Flow (Grip, #0.5)

by Kennedy Ryan

“Their priorities weren’t straight. They seemed more concerned with the career than with him. When you take the reins like you did back there, it makes him think that you’re just like them, especially your mom.”

“I already know I got the goods. It’s just a matter of time and the right opportunity before I’m on somebody’s stage.”

“And I don’t know what Rhyson did to deserve you,” he says.

“Oh, Grip goes through girls like it’s nothing.” Jimmi lets out a husky laugh. “They’re disposable.”

Especially if he looked like Grip. I’d take green Grip. Pink Grip. Red Grip. If Grip were a bag of Skittles, I’d eat every one.

“Did you just . . .” I search for the right word, “whiff me?” His husky laugh leaves warm breath at my neck, skittering a shiver down my spine. “It’s better than the alternative,” he says. “Which is what?” I pull back to peer up at his face. “Kissing you.”

“Look, I can admit I’m attracted to you.”

“I . . .I don’t feel like we know each other anymore.” A humorless laugh escapes my lips. “And I’m not sure we ever did.”

“Do you remember when they insured your hands?” I ask.

loved piano, yes, but that just came to me. I don’t even remember not knowing how to play. Piano I was born with. The career? The road and the concerts and the tours? That they made me do.”

don’t know if I can do that shit again, Bris. It takes so much, and I only got through it with the drugs. I don’t want to create a situation where I need those again. If there was one thing I learned when I kicked the habit, it was that I have an addictive personality. Music is the only thing I need to be addicted to.”

“I still have two years left at Columbia. We could start with me just being your sister.” A wide smile stretches across my face at the prospect. “And then see what happens.”

And Jimmi’s “brill” idea (her whack word, not mine)

And that could get touchy . . .since I want to fuck her.

mean, yes, talk to her till the sun comes up, laugh about the stand-up comedians we both like, exchange playlists, debate hot-button politics, explore all the ways we are different and just alike . . .but also I want to fuck her.

She’s challenging him in a way none of us were willing to

And that’s my kind of girl.

Rhyson carefully considers the girl who has been one of our closest friends since high school. She’s also had a crush on Rhyson about as long as she’s known him.

“We’re down to ride, too.” Luke, the other guy we’ve been tight with for years and a fellow arts alum, hooks his elbow around his girlfriend Mandi’s neck.

“That’s part of life. You and Jade should talk about it someday. Tell her you’re sorry it happened, and that given the chance, you would have done things differently. We only get one life, but it’s filled with second chances. That’s why I came here to try again with Rhyson.”

“That you’re curious and ask questions that make me think. That challenge me. People don’t always do that.”

“Toughest day of your life.”

“When Rhyson left, the house was dead. No music, no life. He left without even saying goodbye.”

“It feels like he was writing my life story. Like he knew there would be this kid who needed something bigger than himself, and he wrote this to guide that kid to a different path. This has always felt like more than a poem. It’s personal. It feels like my prophecy.”

words. Amazingly, as he’s reciting a poem I’ve never heard before, someone else’s words illuminate Grip to me.

There are too few perfect moments in this life. Far too few of us get them, but I am privileged to have this one with this man. When he empties his chest of his heart and empties his body of his soul for me under a starry sky on a Ferris wheel. And I know. In this moment, I know that I’m lost to him. It has been a matter of days. It has been a string of moments. It has not been long enough to tell him, but in my heart, I know I am lost.

The inches between our lips disappear. At the first brush of his mouth on mine, I know this kiss will never end. It will live on in my memory for the rest of my life.

At the top of the world, so close we could almost touch the sky and with only the stars watching, I found out what a kiss should be.

Our kiss ended once the wheel started turning, but nothing stopped.

I slip my hands over her ass and lift her out of the water so she can lock her legs at my back, scooting her up until I can take one nipple into my mouth. Shiiiiiiiit.

Her kiss woos me in the water. Her fingers on my skin are poetry. Her lips, prose. The rhythm of her heart against mine, iambic. Every touch, eloquence.

could be awkward if things . . .go south.” “They won’t,” I assure her. “Just give it a chance.” “What?” She lets out a cynical laugh. “A long-distance relationship?” “Why not?”

“I do have dreams,” I finally answer. “And they’re all here now.”

“I feel like I found a new bestie.” Jimmi blinks tears from her big blue eyes. “We have to talk every week, and you have to come back soon. And I can come to New York, too.”

I haven’t spent as much time with Luke and Mandi, but it’s still sweet of them to show up to say goodbye to me.

“You come back to me, okay?” he whispers in my ear. “Slow doesn’t mean stop, right?”

His phone ringing interrupts me telling him I plan to come back this summer when I have a few days off from my internship.

I’m still silently debating when a Toyota Camry pulls up to the curb, and a curvy woman with dark brown skin and black, curly hair gets out.

“Uh, hey, Tessa.”

“That’s Tessa.” Rhyson stretches his eyebrows until they disappear under his unruly hair. “Grip’s girlfriend.”

“We need to talk now. I’m sick of chasing your ass down. You are taking responsibility for this.” “Responsibility?” Grip shakes his head and shrugs “For what?” “For this baby, that’s for what,”

“Drive, Rhyson.” My voice is rock and resolve. “Let your friend sort his shit out. I’m going home.”