“So, what do you want to do first?” Taylor asked, pressing Kinsey firmly against the inside of the front door as soon as it had shut behind them. Kinsey wanted to continue kissing him until a truly creative idea popped into her mind, but as a gnawing growl of hunger ripped through her stomach, Taylor stopped his mouth’s assault on her neck and started laughing. “Apparently, you want to eat dinner.”
“Not particularly,” she admitted, kissing him again, but her stomach growled once more and he pulled away chuckling, backing towards the kitchen.
“I’m making you dinner,” he told her. Kinsey sighed loudly, a scowl breaking out over her flushed face and she followed him and sat on the counter as he got out an almost obscene amount of ingredients and busied himself with pots and pans while she just sat and watched while drinking a beer. Eventually, she determined through the mess and plethora of mixing bowls and skillets that he was making them spaghetti with meat sauce.
“I think you used every ingredient and cooking utensil in the kitchen, Taylor. Congratulations,” Kinsey laughed.
“You can just walk your ass down to the corner and get a hot dog for that one,” he retorted. She slid off the counter and took a plate from his outstretched hands.
“No thanks, I’ll just eat this,” she smiled, grabbing her beer off the counter and leading the way to the table, “I didn’t know you were capable of actually following through with the entire meal making process.” He shrugged and shoveled a forkful of pasta into his mouth.
“When I act helpless, people just do stuff for me,” he told her. She glared at him and kicked him under the table.
“I knew there was no way you could be as pathetic as you seem all the time. You’re such a loser.”
“Well, you’re stuck with this loser for the next forty-eight hours,” he grinned.
“I know, it’s going to be weird.”
“You think?” he asked, seeming genuinely interested in hearing her response.
“We’ve never spent this much time alone together. So yeah, I think it has the potential to be a bit interesting.”
“I think we’re going to have fun,” he told her.
“Real fun or naughty sweaty fun?” she countered.
“They aren’t the same thing?” he laughed. Kinsey gave him a pointed look before eating another bite. “I’ll take that as a no.”
“I just think that we should probably come up with something to do so when Zac and Isaac come back Sunday night they don’t ask what we did all weekend and we don’t just sit there and gape at them blankly.”
“Well, I kind of want to buy a digital camera. We could go to Best Buy,” he suggested, the statement sounding strange coming out of his mouth the moment he said it. Kinsey had been right when she had told him a while back that they didn’t hang out, so him even suggesting that they go do even something as simple as a shopping chore together seemed out of character for them, but at the same time, it felt really natural. Two friends making plans for a Friday evening; what was weird about that?
“What do you need a camera for? Not enough pictures of you out there already? Need to take some more?”
“We want to get some candids in the studio for the website, Snarky McBitch,” he drawled, rolling his eyes, “And you’ll be taking the pictures, so I suggest you just get on board with the idea.”
“I’d be happy to take them,” she said, “But if you’re making me go tech shopping, I’m making you go clothes shopping. I need a few more things I can wear to work. I’ll bet they even have a nice scarf rack that can keep you interested while I’m in the dressing room.”
“I think I’d have more fun with you in the dressing room,” he countered, smiling before eating another bite. Kinsey felt her stomach tighten with that comment. Did it turn her on to hear him talk to her like that? Of course. But was it also strange to hear those kinds of things spill from his multi-talented lips? Yes.
Niceties had not been commonplace between them for over a decade and even their recent sexual encounters had still been heavily laced with bouts of ribbing, so this new situation, this flirting felt odd, but not unwelcome. Kinsey could not have lied and said she didn’t enjoy this new side to Taylor. When he wasn’t adamantly trying to be a grade A douchenozzle, he was actually pretty charming, she had come to realize in the last hour or so.
“What are you thinking?” he asked her and she realized that she had been staring down at her plate during her internal thought process. Seeing no need to lie to him, she opted to be honest.
“I was just thinking that when you’re not intentionally trying to be the world’s biggest pain in my ass, you’re actually pretty charming,” she said.
“Gee… thanks.”
“Well, you asked,” she shrugged. He nodded, acknowledging the fact that he had in fact asked what she was thinking and therefore deserved an honest response. They finished up their dinner with intermittent conversation and after Kinsey had changed into some jeans, they headed out on their shopping excursion.
Taylor had a tendency to ask salespeople about a million questions whenever they went into a store, so Kinsey had to fight back the urge to ask if he was feeling okay when he went right into Best Buy, told the teenage kid working the digital camera section what he wanted, and lead them up to the registers all within twenty minutes. Kinsey had been fully preparing herself to stand around and look at the DVD selection about a hundred times over, but instead, she just followed Taylor around while he did his speedy business and they were out the door, Taylor about $500 poorer, within a half hour.
