Holiday With The Neighbor

Julia stepped out of the shower, dried herself off and wrapped a blue towel around her body. She made her way into her bedroom where her boyfriend, Anthony was lying on her bed staring at his phone with one hand behind his head. He was shirtless and wearing nothing but gray sweatpants. It had been some time since his last hair cut, so his brown hair was nearly covering his eyes, but it would be a lie to say it didn't look good on him.

Julia stood at the foot of her bed. "I'm going to miss you this weekend."

Anthony jumped. "Jesus Christ babe. I didn't even know you were there! Usually I hear your hair dryer before you come in."

Julia laughs. "I didn't want to deal with drying my hair tonight, so I didn't get my hair wet." She sits on the bed next to Anthony and starts putting lotion on her legs. "Anyway, I can't believe Thanksgiving is only two days away. I know you have to go home for it, but it's hard knowing you'll be having fun with your family while I'm stuck up here alone."

"Yeah." Anthony was more focused on his phone and clearly wasn't paying attention.

"Anthony, are you listening?"

"What, babe? Yeah, of course I'm listening! Thanksgiving is coming up." He puts his phone on the nightstand and looks at her.

"Ugh, yes, but that's not the point. The point is that we've been together nearly a year and you still haven't brought me home to meet your family."

"You haven't brought me to meet yours either!" Anthony fires back defensively.

Julia puts the lotion away. "That's completely different and you know it. They're a six hour flight away, and being that we only graduated college a couple years ago, we can't exactly afford to take the time off work and spend the money we don't have to fly across the country. Your family is only an hour away."

"Come on babe." Anthony sits up and wraps his arms around her from behind. He puts his head on her shoulder and whispers. "I promise you'll meet them soon. Thanksgiving has so much extended family, and my crazy Uncle Karl, so his isn't the best time. I promise you'll meet them soon."

Julia puts your arms over his hands. "I know, I know. I'm sorry. My mind is all over the place right now not being able to see my family for Thanksgiving and knowing this will be the first holiday I spend alone."

Anthony kisses her nick and slides his hand under her towel and grips her thigh. His other hand slides around the towel and grabs her breast. "Well babe, you're not alone tonight." He slides his tongue down her neck to her shoulder and back up.

Julia reaches back and grabs his torso. "I just got out of the shower and don't want to clean up again..." Even she doesn't believe the words coming out of her mouth and Anthony can tell.

"Are you asking me to stop?" Anthony continues to lightly knead her breasts outside of the towel and kiss the back of her neck. Neck kisses are her weakness and Anthony never hesitates to exploit it. He slides his other hand up her thigh as close as he can to her pussy without actually touching it.

Julia turns around, wraps her arms around his neck and kisses him. Anthony pulls off her towel and grabs her shoulders pushing her onto the bed. Her blonde hair splays out on the pillow.

Anthony stands up and quickly removes his sweat pants revealing his erect cock. He gets back on to the bed ready to enter her.

"Let's slow down a bit and build up the anticipation..." Julia sits up and pets the bed next to her telling him to lay down.

Anthony groans annoyed. "You're just so hot babe, I can't wait." He lays down on his back.

She smiles at him. "I know." She kisses his neck. "But where." She kisses his chest. "Is the fun." She kisses his stomach. "In rushing."

She moves further down and slides her tongue down the shaft of his cock. "If I give you a blow job, will you eat me out?" She wraps her mouth around the head of his cock.

"I'll do anything you want if you keep sucking my cock."

Julia grabs the base of his shaft and sucks on his head. She can tell he must like it by the way he squirms. At least she thinks he likes it. Anthony has always been oddly silent during sex, so she relies on his twitches and breathing to gauge how she's doing. She is also excited about the thought of him diving head first between her legs. She can't remember the last time he ate her out.

She stops sucking, looks up at him and smiles. She goes back down and gives his balls a lick. The quick breath that exits his mouth tells her that he must really like that. She licks her way back up his shaft and puts the entire length his dick in her mouth and bobs up and down as fast as she can. He grabs her head lightly and his breath picks up.

Before she has a chance to react he pulls himself out of her mouth, scoots up, grabs her and spins her around the bed placing her on her back. He spreads her legs and she feels herself dripping with anticipation of his tongue on her clit.

