Starting off small

“That’s as good as any place to start! Grace continued, answering your question before you even had a chance to ask it.

“So you’d say I should go even bigger?” you asked, curious as to what she thought.

“Well you don’t have to. If that’s what you wanna do then who am I to tell you otherwise? Plus there’s nothing wrong with doing what you want and then going from there. Just that it’s you who is the one making the decision” Grace replied, not giving the reply you had expected.

You had thought she’d want you to make as big of a choice as you possibly could but what she had said made a lot of sense. Pretty much everything she had talked about during the car ride had been helpful in one way or another so just based on this conversation alone you would consider tonight a good night.

“I’ll give the question some more serious thought later as well” you admitted, feeling that that might be a good thing to do from now on whenever you got the chance.

You were pretty much almost home at this point and before the car turned onto your street, you reluctantly let go of Grace’s boob just in case any of your neighbours saw.

Even while you were trying to be more selfish, you didn’t see the point in taking any unnecessary risk when it came to your subjects in public and when you saw that some of your neighbours were still out and about, it felt like you had made the right choice.

Grace pulled the car up to the front of her house and you were able to see that Mom’s car was also missing from the front drive. You remembered that Sarah had been asking her for something earlier and while it was later than she usually went out to shop, you had seen Sarah put on her best puppy-dog expression in order to get her way.

Grace commented on it as well but you filled her in on the details as you both got out of the car.

“Wait so Sarah had asked you to text her when you were getting ready to leave the gym?” Grace asked, stopping just before the two of you parted.

“Yeah, why?” you asked, already searching for your keys as you didn’t pay the question too much attention.

“No it’s nothing, just curious” Grace replied, waving you off and acting like the question had no meaning to her either.

Given that you couldn’t really do much with Grace while other people were around, it felt like you had said your goodbyes a lot quicker than normal. There was nothing you could really do about it unless you had gone inside together but after spending the whole evening working, you were sure that Grace could use the break.

You headed to the door with your keys and went inside, locking the door behind you and finding that the house was unusually quiet. You stood in the hallway for a moment and couldn’t hear anything to begin with. No sounds of anyone in the kitchen or noise from the TV in the living room. Just what felt like an empty house.

You went to head further inside when you heard the sound of a door opening from upstairs and footsteps getting closer to the stairs, something you would probably not have heard if not for how quiet the rest of the house was.

“I’ll be down in a minute! Just wait in the front room” you heard Sarah announce from upstairs.

Normally you would have just headed to your room to drop off your bag but the fact that she had specifically told you to wait while in your own home was something you felt now obligated to do. You still had your bag so you briefly threw it in the dining room and then doubled back to go sit on one of the sofas.

You felt slightly confused but as you waited, you remembered that Lucy had also planned to go out, something about meeting up with her friends that she hadn’t seen in a while.

Grace also mentioning that Sarah wanted to know when you left was something you also found unusual and now that Mom was also conveniently missing, meaning that it would just be the two of you.

Alone. At home. Without anyone to interrupt you for at least another hour…

Everything you had been thinking about to explain Sarah’s weird actions throughout the day was slowly clicking into place and you found yourself wanting to go and see what she was doing in order to cut down on your time waiting around.

The sneaky conversations in the morning with Emma. Making sure the others were out of the house. Even just the way she had been acting around you whenever you were in a room together.

You didn’t feel nervous but when you could do nothing but sit and wait, the pressure slowly started to build up. You had considered getting up to go find her multiple times but you stayed where you were until you heard a sound from upstairs, not quite catching what it was but having been restless and keenly listening out for even just the quietest of noises.

As you listened closely, you heard the sound of a door closing and then heard Sarah walking down the stairs, reaching the bottom and pausing just outside the living room door as if briefly preparing herself to see you for the first time this evening.

Just as you had been antsy about what you assumed was about to happen, you could tell that Sarah had been nervous about making her appearance.

She wore her usual pajamas that still left little to the imagination but you could tell that she had just had a shower and was even wearing lingerie underneath, a weird mix of casual but also trying to look her best.

You could have stared at her for hours but she seemed anxious for you to say something while she stood in front of you.

“Come here” you ordered, waving her over to the sofa where you sat up straighter, letting her take a seat in between your legs.

You wrapped your arms around her and pulled her close, feeling how fast her heart was racing as her back pressed against your chest. It felt like she had been rushing towards this with you and now that the time had come, she was putting too much pressure on herself to perform for you. A feeling you had never wanted for her to put on herself.

It felt like she was struggling to stay calm but as you sat still, only tightening the hug when it she was going to move, she then seemed to realise what you were doing.

Only after too long had passed did you feel her heartbeat start to slow down and finally it felt like you could talk to her.