Netflix and Chill

“What’s up?”

“Don’t be embarrassed, but you fart in your sleep.”

“What?!” Arianna shrilled.

Tears started to form in her eyes from the tremendous amount of embarrassment she felt.

“Are you crying?” Pierce asked in concern. “I was just messing with you. You don’t fart in your sleep, but you do snore horribly.”

Arianna sniffed a couple of times and allowed Pierce to wipe away her tears. “Sorry I didn’t give you a heads up. Jesse told me that I snore pretty badly. His exact words were, “you snore like ten grown men,” she recalled.

“One, you might want to see someone about that. Two, how close are you and Jesse? Is he going to be a problem?”

Arianna sighed loudly and buried her face into Pierce’s chest, a little peeved that he wasn’t shirtless. She wanted to feel his warm skin on her face and inhale his masculine scent.

“Jesse and I are going through a tough period. I think he feels threatened by you. Typically, when we have our best friend's date night, he’ll spend the night, but I made it clear to him that I wouldn’t date him the night before, and he was a little butt hurt. He wanted to come over again last night and spend the night, but I told him he couldn’t spend the night at my place any longer because we were getting acquainted, and I didn’t feel that it was appropriate any longer.”

“Let me guess, he didn’t take that so well.”

“No, he didn’t. I’m just going to give him some space, and if he cuts me off because I won’t let him sleep in my bed anymore, then he was never a friend in the first place,” Arianna reasoned.

“Right. Are you ready to eat?”

“What time is it?”

“Pushing 1:00 PM.”

“I’ll probably want to eat in an hour or so. We can consider it an early dinner. What are you in the mood for?”

“Honestly? Pizza. I haven’t had pizza in a long time. How does that sound?” Pierce asked.

“Same. I’m pretty basic. Pepperoni for me will be fine.”

“Pepperoni, it is. Did you want to go swimming in the meantime?”

“Sure. I’ll get dressed in my swimsuit and meet you out back.”

“Great.” Pierce stole a few kisses from Arianna before letting her out of bed. He groaned softly and watched her walk out of the bedroom as naked as the day she was born. He was shocked at how comfortable Arianna was around him. She was a little shy at first, but it was clear she didn’t mind being naked around him.

He ordered the pizza and rifled through his dresser to find swimming trunks. He hadn’t swum in several months due to his depression. At times, he wanted to, but he settled instead on blankly staring at the pool for hours on end. Pierce finally found his swimming trunks ten minutes later and changed. He heard the doorbell ring, and his initial instinct told him that the pizza place had speedy delivery, but then he realized that he had only placed the order about 15 minutes ago. He jogged downstairs and peeked in the backyard to see Arianna in her pink bikini, dipping into the pool. He almost said fuck whoever was at the door, but by the way the person was ringing the doorbell, you would’ve thought it was an emergency.

“Alright. I’m coming. I’m coming. Relax,” Pierce called out as he approached the front door. He looked through the peephole and rolled his eyes. “Stella...what do you want?”

“Whose car is that parked in the driveway?” she asked, staring at Pierce's shirtless physique.

“None of your concern. What do you want?”

Stella scanned Pierce’s lack of attire and knew that his deflection meant a woman was in the house.

“I just came to apologize about my behavior at the club.”

“You wasted your gas money to come and lie to my face. You don’t apologize for anything, Stella.”

“Maybe, I’m trying to turn a new leaf.”

“From your behavior yesterday at the club, I highly doubt it. Was that all you wanted? I have a guest to entertain, and it would be rude to leave them for an extended period.”

“Right. I did want to come and tell you in person that I will become a member of Elite SA, despite what that little bitch said.”

“Leave,” Pierce growled.

“Excuse me?” she gasped. Stella was shocked by Pierce’s tone.

Did Pierce finally grow a backbone after all these years? If so, was it because of a new woman in his life?

“Last time I checked, you knew how to speak English, so I know you understood clearly, but just in case you didn’t, get the fuck off my property.” Pierce didn’t wait for Stella to make a move and slammed the door in her face and locked it behind him.

“Is everything okay?” Arianna asked from behind Pierce. He whirled around and confronted her.

“Uh, yeah, everything’s great."

“Is the pizza here already?” she questioned with a curious head tilt.

“No, not quite. I do have a question to ask you,” Pierce said, throwing an arm over Arianna’s shoulder, and leading her back towards the backyard.

“What’s up?”

“Why are you so got damn sexy in that bikini?” Pierce said as they came into the pool.

"Because I AM...sexy?" Arianna answered with a shiver on her back as Pierce pulled her closer with his hand slid under the water on her back.

"Let me taste well my sexy girl," Pierce kissed her hard, with a fervent urgent need he never had before.