"I got something even better for you babe." He grabs his cock and slides it into her. She gasps. She was excited about the thought of oral. This isn't what she expected. Regardless, this feels good, but it wasn't what she wanted. She reaches up to his face and pulls it toward her to kiss him. Just as they're about to kiss he turns his head and kisses her neck.

He whispers into her ear, "Sorry babe. You know I don't like to kiss right after you suck my cock."

Before she has a chance to respond or enjoy the feeling of him inside her, she can tell from the way he's speeding up that he's close to cumming. He quickly pulls out of her, gives himself a couple jerks and sprays himself on her chest, face and hair. He has always loved cumming on her. It does nothing for her, but she doesn't mind humoring him and going along with it if he thinks it's hot. Regardless, a warning would have been nice.

"Are you kidding me right now?" Julia reaches up to the cum in her hair.

"Holy fuck babe. That was great."

Anthony crashes down next to her on his stomach.

"Seriously, are you fucking kidding me? I told you I had just showered! So you decide to cum in my hair without saying anything?"

"What? You didn't enjoy it?" He rolls over on his back.

"That's not what I said." She gets out of bed. "Also, you said you were going to eat me out. When is the last time you went down on me? I'm always the one going down on you."

"Gee, sorry you don't think sex with me is good enough."

"Again, not what I said."

"I'll eat you out next time. I didn't know it was such a big deal."

"Next time. That's what you said last time. And the time before that. And the time befo..."

"I leave tomorrow morning. You really want to get into this now?"

"Ugh, whatever. Forget I said anything. I need to clean my hair and go shower....again." Julia storms out of the room toward the bathroom.

She steps under the showerhead, lets the hot water wash over her and takes a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself down. The past couple months together have been a bit rough. They fight about the smallest things. Anthony seems more interested in his phone than her and when he is paying attention to her it's only so he can fuck her. He barely puts any effort into that anymore either. If there is any foreplay, it's him touching her pussy for a few seconds before wanting to jam himself into her or him asking for a quick blowjob. Maybe this time apart will be good for both of them? As she showers, her mind races with thoughts of them two for so long the water begins to cool. This is her signal to end the shower.

Julia uses the blow dryer on her blonde, chest length hair and puts on some black sweat pants, a baggy white t-shirt and gets back into bed next to Anthony who passed out as soon as she left the room. It takes some time, but eventually she wills herself to sleep.

The next morning, she wakes up to Anthony's phone alarm going off and feels him get out of bed. She hears him start to make his way out of the bedroom.

Julia sits up in the bed half awake and looks at Anthony in the doorway. "You're not going to say goodbye?"

"You seemed pretty pissed last night, so I figured it was better to let you sleep."

She sighs. "I was annoyed, not pissed. Still, you're going to be gone for a week and I'm going to miss you. Can I at least get a goodbye kiss?"

"Sure." Anthony walks up to her and quickly taps his lips to hers. "I'll make it up to you when I'm back."

"Text me when you get there."

"Of course, babe."

She leans back and closes her eyes and listens to him leave the house and drive away. Even though she knows she'll miss him, she feels a bit of, relief? No stupid arguments or requests for blow jobs without anything in return. Besides, things were great between them when they first started dating, so maybe this time apart will rekindle that flame.

Julia falls back asleep and is shocked when she opens her eyes and notices it's already noon. Did she really sleep for another four hours? She grabs her phone and is surprised to see there isn't a text from Anthony letting her know he arrived. He should have gotten to his parents a few hours ago. She sends a quick message,

Checking in to make sure you got there?

Immediately her phone vibrates,

Oops. Thought I texted when I got here. Must be bad service. I'm here.

Julia gives his response a heart and begins her typical morning phone routine. Instagram - Bali and Costa Rica are places she needs to travel to someday. TikTok - A new leg exercise she should try next time she's at the gym. Reddit - Mindless scrolling. Wordle - The word is

crumb

(Only took three guesses.) Lastly, New York Times - Everything is shit and apparently they're about to get hammered with a giant snow storm.

She gets out of bed, puts on some black sweat pants and an oversized green hoody. She brews some coffee and decides to use the impending snow storm as an excuse to be a complete blob. The goal today is to watch Netflix, eat and not walk more than 100 steps. She's at the gym four days a week. If she wants to spend one day being a blob, then she's going to. She grabs her coffee, sits on the living room couch, turns on

Emily in Paris

and smiles.

