Room One Hundred and Twenty Nine (Club Sin: Seattle Session 2)

Chapter 3

Parker

The rain’s settled down, and the sun came back. I walk into our backyard and assess the damage. Turns out it was more than a little rain. It was a full-on storm. Wind and rain crashed down. Sticks smashed into the windows and the electricity cut out for a second.

I pick up a few sticks from our deck and the hot tub covering, bringing them to the back, where we’ve got a pile going. Trees and bushes surround our house, so when we find a stick we add it to the pile, intending to take it somewhere when it’s big enough.

My shoes are instantly wet, but I don’t think too much about it because I see Haruko come out of her house and look around her lawn.

Her hair is in a messy bun, she’s carrying a broom and wearing a tank top and small shorts.

Jesus, how many shorts does this girl own?

Not that I mind. In fact, I really don’t.

Haruko sees me and gives me a wave and a smile. I return the gesture before she starts sweeping her deck.

Nicholas is right. I’m in the friend-zone. Better than being in the work zone, but still isn’t great. I’d done it intentionally, though. I figured that if we became friends, any sexual or romantic feelings would disappear. That, in fact, did not happen. If anything, my stupid plan went in the opposite direction because now I’m more obsessed than ever. She’s better than I imagined.

And for the record: Her favourite colour is green, her favourite season is summer, and she likes to watch The Hitman’s Bodyguard when she wants to laugh.

She’s adorable. Smart. Quick-witted. Sexy as fuck. And totally my type. I like women who have that sunshine vibe to them, and she is all that.

She comes to work every day with a smile on her face. She always tries to be positive and acts like she loves like life. She's into hiking, swimming, and softball. She volunteers at dog and cat shelters and helps the staff. She meditates every morning. And she once told me she and her friend Dani go on yoga retreats once a year.

Yeah, learning all those things about her didn’t help with my feelings. It just made me think more about what it’d be like to be her boyfriend. And of course, the other guys were in the picture, which I don’t know if she’d consider. We don’t talk about sex or dating—ever.

I think part of it is knowing she’s my employee, regardless of our relationship.

I don’t want to know who she goes out with or if she owns a vibrator. She probably does, though, and just thinking that for a second has my cock twitching in my pants.

None of this stops my brain from imagining what it’d be like to be with her. I can see us taking her to see a funny movie, then going home, eating pizza and going upstairs where Nicholas, Elijah and I ravish her.

Nicholas taking her mouth while I tongue her pussy and Elijah watching the whole thing before he comes over to play with her ass. He’d command the scene, going light on Nicholas, who doesn’t like to be commanded, and leading us all into a blissful orgasm before we go to sleep in one enormous bed.

I sigh.

Never gonna happen, dude.

I look at Haruko, who sets the broom against them all and turns to me and waves and I wave back. After she closes the door and I can’t see her anymore, I go back inside where Nicholas is heating last night's dinner.

I go to the drawer and set up the plates, glasses, and utensils on the dining table.

Nick and I have been roommates since college. Basically, me being eighteen and he nineteen, we met and stuck together like glue. He was the reason I realized I was bi and to be honest I think he is too, but he hasn’t made the leap to acknowledging it.

Not sure why, but that’s his journey.

We play together at the club and sometimes we fuck here at the house, but it’s very body centred. He likes me. I know it. I’m just not sure if it’s a romantic like or a friendship like. Or both.

We’ll be forced to figure out our feelings at some point. All I know is that I’m bi, Elijah is straight, and Haruko is bi. She told me that after I saw her the little bisexual flag she puts at her desk.

“I’m out, proud and… very single. Whoever said that if you’re bi, you can get anyone you want has no idea what dating is like,” she said.

Agreed.

There’s a knock on the door. I know it’s Elijah. He’s joining us for dinner tonight. Thankfully, we made enough lasagna last night to feed an army.

I open the door to Elijah standing in a black long-sleeved shirt and dark jeans. It’s as casual as he gets. I’m not sure he owns anything that isn’t monochromatic and on the darker side. White button-ups are as colourful as he gets. Plus whatever design he has on his ties.

“Sup,” I nod my head at him.

He furrows his brows. “Sup? I thought you graduated college like a decade ago?”

I chuckle and move out of the way so he can step inside.

Both of us head to the kitchen where Nicholas is taking the lasagna from the oven, then tosses the lobster oven mitts to the counter.

Lobster oven mitts are courtesy of me. There’s nothing more joyful than a bright red lobster oven mitt in the hands of a very serious dude. Nick didn’t like them at first and thought it was immature, but I think he’s grown to like them. Or at least tolerate them. I told him that if he wanted different ones, he could buy them himself and he hasn’t. I take that as a sign that he’s fine with my choice.

“I drafted the portal for Raymond Diamond,” Elijah says, taking a seat at the dining table as I pour him a glass of wine.

I groan. “Why do we always have to talk about work during dinner? I thought we were off the clock.”

“What else are we going to talk about?” Elijah asks, looking genuinely confused.

“I don’t know. Sports, movies. What about the club? Are we going back soon?”

We haven’t been back to the club in… well, since we met Haruko. We tried a few times, but we weren’t interested in any of the women who wanted to play with us. After the third time, we just stopped going.

Elijah looks at Nick as he takes a seat. I join him and we dish lasagna onto our plates.

“I guess we can go,” Nick says. “Although I’m not sure that the reason we stopped going in the first place has changed much.”

“True,” I say.

We’re silently dancing around the elephant in the room.

Haruko.

The only woman we want to play with.

“You guys can go.” Elijah nods to me and Nick.

“What about you?” I ask him. “I don’t think brooding in your house is the right way to deal with your feelings.”

“How do you suggest I deal with them, then?” he asks defensively.

“I don’t know. Just probably not like that.”

The room is silent again as we continue to eat.

Then Nick says, “Why don’t we just try? Next week we’ll go. We’ll watch. We’ll see. Maybe you and I can do some stuff. Release a little tension,” he says, looking at me and then Elijah. “And maybe you can watch someone. There’s always at least one couple who wants a director. Maybe you’d find them.”

Elijah considers it for a moment, takes a sip of wine, then nods.

“Okay. You’re right. Let’s go Friday.”

“Cool,” I say and take a bite of my food.

Maybe if we go back to the club, play around a bit, we can try to get over the one woman on this earth we can’t have.