Free The Beautiful People by E. J. Fechenda Page B

waiting at the door. I had barely set foot into our
apartment when the inquisition started.
    “Oh
my God, he is gorgeous! Where did you go, did you stay at his place…did you
sleep with him?” She was firing off questions like an automatic machine gun and
I could barely keep up. I held my hands up to silence her.
    “Geez,
Chels. Can you give me a second?” She looked at me impishly and backed off. I
dashed to the bathroom to relieve myself and splashed cool water on my face. I
should have been exhausted, but was running on pure euphoria and endorphins at
the moment. I glanced in the mirror and saw my eyes were bright and wide with
excitement. There were dark smudges underneath from my mascara. It wasn’t
heinous though and that surprised me. The smudges added a smoky, dramatic
effect. Hmmm, not bad, I thought to myself.
    Chelsea waited in the living
room and was twitching like an excited puppy when I walked in. I knew she was
holding back a deluge of questions. I plopped down on the futon next to her and
prepared for the assault.
    “So,
you spent the night with him?”
    “Yes.”
    “Where?”
    “His
condo. He lives in the most unbelievable place. It makes our apartment look
like a hovel.”
    “He’s
rich, huh?”
    “I
guess so. His condo sure isn’t cheap.”
    “And
the sex, how was it?” I was embarrassed by her directness and flushed when I
recalled the intimacy between us.
    “Incredible.”
That was the only word I could come up with to describe it and then I thought
of another. “Mind blowing. Quite possibly - no definitely - the best sex I’ve
ever had!”
    “Wow,”
Chelsea remarked. She inspected my face after my statements. “Oh, Nat you
really like this guy don’t you?”
    I nodded my head in
admittance. I hadn’t allowed myself to get emotionally invested with anyone.
After seeing my mom’s heart ripped out and destroyed, I swore that I would
never put myself in a position where something like that could happen to me. Then,
after Toby, I swore off emotional commitments completely. Somehow, with Dominic,
I found that promise hard to uphold. Flings were easy. I didn’t put my heart up
for grabs and ended the liaisons before they amounted to anything close to a
relationship. I didn’t want just a fling with Dom, though.
    Chelsea peered at me
waiting for me to continue. “I do like him. He referred to me as his girlfriend
when he introduced me to his Aunt and Uncle.” Chelsea’s mouth hung open.  
    “Wait,
back the fuck up! You met family members and he called you his girlfriend?” she
paused. “And you didn’t run away screaming?”
    “No,
I actually liked being called his girlfriend, even though I told him it was too
soon for that. His Aunt and Uncle are so nice.” I filled her in on Franco’s
Ristorante, the extraordinary food and the ice skating at Riverfront Park.
    “Whoa.”
She sat across from me and regarded me with her sky blue eyes. “Are you ready
for this Nat?” Her question triggered a little bit of the fear. I had let my
guard completely down last night and showed Dominic more of my true self than
I’ve shown anyone in a while. It was easy to be myself around him.
                “I...think
so? I really like Dominic and want to see where this goes.”
     Chelsea had a worried
look on her face. She was still raw from her break-up and I’m sure she thought
I was crazy to open myself up for hurt. Little did she know that I already
opened myself up. That left me feeling both exhilarated and terrified.
    Instead Chelsea
surprised me. “Well I never thought I’d see the day…” and she grinned. “It’s
about time you gave another relationship a try. Sometimes they don’t work out,
but you learn a lot about yourself in the process.”
                “Oh yeah?
And what did you learn about yourself this last go around?”
    Chelsea may be living
vicariously through my life now, but there were times when I lived vicariously
through her