Talented Misconceptions

Juice Trails

By Gina

Rob let the door close behind him as he trudge towards the kitchen, letting his bag slip to the floor while stripping off his jacket. Bella waved to him over her shoulder, completely immersed in the book she was reading. Rob dragged himself into the kitchen and grabbed a water for himself. He hoisted himself up onto the counter, ignoring the ache in his arms and back and decided to just slump against the wall until he felt stronger. He’d volunteered to help out at the Annual Neighborhood Fund Raiser, and had spent all day lifting things: boxes of food, bags of clothing, children. It hadn’t stopped since he’d arrived, and he’d shown up early to be nice. Six a.m. early to be exact, and it was now almost seven in the evening.

Bella glanced up at him and spared him a smile. “How’d it go?”

He shrugged. “Fine. The neighbor’s like me, at least. Of course, that’s because I was the new guy and I had to do all the heavy lifting for them but... it could’ve been worse.”

“Bet the food was good.”

Rob smiled. “Yeah, it was. For lunch, I got this pasta dish with meatballs and sauce, and it was all homemade! I never had homemade food when I was growing up, it was amazing! And the old lady that cooked it, I think her name was… Mrs. Luccetti, she’s awesome. She knows you, I think, but I couldn’t really understand everything she was saying. Her accent was really heavy. But her husband was there and he cooked too, except today he brought ice cream. Oh man, Bella, I hope you’ve had it before, because it’s amazing too. They own a bakery, sweet shop thing and…” he trailed off, finally noticing that Bella was reading her book again.

He watched as she frowned while reading, letting the book rest on her crossed legs, holding a peach with her free hand. They’d been living together for three months now, and she was the best roommate he’d ever had. She was also quickly becoming the best friend he’d ever had.

She shifted and leaned against the arm of the couch, flipping the page quickly to discover whatever happened to the characters she was reading about. Pursing her lips, she frowned again, and let the peach rest against her mouth. A few sentences later, her frown slowly slipped away and she took a bite of the peach, contemplating the new development. A trickle of juice trailed down the peach and onto her hand, sliding down her wrist and on towards her elbow. Without even glancing away from the book, she lifted her arm to her mouth and sucked the juice away. Rob felt an agonizing twist on his heart, and quickly sucked in a lungful of air. Now the juice was clinging to the corner of her lips, and she licked it away. Rob licked his lips too.

‘Shit. Stop looking, you idiot! You can’t want your roommate, she’ll kick you out! And this is a nice apartment, and it’s pretty inexpensive, so don’t screw it up.’

Rob frowned. It was a nice apartment… with an even nicer roommate.

’Come on, man. You’d feel like this if any other relatively attractive girl was eating a peach in front of you.’

‘Except it’s Bella. Are you blind? Look at those lips. Oh my God, look at those lips…’

‘Talk about something. Ask her something so she’ll answer and stop eating that peach!’

‘Can’t you picture the juice dripping down from the corner of her mouth, and the little drops chasing each other over the line of her jaw and down her neck, and past her collarbone, down to-’

“So Bella, what book are you reading?” Rob asked, clearing his throat and praying she didn’t hear the strain in his voice. She looked up slowly, his words ebbing in letter by letter, while her eyes tried to catch just one more word before she looked away.

“What?”

He nodded his head toward her. “What book?”

“Oh, uh, it’s called Eleven Minutes. It’s by the guy that wrote The Alchemist, Paulo Coehlo. It’s really good.” She started to bring the peach to her mouth again when he practically shouted his next question.

“What’s it about?”

She lifted the book and showed the cover to him, and said, “It’s about this girl who’s a prostitute and just her experiences and views of love and sex, and how she comes to learn about sacred sex. There’s this whole part about the clitoris in here too, and how it’s a recent discovery, so I’m trying to figure out when this takes place exactly. It’s a fairly modern setting, I know that, but I feel like most people know about the clit. I mean, you do, right?”

Yes, he knew. Oh God, why did he ask what the book was about? He managed a nod, with a slight blush, which she noticed. Deciding to tease him a bit, she kept talking about sex. “I thought most guys knew. Of course, it depends on what they do with that knowledge. A guy would be a complete bastard to know about the clit and then to completely ignore it during sex. It’s probably one of my favorite body parts, and if a guy ignored that? I’d probably tell him once and if he ignored it again, I’d dump him. It’s amazing how much pleasure that can create. But you probably already knew that, right?”

Again, he was forced to nod, because he did know, and now his imagination was fighting to take over, and the blush was creeping down his neck and getting darker. Bella smiled coyly and settled back to finish reading. After a few minutes Rob got off the counter and mumbled that he was going to take a shower. Bella waited until she heard the water start running before she burst out laughing.

A/N: I hope that wasn’t too… whatever for you guys. Have you ever watched someone do something completely mundane and find it incredibly attractive? Yeah, well while the peach isn’t the most subtle food, it got Rob’s… frustration across, right? Oh, and that’s a real book by the way, and it was really good. I recommend it.