just ash

chapter 4

The butterfly flitted to the next bunch of pink, fragrant petals and let its tongue dip into the sweet nectar deep in the flower's core.

Ash stared at the sentence she had just typed for a second before chuckling.  She tapped the backspace bar, and the cursor on her screen ate up her words. 

Alrighty, let's try again, but without any cunnilingus references.

Two weeks had passed since Ash and Drew had their...satisfying... phone call.  Due to Ash's sleep schedule straightening out, though, they hadn't been able to have a repeat. 

Ash's sex drive rather unfortunately reflected this.  

Despite her sexual frustration, Ash's first two weeks in Korea had gone exceptionally well.  Although orientation for teaching had been overwhelming, she felt much more prepared than before.  She was lucky she was placed in Seoul where so many people spoke English, but the language barrier was still going to be a bigger obstacle than she had anticipated.  Thankfully her orientation was a glorified "learn Korean in two weeks" crash course. 

Luckily, she had her writing to escape to.  She went to her new favorite café every afternoon after orientation to write.  Even though the day staff was different than the first woman she had met, they all already knew her order and had it ready by the time she walked through the jingling door.

The first couple days she had gone in, she found herself anxiously watching the door from the plush chair in the corner.  She was torn between wanting to see his eyes smile at her again and never wanting to see them again.  Things would be a lot easier if she could focus on her teaching, writing, and relationship maintenance with her loved ones back home.

But Susie had been the devil on her shoulder encouraging her to continue going back to the café.  Just in case.

Their friendship blossomed much more quickly than Ash expected herself to allow.  Usually Ash kept herself closed off until she was certain she could trust someone.  But the way that Susie immediately brightened any situation by offering never-ending snuggles and walking around the house in a handstand had Ash loving her in no time.

Ash glanced out the café's window to watch the rain blur the busy street outside.  Walking home was not going to be fun considering she had forgotten an umbrella and a rain jacket.  Not only that, Ash had discovered that walking the streets of Seoul was way more crowded during the day than it was in the middle of the night – which should not have come as a surprise.  Her 5'8" curvy stature made it difficult to squeeze into the small spaces that seemed to riddle her new city; the bus, the train, and the narrow streets and sidewalks were taking some getting used to.

She turned her attention back to her laptop after sipping her lukewarm tea to try to get more work done.  After she re-typed the sentences she had been struggling with, her flow returned.  As she let herself sink deeper into her fantasy world, Ash became oblivious to her surroundings.

Her headphones blasted in her ears, so she didn't hear the door jingle; she was so focused she didn't notice the movement of someone making an order and walking toward her.

When she finally noticed a tall figure enter her peripheral vision, she snapped her head up.  It took a moment for her brain to process the nearly ethereal image her eyes drank in:  a tall man, wearing a bucket cap, surgical mask, dark grey button up shirt, and matching shorts.  His muscular legs seemed to stretch for miles down to his sneaker-clad feet, and the way his calves contracted as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other made her mouth pop open.

Holy balls, its him.

Her wide eyes slowly shifted to his face and she noticed that his eyes exuded amusement.  His mask was bobbing up and down, and Ash's brain finally caught up.