There was nothing as good as waking up to a warm body snuggling into yours in the morning. Gina was wrong, thought Fallon, there was no way a toy could replace the beating heart of a human. They were still on the floor of the recreation room on Sunday morning. Fallon had lost count of the number of times they had made love throughout the night, but she was proud that she had been right about him being good at it. She promised to buy Macy a gift for the excellent ballet training.
She considered letting him sleep a little longer, it seemed really unfair to wake up an insomniac, but he had a meeting at six, it was already a quarter past five and his hair was a mess.
She tapped him gently and he instinctively pulled her closer,and continued to sleep.
"Hey, wake up," she said loudly.
He opened one eye and gave her a lazy smile, "You okay?"
His one hand ran up and down her spine, while the other went lower, he gently parted her legs with his knee, Fallon's breath hitched.
"You are unbelievable," Fallon laughed, "You have only forty five minutes before your meeting."
"It's going to take shorter than that," he said as he pulled her on top of him and kissed her deeply.
"Your hair is a mess."
He smiled into the kiss, "I don't care."
Fallon wanted to protest but his hands were already doing things to her, making her surrender her body to him eargerly.
By the time they finished, Fallon just barely managed to rearrange his curls. He only had two minutes left before the start of the meeting and no decent clothes to wear to it.
"Just go open your computer, I shall grab you something from your room," Fallon told him. He was in yesterday's shirt, with no buttons now and slacks with a stuck zipper.
Fallon rushed to his room and grabbed a random white shirt and rushed it to him downstairs. He shrugged it on and Fallon quickly buttoned it up.
She watched in disbelief as he opened the meeting with a charming and very calm look. How could he do that when her heart was still racing and her center pulsing?
She went back to his room to nurse off her morning sickness by crawling under his covers and burying herself in his smell. She remained there for a few hours, dreading going downstairs to face Gina's and Macy's teasing. Was she doing the right thing? Carrying another man's pregnancy, barely two months in and sleeping with another man already?
He slipped into the room after the meeting, carrying a breakfast tray and smiled at her form in his bed.
"You okay?"
She nodded.
"Here," he said sitting at the foot of the bed and handing her the tray, "Eat something. I would like to make love to you in my bed, but I am going to need you at full strength."
Fallon blushed and sat up to take the tray. She liked the way he casually told her he would like to make love to her, like it was the most normal thing in the world.
After she had eaten, he took her in his arms and made love to her slowly and tenderly, taking his time to explore her body and learn it until she was softly mumbling his name and trying to string together a coherent word.
As she lay on her stomach, deeply sated, he kissed the back of her neck and whispered softly in her ear, "Come with me to LA."
She quickly sat up, "What?"
"LA. I am asking you to come with me to LA."
He moved closer to her and kissed the tip of her nose, "I love you Fallon. I have loved you since the moment I first held you hand and watched those two precious heartbeats pulse inside you. I want you to come with me to LA because the thought of leaving you here is just, unbearable."
"You love me?"
Fallon was thinking of the memory of the previous night when he had carried her in his arms.
"I love you. Simple as that. No gimmicks."
"But that is not what you told Macy last night is it? You said I was..."
"Everything," he whispered.
"Wow, that kind of a serious thing to say."
"I meant it. If I leave you behind and something happens to you, I can't live with myself, I won't..." He gripped onto her arms. "Come with me please. That was always the plan wasn't it? To move to LA with your sister?"
"But my sister..."
"Can come too. You two can rent your own place or you can come live with me or go live with Gina. Whatever you decide, I just want you in the same city as me."
He touched his forehead to hers and inhaled deeply, "Think about it, okay?"
"I am pregnant."
"I know."
"With another man's kids."
"I know."
"I am not even your girlfriend."
"No. You are everything."
"To who?"
"To me. I care about you. I want to know you. Your dreams, your fears, your life. I want to take every step of the way from now onwards with you. I want to hold your hair as you puke in the morning and go to sleep at night with you in my arms. The pregnancy is a non issue, let's treat it as mine. I know we have only know each other for a short while but we will figure out things as we go. Let's take it one day at a time, but together. You and I. I know your feelings about me are undecided at best but I love you and I don't know if you feel it but I know that you and I, we were meant to be. Allow me the chance to make you love me. "
"I..."
He kissed her forehead, "Think about it, okay? I have to go to LA right now to sort out something that came up in the meeting but I will be back tomorrow."
"You are leaving?" Fallon frowned.
"I wish I wasn't but I have to. It's just for today. I will be here tomorrow morning."
Fallon pouted as he was taking a shower and getting dressed but when he was ready to leave, she couldn't stay mad at him anymore. She escorted him downstairs and he kissed her, long, deep and passionate until Gina, who was lounging at the pool whistled. They ignored her.
He slipped a hand discreetly and caressed her breasts, Fallon shuddered.
"Take care of yourself, okay?"
"Okay."
"I am serious Fallon."
"I said okay."
"You are not serious, I can tell. Remember, no caffeine, no eggs..."
"I like eggs."
"I don't like your reaction to them at the moment, just keep off them for now. No skipping of meals, keep yourself hydrated and most importantly, no Timothy."
"Tom."
"Yes, him. Every time you have an encounter with him, your stress levels go through the roof. Also, no falling asleep the dining chairs."
"Yes sir," Fallon mocked.
He kissed her one last time before getting in his car and driving away.
Fallon went to sit with Gina by the pool, "Where is everybody?"
Gina sat up straighter and lowered her sunglasses, "Berin rushed to see your grandma at the nursing home and Macy went to church."
"Oh."
"Is he any good?"
"What?"
"My brother, is he any good in bed? You winced when you sat down which means he is really good which I must admit is a little surprising because he is so uptight. To be honest, until you, I really thought he was gay."
