesn't know her at all. Mel is a very good top, serious and attentive, fairly flexible. Though, she categorically doesn't submit to men, as far as Bella knows. Still, if Hap enjoys a craftsperson, he'll like her. Bella does. And Bella will be satisfied with a job well done.
This does not stop her from finding the introduction mildly excruciating. It's the way Hap smiles at Mel, all charm and interest, genuine interest, the way he takes off his glasses to lean in and talk with Mel, as if Bella is a pretty personal assistant who can be politely ignored. As soon as handshakes have been exchanged, Bella excuses herself and goes off to be grumpy in the Bower's upstairs common room.
And over the next few weeks, she does not text Hap.
The distance does actually help, she finds. Fine. She can admit to a crush. Not the first time for someone in her line of work, and ultimately harmless as long as it doesn't go too far. Good for both of them to take a step back, probably. Make sure her other regulars feel seen to. Chip away at her debt and sock away contacts and information for a rainy day.
Yet the tension still builds. Slower, in the background, but there, a pianissimo tone rising up the octave. And when Bella gets wind that Hap is coming to town again -- to see Mel -- she decides, why not? See how he is. See how she feels, seeing him. And he'll be with Mel in the evening, so there will be a natural end to the afternoon.
The place she suggests is one where they once nearly made a scene with a customized phone app.
So her reasons aren't devoid of pettiness. Sue her.