Chapter 7 - Part I

                                    

                                          

                          
LIZZIE HELPED ZACH MAKE SPAGHETTI for dinner. Zach had her chop onions and garlic to go with the ground beef they liberated from the neighbor’s freezer. How much longer are we going to be able to get relatively fresh meat? She watched the burger sizzle in the skillet.
                          
“Maybe we should have shoved the rest of the meat in the stores in freezers before it went bad. What happens when the power goes out?” Lizzie asked.
                          
“The dark ages begin again?” Zach laughed.
                          
Lizzie didn’t. “They haven't already?”
                          
“Yeah. I guess.” Zach looked thoughtful. “We’re probably better off than some places. We’re on hydroelectric power. The rivers won’t stop. I bet power will run for quite a while. What happened to all the nuclear power plants? I hope to hell they’re shut down.”
                          
“Can they just shut them down? If they don’t have people monitoring them—” She made an explosion sound and her hands flew apart.
                          
“Not a lot we can do about mushroom clouds,” Zach said. “But I’m pretty sure they just melt down and spew radiation.”
                          
“That makes me feel lots better.” Lizzie took the spatula from Zach and stirred the blend of meat and veggies. “Mmm. Smells good.” The aroma was a hundred times better than any frozen pizza or burritos.
                          
After dinner, they settled in to watch another movie. She picked Highlander from her dad’s collection, put it on and leaned back into Zach’s warmth.
                          
Part way through a sex scene in the movie, she felt a hard lump in the small of her back. Zach shifted uncomfortably.
                          
Zach had always been her ‘buddy guy,’ like a brother, despite his ridiculous crush. But watching the actors make love on the screen and feeling the heat of him in her back, a warm tingle spread through her body and her breathing deepened. “Uh, I forgot about this scene. You want me to change it?”
                          
“No. It’s just… Yeah. Maybe—”
                          
She paused it.
                          
“Liz?” His voice came out somewhere between a croak and a gasp. “You know I’ve been in love with you since we were like ten?’
                          
“As soon as you met me.” She couldn’t help teasing him; her face hovered inches in front of his.
                          
Zach stared into her eyes. “I want to kiss you.”
                          
“Then shut up and do it.” Her voice came out husky, every part of her ached for him—for a human connection.
                          
He leaned in. His breath, tempered by the spices of dinner, was warm on his lips. His eyes were closed. For a moment she wondered what her breath smelled like—smoke, an ashtray. But she let her eyes close, too.
                          
As their lips touched, she convulsed in laughter. An image of him peeing on the wall and writing his name flashed in her mind.
                          
“Lizzie.” He stared at her with those sad, puppy dog eyes.
                          
“Sorry.” She took a deep breath. Zach wanted her. Desperately. The warmth in her own jeans flared; she wanted to have him. Not just another man hug.
                          
“Please,” he whispered, his hands grasped her hips and pulled him toward her.
                          
His eyes begged her for more. She wanted to give him what he wanted, her. She slipped her hand under his shirt. He shivered at her touch. “You want to come upstairs with me?”
                          
His breath stopped and he nodded.
                          
She clasped his hand and led him up the stairs and into her bedroom. Streetlight lit the mattress; she tossed a pile of clothes off the bed.
                          
“Don’t kiss me on the lips and don’t say a word.” She lay down and slid her jeans off.
                          
He lay next to her.
                          
She tugged the covers over them as she slid toward him. She pulled off her shirt. Her breasts pressed against him through her bra.
                          
Zach wrapped his arms around her.
                          
Her hands moved down and loosened his cramped jeans.
                          
His mouth opened, his breath escaped, as the jeans came off.
                          
She felt his hands range across her bare back, his touch tingled.
                          
Lizzie tugged at his shirt.
                          
Zach sat up and pulled it over his head, his muscular chest silhouetted in the street lamps’ glow.
                          
Her breath sighed out.
                          
Soon there were no clothes between them. He slid back under the covers and she guided him where she wanted him. Then they moved together.
                          
Zach’s breath caught. “Oh, god.”
                          
Lizzie smiled. “Yes.” She recognized the uncontrolled response as her body followed his.
                          
A few minutes later he pulled away from her and lay beside her, one hand scrunched up underneath, caressing her shoulder and the other hand resting on her stomach as her breathing returned to normal.
                          
Lizzie lay awake listening to Zach’s soft breath in her ear, his arms around her nude body. SHIT! What the hell was I thinking? She’d been lonely. And he’d been princely. But how am I getting out of this? He’ll want more, and after all the years I kept him firmly in the friend zone.
                          
She had to end it. Fast. Mama said to kill a snake you do it quick or risk getting bit. She had to kill the snake. But for now she lay there relishing the heat of another human body. Just another minute, she thought as she closed her eyes.