Life of Paul Ch. 01: Paul

She lunged at me sideways into hug. "That's great," she squealed. I side-hugged her back. "Dude, I knew you could pull it off!"

I was still sort of in shock that they bought it. Literally. "I knew I could too, but your help made things way easier. And your companionship was indispensable." I squeezed her a little more.

"Aww," she said, starting the car. "You're so cute when you use big people words."

We started for the hotel and hit up a restaurant on the way. A late dinner of steak made me realize that I'd not really eaten in the last few days. Seeing how I devoured mine, Amber shared her steak with me. When hunger strikes, man want meat.

Appetite sated, we parked in the hotel parking structure and dropped of my case. We strolled around downtown and the waterfront for a while talking about life and plans and nothing and everything. While we were walking past a chocolate factory, she dropped something unexpected on me.

"I'm leaving," she said, staring out at the Golden Gate bridge.

What the hell?

She turned to me. "I'm gonna be going to Florida next week."

"What for?" I asked.

"I have a couple modeling jobs there", she said, "swimsuits, mostly, but also catalog jobs too. Those headshots I did a couple months ago were sent to some agents, and forwarded on to more, and so on, until this service in Miami saw them and recruited me. Said I'd have an atypical look in Florida and would make a splash."

I was a little conflicted at hearing this. I wanted Amber to succeed in her goals, but I also didn't want to see her leave, especially to go so far away.

"You're upset," she stated.

"No," I said quickly. "No, I'm not," I said more normally. "I was just caught off guard for a second. But I know you want to do TV and movies and this is a great intro to that."

"But you're still upset," she stated.

I thought about it for a moment to make sure of what I was feeling. "Yes," I said finally. "But only because I'll miss you. And only because I'm being selfish wanting you in my life."

I took her hands in mine. They were cold despite the day's heat. "You are, and always will be my friend. As that, I wish you success. I will miss you. Especially after the last few months of us..."

"Fucking like rabbits?" She offered sweetly.

"Yes, that," I said. "While I know we never agreed to be anything other than friends, a little part of me is going away with you, and that makes me a little sad, but a little part of you is staying, which makes it OK."

She looked just short of forever...before she broke into giggles and doubled over laughing. "Seriously?!" she said finally. "That was the sappiest shit I've ever heard."

Yea, I was gonna miss her.

She grabbed me in a vicious hug. Her voice cracking slightly, she said "I'm gonna miss you so much." She held me tightly. "And I know we aren't boyfriend-girlfriend, but we gave each other what we needed, and I think thats more important."

She was right about that. We didn't need to be together to be there for each other.

She broke our hug much earlier than I'd have liked under these circumstances.

"So," she said mischievously, "still feel like celebrating?"

I looked at her for a moment. "On one condition," I said.

Amber arched an eyebrow. "That being?"

I leaned in closely and, for a change, whispered in her ear, "I get to lay you down, rub hot oil all over your naked body, and lick your pussy into next week. I will tongue fuck you so hard you won't be right for a month." To prove my point I bit her ear firmly, sucking on the lobe while grabbing her ass more firmly. I heard sharp inhales.

"Agreed," she said quickly, breathing harder. She recovered from my sudden, and unexpected, vulgarity. "But after," she whispered into my ear in a breathy whisper, "I am going to suck your soul through your cock." She kissed me fiercely, our tongues fighting for supremacy.

Yea, I was gonna miss her.

#

A few days after my presentation we were at the San Diego airport standing in the terminal. I had upgraded her ticked to first class just to give us a few more minutes together before she boarded.

"So," asked Amber, "what are you gonna do? I mean you can do anything, or nothing. We batted around some ideas, so any firm plans yet?"

"I...am not sure," I confided. I hadn't thought about the enormous amount of cash in the bank account my uncle helped me setup. I was so focused on Amber that I spaced on the fact that I technically didn't have to work ever again.

"Truthfully, I might leave SoCal. I mean, there isn't much reason to stay, and I think a change of scenery would be good."

Amber nodded. "I think so too. Thats one of the reasons I'm leaving. The town seems smaller now."

"Totally," I said. "I might try Portland. They call it the 'silicon forest', lots of tech companies. Maybe I'll start one?"

Before I forgot, I gave her a business card. "Whats this," she asked.

"My new cell phone number. If you ever need anything, anywhere, anytime, just call."

She looked at the simple centered text. "'P', and a phone number. Very mysterious," she said.

She hugged me again and we said our goodbyes. I slipped a plain envelope in her purse containing $10,000 ('for emergencies' I wrote on a post-it) and card with a sad little puppy on it that said 'miss you'. Inside the card I wrote just three words; 'Kick some ass!'.

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