One episode becomes two. Two episodes become a season. A season becomes three seasons. Next thing she knows, the living room is dark and she can hear the neighbor's snow blower running. She turns on a light, lifts a shade and is shocked to see at least a foot of snow on the ground. With rain in the forecast, she knows she should go out to shovel the snow tonight, because it'll only be worse tomorrow. Her dream of being a blob is shattered.

She puts on her winter gear and makes her way outside. She sees her neighbor snow blowing his drive way and gives him a wave. They've lived next to each other for almost a year and the odd wave here and there is the extent of their communication.

"Fuck!" She utters to herself at the first scoop of snow. This is a lot heavier than she was expecting. She mentally prepares herself for a good hour of shoveling. It's not fun, but it's not awful. Think of it as a work out! Just as she starts to get into a groove, she hears an unfamiliar voice.

"Hey! Need any help?"

Julia looks up and sees her neighbor walking over. He's older than her, but with his snow coat and winter hat on, it's tough to tell how old exactly. He has a five o'clock shadow with a few gray hairs poking in here and there. If she had to guess, she would say he's in his early 30's.

"Thanks, but I'm alright."

"You're call!" The neighbor lifts his hands up. "By the way, I'm Ryan. I live right next door."

"I'm Julia. Good to meet you finally." She reaches out for a handshake.

Ryan shakes her hand. "Next time instead of only waving, I can say

Hey Julia

instead. We're officially friendly neighbors now!"

"It's like we're in a Norman Rockwell painting." They both laugh.

"You sure you don't want me to run the snow blower up and down your drive way? Seriously, I don't mind and it'll take all of ten minutes. Then, if you have anywhere to be tonight or tomorrow for Thanksgiving, you don't have to waste all your energy shoveling."

"Nope, no where to be!" It comes out much angrier and annoyed than Julia intended.

"Sorry about that, I had no...."

"No, no, no. I didn't mean to sound like that. My family lives on the other side of the country, so I'm saving my money to hopefully go home for Christmas. My boyfriend left this morning, so it's just me. It's my first Thanksgiving alone, which is fine, but also sort of tough when I think too much about it."

"Ahh sorry to hear that. No, I understand. That's hard. When I was in college, I couldn't make it home for Thanksgiving either and it was always tricky. Now my family is only twenty minutes away I get annoyed half the time I'm there, so I don't know which is better."

Julia laughs. "You're probably right. If I were home, my family would be asking nonstop if I'm engaged or when I'm planning on having kids."

"Oh God. I can only imagine. With my family you've got people yelling about whether corn should go on the mashed potatoes and if the cranberry sauce is better from a can. It literally turns into a shouting match. Think of the stupidest possible argument someone could have, and that's what my family will fight about."

"You know, now that we talk about it, maybe sitting at home all day isn't such a bad thing. Still, I'll miss the food..."

"The food is the only reason to go! Now I feel bad that you're going to miss out on the food. Let me help out a little and snow blow the rest of your drive way. Seriously only take me a few minutes! Much easier than shoveling."

The snow has shifted to rain, which is going to make the shoveling even more difficult. Julia looks up and lets the rain drops hit her face. "You sure you don't mind?"

"Not at all! I'll take care of the rest."

"Thank you so much. I owe you!" Julia smiles and heads back inside. She peaks out the window and watches Ryan making his way over to her driveway with his snow blower. He was right, within five minutes nearly her entire driveway is clear.

She takes off her winter gear and goes into her bedroom. She hangs her hoody up and falls backwards into bed. Who knew watching Netflix followed up by a bit of shoveling was so exhausting? Next thing she knows, it's Thanksgiving morning.

She sends Anthony a Snap of herself laying in bed and wishes him a happy Thanksgiving. Today she will be more productive. She grabs her laptop and follows along to a cardio and core routine. She hops in the shower after to clean off the sweat and changes back into her black sweat pants and hoody.

Now that she's put in some effort to work out, she decides to keep the momentum going and do some work. She opens up her laptop again and starts responding to the never ending onslaught of work emails. Maybe her boss will be impressed she's working on Thanksgiving? Hours pass and her stomach rumbles. Good time for a break. She pulls out her phone and orders a delivery of Chinese food.

