Under the Elms

Catching Up

One last mind-blowing kiss, and Sofia was led to the back seat of a black SUV and handed in with a lingering hand that trailed down from her waist to her hip. She gave a secret smile in response, one Prince knew meant she was turned on, but didn’t want to share that with too many people. He grinned, glad he had that effect on her. His body let him know he felt the same way.

‘See you soon,’ he said, closing the door slowly so he could hear her ‘Can’t wait!’ response. He didn’t wait for the car to pull away, but headed to the door taking him out of the parking garage and back to the studio. The little twerk he gave as he grabbed the door handle made Sofia laugh out loud. Kirk just sighed and shook his head.

It was a quiet ride for the first 10-15 minutes. Finally Sofia broke the silence.

‘Kirk, how are you doing?’

‘Fine.’ It was a terse response, and he didn’t meet her eyes in the mirror.

‘C'mon, Kirk, I lost enough money to you at poker back in the day. There’s no need to freeze me out!’ Sofia sounded pleasant, but she was annoyed. Her face proved her tone of voice to be a lie.

‘Sike! I wondered if you’d let that slide!’ Kirk laughed at Sofia’s annoyed face. ‘Sorry Sofia, I couldn’t help it. I remembered how easy it was to send you up before. I needed to see if it would still work.’

‘If I could reach you, I’d whack you on the arm!’ Sofia exclaimed between giggles. ‘Okay, back to square one. How are you?’

‘I’m fine, doing very well. Running a gym now in addition to running for my brother. You seem to be doing alright yourself,’ he responded, meeting her eyes with a friendly gaze.

‘I keep pinching myself, trying to believe it is all real,’ Sofia replied. ‘It was the hope I never allowed myself to admit.’ Tears rimmed the base of her eyes briefly, then she took one slow blink and a deep breath through her nose to cause them to disappear. ‘I refuse to cry, I’m too happy,’ she went on, with a broad smile.

‘Let me go through some details with you before we get there. This is how Prince wants it to go. I get out first, after you give me your house key. I let you out of the car, and usher you to your door, unlock the door while protecting you, and let you in first.’

‘Seriously? That seems a little overprotective.’

‘I want you to run this through the filter of ‘This is how much he loves you and wants you protected.’ P ran through this with me step by step, even though this is how we always do it when there is a locked door involved. He wants to keep you safe, even when he can’t do it himself.’ Kirk’s face looked sweet, briefly, before he put his professional face back on. ‘Oh, and he said I was to tell you, ‘No arguing.’

Sofia laughed. ‘Yes, sir. I’m not going to argue. I’ll start getting my keys out. they’re usually in the bottom of this handbag.’

Once they were parked and inside, Sofia went straight to the kitchen. ‘Gotta get the trash out of here-I knew it was going to smell bad, but not this bad!’ Kirk beat her to the trash, closed the bag, and carried it toward the back door. ‘Am I going the right way?’ he threw over his shoulder as he continued to the door.

‘Yes, the garbage can is in the garage.’ She opened the refrigerator and gasped. ‘There’s more where that came from,’ she said as Kirk came back in the kitchen. ‘Could you bring me another trash bag, please? They’re on the shelf in the cabinet next to the trash can.’ Kirk efficiently lined the trash can and put it in front of the refrigerator. Sofia thanked him and continued her annoyed low-key rant. ‘Why did all those people tell me to eat kale? It smells horrible when it’s going bad.’ A second bag was filled and taken to the garage, and then Sofia was ready to think past trash. She turned to Kirk. ‘Just as I figured, there wasn’t anything to worry about with getting into my place. I didn’t see anything, so I guess we’re good?’