Chapter 5: The Green Door

The stairs were steep and narrow, and Gina climbed them behind me with her hand on the small of my back.

At the top was a door painted dark green.

She unlocked it, pushed it open, and stood aside.

The apartment was one long room with a kitchen at one end and a bed at the other.

There was a worn leather couch, a rack of old boxing gloves on the brick wall, and a single lamp on in the corner.

Over the couch hung an empty wooden frame, with nothing in it.

I noticed it, and then I stopped noticing anything, because Gina shut the door and leaned against it.

"I haven't had anyone up here in a long time," she said.

"How long?"

"Three years. I counted once." She almost smiled. "That's embarrassing."

"It's not."

I crossed the room to her.

My heart was pounding so hard I could feel it in my teeth.

"I'm nervous," I admitted.

"So am I."

"You don't look nervous."

"I look like a woman who hits things for a living." She took my face in her hands. "Rae, I'm shaking."

I looked down.

Her hands were trembling against my cheeks, very slightly.

It undid something in me.

I turned my face and kissed the heel of her palm, then each of her knuckles in turn.

They were scarred and hard, and I kissed every one.

"These are the best hands I've ever seen," I said.

Gina made a sound I had never heard from a person, half laugh and half groan.

"Come here," she said.

She kissed me against the door, slowly at first and then not slowly at all.

My back hit the wood, and my fingers went into her short hair.

She tasted like coffee and cold air, and she kissed like she had thought about this for days.

When she pulled my shirt up over my head, I let her.

When she lifted me against the door, I wrapped my legs around her waist and held on.

"Bed," I said into her mouth.

"Couch is closer."

"Bed, Gina."

She carried me there.

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