Unexpected

Chapter 15

The next morning as we were lounging around in bed, trying to decide if we were actually going to do anything that day, I brought up a question that had occurred to me when I was talking to Maggie the night before. “I forgot to ask you this yesterday when we were talking. Was your grandmother concerned that I was going to sell my story after I left?” Alex looked conflicted; worried, I’m sure, that he was going to make his family look bad but not wanting to lie to me either. “Alex, it’s fine, she should be. I mean, I’m absolutely not going to, but they don’t know me at all, so I’m sure it would be a concern.”

“She did mention it but I reassured her that you would never do that.”

“Did you tell her about my big fancy camera and that I’ve been taking pictures of you when you’re naked and sleeping?” I said, looking at him out of the corner of my eye.

“No, only because I’ve been secretly deleting those every morning, so I know I have nothing to worry about.”

“Very sneaky, mister. How am I ever going to pay off all my student loans now?” I sighed and laid back on the bed, dramatically putting the back of my hand up to my forehead.

“I’m sorry, but if those pictures ever got out and people realized how good I looked naked, I’d never be able to leave the house.”

“Are you even able to leave the house as it is?”

“Good point.”

 

When Alex went to take a shower, I decided I needed to just get the call with my parents over with. Only my mom was home, which was probably a blessing. As I’d hoped, they hadn’t yet heard about it from anyone. I had to have my mom get on the computer as we were talking and Google my name and Prince Alexander in order to get her to actually believe what I was telling her, although I couldn’t blame her, it was a pretty insane story.

Once she calmed down a bit after completely losing it, she asked me what he was like and how we’d met and whether we were going to continue to date once I came home, all very typical mom-type questions. I assured her he was a very nice guy but no, I didn’t think we’d continue as we lived so far apart. She promised she would tell my dad for me and that she’d make sure he wasn’t too angry about it. She was worried about what the other teachers at school would think and I apologized for putting her in an awkward position with them, but just asked her to downplay the whole thing to anyone that brought it up. I realized I wasn’t going to be able to go home for a long, long time. Nothing really ever happened in my tiny hometown so this was going to be big news forever.

A short while after I got off the phone, Alex walked out of the bathroom, freshly showered and completely naked. I tried to keep my eyes up but they kept drifting south, which of course Alex noticed, giving me a smug smile.

A devious thought crossed my mind and I stood up and gave him a light kiss, acting like I was moving to leave the room. When he turned away and went to grab boxer briefs out of his drawer, I saw my opportunity. Winding my arm as far back as it would go, I let it fly forward, underhand, at his bottom.

The slap sound that ensued was louder than I could have predicted, as was his accompanying yell of surprise -- surprise with a little pain rolled in as well.

I couldn’t help it, I burst into laughter, even though I felt slightly bad about how big of a smack it had been.

The door to the bedroom burst open just as Alex was starting to make his way over to me, with a teasingly menacing look on his face. Alex swiftly held his boxers in front of his waist as Sam accessed the situation and, with a red face and a mumbled apology, exited the room almost as quickly as he’d arrived.