Natalie makes a confession

“Okay, so- we both promised Lisa we’d talk, and I think it would be best if we just put it all out there,” Natalie started, holding her bottle and twisting it by the neck.

Aiden nodded, picking at the label on his own. “I know.”

A silence stretched as they both drank.

Natalie was the first to cave, glancing at him. “We should probably just say it out loud. Saturday… on the couch.”

Aiden stared at his beer, as his teeth clenched. “Yeah,” the word came out quiet, and drug out.

She fidgeted with her bottle, summoning the nerve. “I got up for water after I’d gone to bed... Obviously I didn’t mean to see you- but I did.”

He winced, face going a little red. “So you did see me. Okay… I figured as much, but fuck…” he trailed off for a second. “First of all, I’m sorry. How much did you see?”

She nodded, just as embarrassed. “Well I mean… I saw you. Pretty much the whole thing.”

He let out a breath, rubbing a palm across his face. “Shit. I wanted to believe I was just hearing things. I thought maybe I’d heard you, but-” He paused. “You didn’t say anything.”

“What would I have said?” Natalie took a long sip. “Hey, just checking if you need more privacy to clean up? Or should I just stand here and critique your form?”

That made him snort, easing the tension just a hair.

“I figured you’d… I don’t know- yell at me or something. That night, the next day, anytime you crossed my path.”

She shook her head, forcing a rueful smile. “I froze. Then bolted. You have to know how mortifying it was for me too, right?”

He swallowed, then looked at her, a little braver with the beer settling in. “You say you saw pretty much the whole thing. Does that mean- Did you… actually watch?”

Natalie’s cheeks flushed but she didn’t look away. “Yeah. For a second. I should’ve left sooner. I’m sorry.”

He shook his head with an awkward smile. “You don’t have to apologize. I mean, I was the idiot jerking off on the couch.” He took a long drink. “And you were- what, just standing there?”

She nodded, biting her lip. “Pretty much. It was like watching a car wreck. Except…” She trailed off, glancing at him, weighing her next words. “Except it wasn’t just shock, I have to admit, I was kinda fascinated by it.”

That got his attention. “Seriously? What do you mean?”

Natalie took another swig. “I mean, it wasn’t just you. I-” She stopped herself, then barreled on, cheeks warm. “After I got to my room, I… I had to, you know… take care of myself. It wasn’t just you who needed to relieve some tension.”

His eyes widened, then darted away. “Oh! You- right after?”

She nodded, giving a nervous laugh. “Yeah. So, if you’re worried about being the only perv, you’re not. I just had the sense to use my own room.”

He let out a breath out of a mix of wanting to groan at being an idiot, and trying not to laugh. “That actually makes me feel a little better.”

A silence held for a minute. Natalie sipped again, then set her bottle down. “If we’re laying everything out- before all that, you were rubbing my feet.”

Aiden half-grinned, half-grimaced. “Yeah. Sorry if that was too much.”

“Honestly?” She looked at him, no dodging now. “It felt amazing. Too amazing. I should’ve stopped it sooner, but I didn’t want to.”

He met her eyes, emboldened by the beer. “I didn’t want to stop, either.” His mouth twisted. “You noticed I… looked up your shorts, right? I mean I swear you were looking right at me at one point, when I looked up.”

Natalie’s eyes narrowed, a little smirk slipping out. “Yeah, you weren’t exactly subtle. But I didn’t make you stop, did I?”

He shook his head. “I didn’t mean to be a creep. I just… you looked good. You always do. And the way the legs of your shorts were draped open…”

A quietness settled over them that felt charged and intimate. She tucked her knees up, arms folded loosely. “I’m not just saying these things for fun, or to toy with you. If we’re going to live together, we need to be honest about the situation. Aiden, it’s not just you. I think about you, too. Way more than I should.”

He exhaled, finally saying, “Same.”

She smiled sadly. “I mean, we both know nothing can actually happen. There’s so many reasons, but it doesn’t change what I think about. We have to be careful though. You live here. Your mom- God, if she knew…”

He shook his head. “I know. I get it. I don’t want to mess up what we have, or make things weird. I just- yeah, I think about you, all the time.”

Natalie studied him, both of them buzzed enough to let the words hang. “It’s not nothing. But it can’t be something.”

Aiden nodded, eyes falling to his beer. “Yeah. Again, I get it.”

She nudged the coffee table toward him with her foot, trying to get him to look up. “Promise me we’ll keep talking, even if it’s awkward.”

He looked up. “Promise.”

They both sipped, letting the truth settle.