After she eats, she looks out the window and notices it's already dark again. Apparently, she had more work to do than she realized. She finishes responding to the final few emails in her inbox and exhales virtuously. Yesterday was a blob day, but today was a day of action. She reaches for her phone but notices she accidentally left it in the kitchen when she was eating. She opens up Instagram on her laptop instead. She doesn't recognizes any of the posts being shown. Her usual assortment of travel spots, books, workout routines and penguins have been replaced with half dressed women, golf and some Xbox stuff. Then it hits her, she's on Anthony's account. That's right! His phone had died the other night and while it was charging he asked to use her laptop. He must have forgotten to log out when he was done.

As she goes log off his account, there is a ding and she sees a message pop up from Anthony's cousin.

Hey bro! Hope you had fun with ya girl. Wasn't the same not having you at Thanksgiving this year. Aunt Liz says hi.

Anthony wasn't at Thanksgiving? What the fuck!? Julia gets up and grabs her phone and sees he still hasn't responded to her Snap from this morning. Hell, he hasn't even opened it. She calls him and it goes directly to voice mail. She sends a text,

Hey, call me when you get this.

If he wasn't with his family, where was he? Is this why he didn't invite her? Her mind races with possible explanations. Maybe it's just a mix up and she's reading the cousin's message out of context. That has to be it. Part of her wants to open up his Instagram messages and look for information. She's never been that girlfriend though and has always prided herself on trusting her partner. She doesn't want to be thought of as an 'untrusting snoop.'

She takes a deep breath to settle her thoughts and makes her way to the fridge where she finds a bottle of wine and pours herself a glass. She's not a big drinker, but has a few bottles in the fridge from friends coming over in the past. She takes a sip in an attempt to calm her nerves. She wonders to herself,

what if he were kidnapped?

If he were, maybe the captor sent a message on Instagram! If that's the case, wouldn't it be irresponsible

not

to look at his messages? She knows the logic is flimsy at best, but uses it to convince herself it's okay.

She makes her way back to the laptop and opens the messages. Immediately, her heart sinks. Under the message from his cousin is a message from Anthony's ex, Chloe. She opens it.

Looking forward to catching up ;)

She scrolls back and reads everything. Anthony reached out to Chloe over a month ago apologizing for how their relationship ended. After catching up briefly, they shared how life was going and Anthony talked about how rough things were for him. He complains about how Julia doesn't treat him right and how she doesn't appreciate him. It doesn't take long for the conversation to turn sexual and after that, they make plans to meet up Thanksgiving weekend at some hotel.

That fucking prick! Really!? She doesn't appreciate him!? She's always there for him! She's even helped pay his rent a few times when he was short on cash. He was probably spending that cash on hotel rooms. Not too mention all the blow jobs she's given him without anything in return. She looks at her phone, still no response from Anthony. Her seething rage is interrupted by a knock at the door.

She looks out the window. It's a man in a blue sweater and khaki's with dark tousled hair. He has one hand behind his back and the other hand carrying something. She's puzzled for a second until she notices the five o'clock shadow. She realizes it's Ryan. He cleans up nicely when he's not in his winter gear.

Julia opens the door "Hey. I didn't expect to see you here. Is everything alright?"

"Oh yeah, everything is fine. Last night, you mentioned how much you were going to miss all the Thanksgiving food and I felt bad, so I snagged you a plate of left overs." He hands her a large plate covered in tin foil.

"Oh my God! You didn't need to do that!"

"Wait, that's not all! Even though you didn't mention it..." He pulls out his other arm from behind his back and reveals a small container. "Some mozzarella sticks!"

Julia grabs both items. "Mozzarella sticks!? I've never heard of that for Thanksgiving, but it 100% needs to be a thing now. How did you know I love mozzarella sticks?"

"I had no idea, but everyone love mozzarella sticks, so I was simply playing the odds. Not only that, they were fried just before I left, so they're probably still warm."

Julia is completely speechless.

Ryan laughs, "I'm glad you're a fan. I felt bad for you last night, so I wanted to bring you something. Anyway, have a good night!" He waves and starts to turn around.