“That was the fastest purchase you’ve ever made, Taylor. Are you aware of that?” Kinsey teased.
“I did a lot of research online today, so I knew exactly what one I wanted.” Kinsey pretended to be choked up.
“My little Taylor’s growing up!” she exclaimed, giving him an awkwardly placed side hug to emphasize her feigned pride. He gently pushed her away before leading them into a Starbucks.
“I might have been fast, but there’s no way you will be. I need caffeine to get me through your shopping spree,” he told her as he lead the way inside.
“There will be no spree. I just need a few things.” He made a talking motion with his hand at her before stepping up to the counter and addressing the lady behind the register.
“What can I get for you tonight?” she asked cheerfully, giving Taylor a big smile. Kinsey rolled her eyes and busied herself by looking at the travel mugs for sale while Taylor prepared himself to divulge his insane coffee order. He always ordered the exact same thing, but Kinsey couldn’t fault him for that since she did the same thing. But his order really was bordering on ludicrous and she had heard it so many times she knew it by heart. However, he surprised her by ordering her usual first instead.
“I’d like a grande upside-down skim caramel macchiato with no whip,” he started, but before he had the chance to finish with his own, Kinsey chimed in with his order.
“And a double grande skim hot dulce de leche latte with extra caramel sauce and no whip,” she said, looking over at Taylor to shoot him a snarky smile but finding him looking back at her amusedly.
“Do you want a cookie, too?” he asked.
“Actually, I do.”
“And a chocolate chunk cookie,” Taylor told the woman behind the counter before pulling a twenty from his wallet.
“I can get this. You just broke the bank at Best Buy,” Kinsey said, reaching for her purse.
“I’ve got it,” he said sincerely before shoving two dollars of his change in the tip jar and heading down to wait for his drink. Once they were down there and away from the rest of the line, he turned to her. “So, you have my drink order memorized?”
“Asks the guy who ordered mine first,” Kinsey countered.
“Do you have any idea how many times I’ve made coffee runs and have had to order that ridiculous thing for you?” Kinsey didn’t say anything and just snatched her drink off the counter when the barista set it there. She took a long sip and thought about what he had just said. Why did she know his stupid, moronic Starbucks order?
“Where to now?” he asked once he had his drink in hand and they were on their way out the door.
“Let’s just go to Macy’s. I get a discount there and it’s not too far from here,” Kinsey said.
“Works for me,” Taylor replied.
An hour and a half and two full shopping bags later, they were headed for the subway, Taylor lugging the heavier of the two bags having given in after Kinsey had whined about its weight for almost two full blocks.
“Did you buy fucking rocks?” Taylor groaned, switching the bag to his other hand.
“They’re boots and they’re fabulous.”
“They’d fucking better be,” he muttered, moaning in relief as he sat the bag down on the empty seat next to him on the subway, taking a look at his own seat before sitting down. Kinsey shook her head lightly at his anal retentiveness before sitting next to him. They didn’t talk much on the ride back because it was too loud and crazy in there to have much of a civilized conversation anyway. So, she just let herself get lost in her own thoughts, something she’d gotten pretty good at lately. She saw that Taylor was still nursing the last bit of his drink and the pressure in her bladder was making her wish she hadn’t gone through hers quite so quickly.
The more she thought about their drinks, the more irritated she got. How he had ordered her drink first and then had to point out the fact that he’d been instructed to get that drink for her so many times and that was why he knew it. She knew his because… well, it wasn’t because she had been sent to get coffee for him a lot, because she hadn’t. She had gone with Isaac on about a million Starbucks runs in the last few years but he always took care of ordering for his brothers. Actually, she hadn’t ever even paid attention while he did so; she usually just ordered her drink and then moved down the line since she hated having them pay for her all the time and she always picked up her own drink when she went along. If someone had asked her what Isaac or Zac’s regular Starbucks drink orders were, she wouldn’t have had the slightest clue. So why did she know Taylor’s? Well, there was the fact that it was a ridiculous order, but that usually would have meant that she would just block it out and remember that it was stupid and long but not anything else about it. And since it wasn’t that, she knew that it was strictly because it annoyed her. She had remembered it because every time she had ever heard him order that drink, she had actively thought about how ridiculous it was.
And then there was the little thing he had done when they had gotten on the Subway. Before he had even walked into the car, Kinsey had known that he would look down at his seat discreetly before sitting down. Kinsey knew this because Taylor always looked discreetly at seats before he deemed them okay to sit down on because when he had been little, their families had gone out to eat once and Taylor had had the misfortune of sitting down in gum and therefore had been teased endlessly by Zac, Isaac, and Kinsey for years to come. Now, he always did that and even though everyone else seemed to have forgotten about that incident, Kinsey still remembered because she always saw his eyes glance before he sat.