"Gay?" Nothing about the way he had made love to her even suggested gay. It was obvious he knew how to please a woman, "Why would you think he is gay?"
"He has dated a guy before, never seen him date him date a girl."
"He dates men?"
Fallon wasn't sure how to feel about that. She liked to think of herself as an open minded person, but she had her limits.
Gina slowly turned a page of the magazine she was reading, "Is that a problem?"
"No. I am just trying to figure him out."
"He has only had one relationship that I know of and it was with a guy in ballet class. They didn't sleep together though. Taylor has always been selective of who he sleeps with, it's the doctor in him."
"But he has slept with women?"
"I think so, but it has been a while since I saw him with anyone."
"He wants me to move to LA with him."
There was no surprise on Gina's face, "Are you going to?"
"I don't know. It is a big step to take."
"Did he use protection?"
"What?"
"Condom, did he use it?"
Their reckless love making now hit Fallon, "Er..."
"That's a no. That settles it. He loves you."
"Not using a condom is a funny way to show it," Fallon said drily.
"I know my brother. He is the most uptight person in the world. The fact that he was willing to let go with you and not to care about the consequences of unprotected sex says a lot about his feelings."
"There aren't any consequences, I am already pregnant."
"STDs? And considering you have been with another man recently, it would have bothered the Taylor I know so much. He once went out on a couple of dates with my friend and he gave her such a hard time,asking her how many sexual partners she had had, demanding that they both get tested for STIs and did not even once kiss her the entire time. Oh, and she wasn't allowed to touch his hair."
Fallon laughed, "I am sure you are embellishing."
Gina pulled out her phone and scrolled through it, "Here, let me read you one of her texts," she cleared her throat, "Your brother is a real piece of work, it's either he is gay or crazy, date three,no kiss and no sign of it happening, he wouldn't even come in when I invited him and was very rude about it too. That's it G, I am done."
"Maybe he just wasn't attracted."
"Exactly. And mark you she is a model with legs that go on for days. So unprotected sex is a big step for Taylor, trust me."
Fallon looked down at her hands in thought, "He said the L word."
Gina squealed.
"Can I trust him? I know he is your brother and you are obligated to take his side but I am asking you, girl to girl."
Gina was silent for a moment before replying, "He is a good person."
"But can I trust him?"
"To be honest, I can't confidently say yes. I used to know him, a long time ago, but somewhere along the way, we both got too busy for each other and now, I feel like I only know the bits and pieces he lets me see. What I can tell you is that it is difficult to find someone you have a connection with nowadays. If your gut tells you there is something, go for it."
"He is older. I have never dated older before."
Gina winked, "Well, at least he is cuter than Timothy."
"Tom," Fallon corrected, rolling her eyes. She knew both Gina and Taylor knew Tom's name, they just said it wrong out of disrespect, like Gina called Steve Stephanie.
"Whatever. He's got red hair and freckles, and if his dick is identical to his brother's like everything else, it's micro, he ticks all the boxes for a Timothy."
Gina jumped in the pool and swam away, making clean strokes gracefully, leaving Fallon to stew in her own thoughts.
"Grandma asked about you," Berin said when she came back that afternoon.
Fallon snorted, "Did she ask when I was dying?"
"No," replied Berin calmly, "She asked if you were okay."
"Liar."
"It's true. She also asked me to give you this," Berin handed her a small envelope, "She said she didn't know when you will come by to see her next but it was prudent that you got this. I wish you would have come for today's visit, she was super sweet."
Fallon eyed the envelopes suspiciously, What's in there? Dead crickets?"
Berin shrugged, "I don't know."
Fallon took the envelope and pushed it in her bookbag, vowing not to open it any time soon. To be honest, she did not regret not visiting her grandmother in the nursing home as much as she ought to. The old lady's negativity just drained Fallon out, and right at that moment in her life, she needed as much positivity as she could get.
That night,she went to sleep in in Taylor's bed, keenly feeling his absence. She hadn't noticed how he was such a big part of her support system with the pregnancy until he was gone. At lunch and dinner, there was no one to fill her plate, no one to remind her to stay hydrated and no one to check up on her every few minutes to ask if she was okay. No one even noticed when she reached for the eggs.
Her face split into a wide grin when he called that night.
"You okay?"he asked gently.
"I miss you," Fallon whispered, and she meant every word, she missed him, didn't want to go through with this pregnancy without him.
He chuckled, "Just a few hours more and I will be there."
He sounded so close when he said it, Fallon hugged his pillow tighter.
"Today I told my parents about you."
"What? Why? What did you tell them? What did they say?"
"Told them you were my girlfriend."
Fallon's heart soared, "And?"
"My mom hit me on the head."
Fallon laughed, "Why?"
"Because I haven't taken you out on a date yet. So it's the first thing we are doing when I get back, okay?"
"Okay."
"How did your meeting go?"
"Terrible. I wasn't paying attention I was thinking about you."
"In a good way?"
"In a dirty way."
Fallon flushed and her hands went inside her shorts.
"Don't," he said on the other side.
"Don't what?"
"Touch yourself. I know you are doing it and the thought of you doing that in my bed is driving me crazy and I can't afford that when I am about to have dinner with my mom, she is crazy enough for the two of us."
Fallon sighed, "I wish you were here."
"That makes the two of us. Goodnight."
"I love you," the words escaped Fallon's lips in a single breath.
He was silent on the other end for some time before he replied, "Love you too."
Fallon lay for sometime in bed after the call, wondering if their 'I love yous' had been said too soon. She hadn't said it to Tom until a year and a half into their relationship, and she had only said it because he kept on saying it to her. Had she lovedTom? She had no idea but what she had felt for Tom was not even close to the tornado that was her feelings for Taylor.