"Milo, you're here!" Naia charged up to him and wrapped her arms around his neck, tipping some of her drink on the floor in the process. "I have exciting news! Come with me."
She grabbed him by the hand and pulled him away from the bottleneck at the front door. They weaved through the partygoers and into her bedroom where, upon shutting the door, a thick silence engulfed them.
"So... what's the exciting news?" he asked as she dug out her laptop.
"Sit, sit!" She gestured vaguely towards the bed. He perched himself on the edge, threading his fingers between one another. He was feeling quite warm - he still had his winter coat on. "Ohmigosh, I'm so excited. Look!" She plopped herself on the bed next to him and gestured at her laptop screen. "The first chapter - in all its glory. Wanna read? I want you to be the first to read it. I'll get you a drink."
Her manic energy surprised him. He was used to her being quiet - withdrawn, even. But now she was practically giddy, rocking back and forth on the bed as he looked at the laptop that she'd thrust onto his lap.
As Milo read her words, he realised that she'd never told him what the manuscript was actually about. He knew Naia well enough that he felt safe to assume that it was something historical or other-wordly, a measure of distance between herself and the world she created.
He was surprised, therefore, to read a love story. Naia's prose engulfed him, sprawling declarations of love and lust on every page. He could feel the heat continuing to rise, small beads of sweat accumulating on his neck, as he scrolled onwards. At some point, he finished his drink and Naia replaced his glass with a beer bottle. He drank deeply, the bubbles reinvigorating his already awakened senses.
There was a sex scene in here too. He was not expecting that. It was good. It was really good. He could feel the beer loosening his muscles now, except for his brain - which wrapped itself around this heated story. All the while, he could feel Naia's eyes burning into him.
He'd never seen this side of Naia before. She was usually unemotional and hard to read. He'd always wondered what she liked, what she yearned for. He used to think about it as he went to sleep. Whenever they pulled an all-nighter together for the university paper, his sleep-deprived mind would often wander to a place where, instead of crouching on the floor over a newspaper layout jigsaw, he would spread her on the floor and fuck her. Hard. He would give her carpet burns all over her back and her knees. She would dig her nails into his shoulders and leave little marks of where she had been.
So this work, these words, caught him off-guard. Even as his shoulders relaxed into the fuzz of alcohol, he could feel his hips and groin beginning to tighten. As he read about the characters in Naia's head fucking in a stable, he wanted to do the same to her. Although they were tucked away from the party, there were still people all around them. Just like these characters, they would need to be quiet - and their mandatory silence would spur them on as they fucked each other raw.
He reached the end. He looked over at Naia, her eyes still fixed on him as she cupped her glass with both hands. He could smell the sticky-sweet cocktail from here.
"What do you think? Do you like it? I know it's a bit rough and the character exposition is quite-"
His mouth was on hers before he knew what he was doing. He'd waited so long, hoping to catch a glimpse of her carnal side - and here it was, laid bare for him to read. Now that he knew, he couldn't un-know. He couldn't stop himself from wondering if she wanted to share more of that with him. She'd wanted him to be the first to read it, after all. Did she want this?