As Kinsey and Taylor made their way up to their condo, she knew that he was rambling to her about something, but she was only half paying attention because now she was trying to figure out why she always noticed that he looked at his seat before he sat down in public. She wanted to tear her hair out for being so introspective all of a sudden, but something kept drawing her thoughts back to the subject.
Something. Disgusted by the pathetic irony of that word choice, she almost snorted out loud, but kept it inside.
They hardly had the door locked behind them and Taylor had dropped her shopping bag to the floor and was kissing her. She wanted to go hang her new clothes up on hangers and wanted to clear her thoughts, but there was no way she could do either with Taylor’s insistent and talented lips moving against hers. Reluctantly, she placed her hands on his chest and pushed him backwards gently, just enough to part their lips.
“I need to do a few things first, is that okay?” she asked.
“No, of course not,” he joked, watching as she picked up the bag he’d dropped.
“I’ll come to your room in a few minutes,” she told him, handing him the Best Buy bag he’d placed inside of her larger and easier-to-carry bag.
“Okay,” he smiled, “Don’t make me wait too long, though.” She returned his smile before trotting up the stairs. After visiting the bathroom quickly, she went into her room and sat the bags down next to her closet, deciding to deal with those after she had dealt with her busy head. Deciding that a brief meditation of sorts would probably do the trick, she laid down in the middle of her bed and closed her eyes, hoping to push away the strange thoughts that didn’t seem to want to go away. Unfortunately, as soon as her upper and lower lids pressed together, the thoughts seemed to increase tenfold.
Why did she have to notice all of those little annoying things Taylor did? Was that the reason why they had stopped getting along so well? Was he doing the same thing with her? Was he always noticing all of her little idiosyncrasies? That thought bothered her deeply and she realized immediately why. What she was always doing with Taylor was nitpicking, plain and simple. Every little thing he did that drew her attention, she got annoyed by. When she really thought about it, was his Starbucks order honestly any worse than her own? She had to admit that it wasn’t. So why had his order always drawn her attention more so than his brothers’? Why did she care if he wanted to look at his seat to make sure he didn’t repeat an embarrassing and apparently somewhat scarring situation? Well, there was the little fact that for the last ten years they had tended to operate rather like oil and water. When two people are essentially sworn pains-in-each-others-asses, aren’t they supposed to annoy the other in every way possible?
As much as Kinsey just wanted to leave it at that, she knew it wasn’t right. As she went through the laundry list of things that had always annoyed her about Taylor in her mind, she came to the startling realization that few if any of them were actually annoying in the dictionary definition of the word. Taylor was a true creature of habit, and Kinsey had to admit that it was kind of cute knowing that if his favorite item was buried somewhere on a menu, he would find it and order it specifically to his taste.
Cute.
Kinsey couldn’t remember how many times she’d rolled her eyes at him when he ordered his favorite meal, wondering why he couldn’t branch out and try something else for once. But when she thought back on it, she forced herself to admit that whenever she opened a menu, she always checked it to see if it was there lurking somewhere in the pages and when she spied it, she would always roll her eyes and wait for him to order it so she could give him a hard time. What in the hell did she care? Zac almost always ordered a cheeseburger, but that had never bothered her in the slightest. So why was it so different with Taylor?
But she really didn’t need to ask herself that question, because she already knew. The answer was waiting for her, it seemed, as if it had been aching for her to ask that question for years. It was different with Taylor because everything was different with Taylor. He had never felt like a brother to her like Isaac had and he had never been a true friend like Zac. It had always been different, even before they had started fighting. It was always as if they didn’t know exactly how to act around each other. Maybe they had just gone with the fighting when it had started because at least it gave their relationship an identity. They had become Taylor and Kinsey, the two who fought, and it had suited them just fine for years. But then Taylor had gone and messed everything up by kissing her on her birthday and now they were back to being something different.
Her hands shook lightly as she sat up on her bed and she tried to still them by trapping them under her legs, but as soon as she did that, her pulse quickened and she felt the lengths of her breaths shorten. It was too much too fast and it had come about in the strangest way, this line of thought had, and Kinsey wanted to take it all back. But she couldn’t do that. She couldn’t even slow the stream of thoughts as they continued to flood her mind with their relentless questions.
Why didn’t you ever think of Taylor as a brother? You’d never thought of him sexually until you had that stupid dream about him. Why did you two have to fight in order to feel like your relationship made sense? Why did he kiss you on your birthday? Why did you two starting a physical relationship make you stop fighting and why do things still feel strange between you?