Natalie broke the silence opening another beer, sounding a bit more playful now. “So, if we’re done making confessions, next time you decide you need to relieve yourself, just swear you’ll do it behind a closed door next time, okay?”

He laughed for real, instantly going red. “Yeah, I think I’ve learned my lesson as far as that goes.”

She grinned, relaxing a little more, followed by another pause.

Natalie tilted her beer, considering him. “What do you say we get out of here tomorrow night? Go down to The Copper Rail. They’ve got pool tables, decent fries, and I can drink while I kick your ass at pool.”

His smile took over his whole face. “You’re on. But I’m not going easy on you.”

She clinked her bottle to his. “The question is, will I go easy on you?”

The moment stretched, and everything less tense with a layer of guilt lifted. Natalie’s laughter was genuine as she drained the rest of her beer, feeling a little lighter than before, having laid everything laid out on the table finally.

They were winding down, a handful of empty beer bottles on the table between them. The mood was looser, and a little punchy from everything they’d admitted. Natalie stretched her legs when Aiden spoke up suddenly.

“If we’re being open, can I ask you something? About the laundry?” He didn’t quite meet her eyes, fiddling with the bottle cap of a fresh beer.

Natalie blinked, unsure of where he was going. “If this is about socks going missing, I’m just as lost as you.”

He shook his head, flushing a little. “No, uh… it was that same day. I’d done laundry, and later I found a pair of my red boxers folded on top of the dryer that I guess I’d missed. But I’d already washed them that morning, and… let’s just say they didn’t exactly seem clean.” He risked a look at her, half sheepish, half accusatory, and wondering if he’d just imagined it.

Natalie’s mouth parted, as her memory tumbled forward. The color hit her cheeks instantly. She covered her face for a beat, then peeked at him through her fingers, groaning softly. “Oh God. I completely forgot about that.” One final secret she’d forgotten wasn’t on the table quite yet.

Aiden’s eyebrows shot up. “Wait- so you did do something. What… happened?”

Natalie let her hands fall into her lap, then grabbed her beer, taking a long swig. “Okay. Honesty hour, right?” She glanced at him, saw the earnestness in his eyes, and let out a laugh that was a combination of nerves and resignation to this moment of drunken confessions they’d already established. “I didn’t steal them or anything, if that’s what you’re thinking. I was folding laundry, and I found them- your boxers. They just… I don’t know, I got curious. I tried them on. For like… a minute.”

Aiden’s jaw dropped a little, surprise mixed with amusement and a flush of something deeper. “You wore them?”

Natalie tucked a knee to her chest, shoulders hunched, but she was smiling now despite herself. “Yeah. I was alone, the apartment was quiet, and I was already… in a mood” She bit her lip. “So, I put them on. I might have… used one of my toys, just to see what it’d look like. How you- how they’d fit on you.”

His ears were red now, but he couldn’t help grinning. “So that’s why they were… I mean, I thought maybe I’d forgotten to actually wash them, but I also wasn’t sure why that particular area would look a little… dirty.”

She shook her head, mortified but laughing. “Nope, that was all me. I should’ve just tossed them back in the washer but I… honestly, I’d been so wound up, I liked the idea of you wondering. If you even noticed, I mean.”

Aiden stared at her, caught between aroused and dumbfounded. “I can’t believe you’re telling me this.”

Natalie rolled her eyes, letting the moment land. “Look, after all we’ve laid out tonight, what’s one more humiliating secret? Maybe this makes us a little closer to even.”

He let out a breath, then started laughing – a real, deep laugh that loosened everything left between them. “That’s… honestly, pretty fuckin’ hot.”

She threw a napkin at him, cheeks still pink. “Don’t make it a thing. I was in my own head, alright?”

He raised his hands, catching the napkin. “No judgment. I mean… now I really wish I’d seen that.”

She grinned, shaking her head, still blushing. “Not a chance.”

“Come on, at least let me see the ‘toy’,” he prodded.

“No fucking chance! You’re just gonna have to wonder.”

“At the moment, I’m wondering just how many toys you’ve got that you ‘used one of’ your toys,” he continued, laughing and throwing the napkin back at her. He leaned back, taking it in. “So, all this time I’ve been embarrassed about you seeing me, and you were trying on my boxers and… yeah.”

Natalie took the last sip of her beer, grinning at him. “Guess neither of us is as innocent as we pretend.”

She held his gaze, the guilt in her chest finally replaced by something almost close to relief they’d talked. Even knowing she shouldn’t be telling him any of the details she’d shared, didn’t dampen the sense of calm that finally came over her now that they were able to talk and joke again.

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