no strings attached - j.b

under the table

Joe looked around all the time to see if Phoebe would finally join the group. It was Saturday and already a small group of 5 players had gathered at the meeting place at the golf course. Only Sam and Phoebe were still missing, although Joe wasn't even sure if she was joining them at all.

Since she had left her room on Wednesday morning, he had heard nothing from her. Neither a phone call nor a brief text message. He had even tried to run into her at the facility, knowing she was supposed to be there at noon on Thursdays, but she was untraceable. Besides, he didn't want to ask someone where she was again. Not that it would soon become too noticeable and the rumors would start again.

Several times he had started a text or was about to call her, but then had decided not to. Phoebe had said she would get back to him when she could find the time, and he didn't want to stress her out unnecessarily with calls and messages.

If she didn't get back to him, surely that meant she was just too busy, right?

All the questions made Joe go back over their last time together. Phoebe had been in a strange mood when she'd left that morning. He thought that the stammering, uncertainty and nervousness was because she felt guilty that she couldn't tell him when they would next see each other, but what if he had misinterpreted that?

Phoebe had seemed distant, had already said nothing to him in the night after the sex, but had turned away directly to sleep. She had turned away...

The more Joe thought about the whole night and the morning, the more he noticed that Phoebe was in a completely different mood after they had slept together. Strange, not as grinning, relieved as usual. Almost as if she was intimidated, tense.

Had he gone too far this time? Had the tying up been too much? Was Phoebe in a strange mood because she was intimidated by him? Is that why she stopped contacting him?

The thoughts were haunting his mind all the time, while they were all still waiting for Sam. The others were engrossed in conversation, only Joe stood alone, hoping that today he would finally get an answer to all his questions.

But, what if Phoebe wasn't there? What if she had canceled on Sam because she knew Joe would be there, too? What if she was avoiding him?

He was quite relieved when Sam finally pulled up in the golf cart and Joe noticed the dark blond-haired figure in his passenger seat, wearing a big smile.

"hey guys" Phoebe greeted the crowd as she got out of the cart and waved to them. Joe hated how much her presence was already turning him on again. His thoughts rolled over, a mixture of "I need to talk to her" and "we should get out of here together" as he eyed Phoebe's outfit.

The white sports skirt she wore was very tight-fitting and even shorter than the last time, so that every step she took showed the sewn-in shorts underneath. She wore a dark blue polo shirt with that, the top two buttons undone.

Her hair was tied into a loose braid that hung over the straps of her white sun visor, which, along with her dark sunglasses, shielded her from the sun, which was shining quite strongly today.

The whole group murmured a quick hello back before they immediately started golfing. It wasn't going too badly for Joe, although he immediately looked out for Phoebe before and after each swing to finally get a chance to talk to her alone.

Finally everyone was distracted by Evan's punch and immediately Joe pulled her a little closer to him. "Hey" she smirked at him. "H-Hey" Joe stuttered back, surprised by Phoebe's smile. "What's up?" she was still grinning at him.

"I-uh, nothing. I just wanted to ask you if...if everything was okay?" Joe ran a hand over the back of his neck and looked around. The others were far too distracted with Trey's swing now to pay attention to the two of them.