And then a thought came into her head in a voice so clear and sure of itself, it startled Kinsey with its declaration. As soon as the sentence came into her head, she didn’t know if she wanted to try to erase it from her memory or if she wanted to cry with happiness that the answer she had been too stubborn to see had finally broken through her thick head. Before she had a chance to beat the topic to death in her brain any more, she flew off the bed and headed for Taylor’s room where she found him sitting on his bed messing around with his new camera.
“It’s about time, slowpoke,” he said, not looking up from his screen until her rare moment of silence drew his attention. He saw her standing there a few feet away from him looking scared and excited at the same time. The look on her face was truly confusing and he knew that he had never seen her look that way before. “What’s going on?”
“I know your Starbucks order,” she started.
“Um, yeah. Didn’t we go through this already?” he interrupted, but she just continued as if she hadn’t heard him at all.
“I know your Starbucks order,” she repeated for good measure, “I know that you always look down at your seat before you sit down in public because you’re checking for gum. I know that if there’s a club sandwich on the menu in a restaurant you go to, you will not only order it, but you’ll ask for it without bacon and with extra lettuce. You color code your closet and you are so anal retentive that if I move something on your dresser even a half inch, you’ll notice. You always sniff the milk before you pour yourself a cup, even if you bought it yourself that morning and know that it’s fresh. Before you cross the street, you look both ways twice. I know these things because for the last ten years, I’ve noticed them every single time you’ve done them and they have annoyed the crap out of me. I mean… I thought they annoyed me. But I wasn’t really annoyed with you. I was more annoyed with myself for noticing every single time you did those things. I don’t know Isaac’s Starbucks order and I could care less that Zac orders the same thing every time we go out to eat. But, it’s different with you Taylor and it always has been. I’ve always noticed the little things you do and I thought that they pissed me off, but now that I know they really don’t. I…”
“You what?” Taylor asked, setting the camera down and standing to face her, trying his hardest to read the expression on her face.
“I finally realize what it means.”
“Which is…?”
“I think I have feelings for you,” she admitted, the words coming out hurried and she sucked in a loud breath after they were out as if they had exhausted her.
“You think you have feelings for me?” he asked, a smile tugging ever so lightly at the corners of his mouth. She took a deep breath and prepared herself to be brave. She knew that she was about to set herself up to get very hurt, but now that she knew what she needed to say, she needed to say it as soon as possible.
“I know I do. I don’t know exactly what it means, but I do,” she said, feeling the tears coming but not caring.
“It took you long enough,” he smiled, stepping forward and putting himself close to her, close enough to smooth his hand down her hair before pulling her closer.
“It scares me so much and I’m so mad at myself,” she told him, letting him pull her against his chest as she started crying.
“Why?” he asked.
“Because I think I’ve had feelings for you for a while and I’ve been so stubborn and so unwilling to see you in any other way. And you obviously knew before I did how I felt about you,” she sighed.
“Kinsey,” he laughed lightly, pulling back so she could see his face, “I had no idea how you felt. I just knew how I felt; how I feel. I have feelings for you, too, but I didn’t figure it out that far ahead of you. It all started on your birthday.”
“Yeah, sex tends to do that kind of thing…”
“No, it wasn’t that,” he said, “When you came in my room and started asking me about why I had gotten you that gift, I didn’t know what to say because I had no idea why. I hadn’t really let myself think too much about it, but that opened the door. It wasn’t until I almost lost you, when we got in that fight in the alley, that I realized how badly I was going to miss you. How much I was already missing you after only a few hours of knowing I couldn’t go kiss you or hold you when I wanted to.”
“Well, then we’re both stubborn,” Kinsey said, chuckling lightly through her subsiding tears.
“I think we already knew that,” he said, wiping a few stray tears from her cheeks, “So where are we now?”
“I have no idea,” she replied honestly, “From sworn enemies, to secret lovers, to something, to what? Admitted feeling-havers?”
“That doesn’t have much of a ring to it,” he said, “But I think it’s okay for now. This is pretty new.”
“Brand spanking new.”
“Speaking of spanking,” Taylor smirked, grabbing the backs of her thighs without warning and lifting them around his waist.
“We were?” Kinsey asked, trying to keep a serious face.
“I just think we’ve done enough talking. I need a break, what about you?” he grinned before dropping her to the mattress. She smiled and shook her head.
“The word break indicates that there will be resting, and I’m kind of planning to wear you out. So, no. I don’t want a break.”
“I like the way you think,” he said, climbing over her and effectively ending the conversation.