1.12 Glacial

It had taken a lot of hard work and long shifts, but Sage could finally afford to remodel the ugly monstrosity of her bedroom. She chose a cool aqua pallet. Might as well go with her favorite colour.

It relaxed her to see her new bedroom each morning. At the very least it made going into her hideous kitchen a lot easier.

As she prepared breakfast, the doorbell rang. She jumped when she noticed the time. She was still in her pajamas! There was no way she could let him see her like this!

After hurriedly pulling on her clothes, she let Billy inside.

“Breakfast will be ready in a few minutes,” she told him. He seemed lost in thought.

“You still have this photo?” he asked.

Sage quirked an eyebrow. “You come here every morning for breakfast and you only just noticed that picture?”

“Well when I get here breakfast is usually already made,” he shot back.

“Well these pancakes are worth the wait,” she said with a bit of irritation, “I just wanted to make sure they were-,”

“Perfect, I know.”

She bubbled with annoyance as he got his plate. After their date at the festival, things with Billy had been less than smooth at times. He could be a polite gentleman one minute, then nothing more than a rude child the next. Everything in Sage told her to give up on him, but his charming demeanor and passion for art made her want to tough it out. Romance is not without its snags, after all.

And during this whole time, Billy had never been pushy. He seemed comfortable with the slow pace of their relationship. Sage valued patience in anyone, moreover a romantic partner. Aside from a few kisses on the cheek, nothing physical had happened between them.

And she couldn’t help but smile as she excitedly told her about his work. Sage was hard-pressed to find someone as dedicated to their craft as herself, but Billy seemed to enjoy painting as much as she enjoyed music. And in turn, he often listened to her playing with a smile. Sage tried not to talk about her work too much, seeing as it might bore him, but when she did Billy listened attentively.

“…and after this commission, they want me to make four more paintings! I’ve already made some sketches, but I’ll probably be busier for a while…” he trailed off. His work took up a lot of his time, and in his experience not too many women were satisfied with only seeing him when his schedule allowed, which was admittedly not too often.

But Sage was not like many women. She just shrugged, smiled and said, “It sounds like work is going well for you. I’m proud of you, Billy.”

Truthfully, Sage was a little relieved. Things at the theatre were going to get busy pretty soon as well. She wasn’t going to be able to see Billy all too often either. If they were both busy, then there wouldn’t be any problems.

After they finished breakfast, Billy surprised Sage by pulling her into a hug.

“Thanks for breakfast. It was delicious.”

Sage blushed furiously, grateful that Billy couldn’t see her face. She could feel his muscles flex as he hugged her closer and his breath was warm against her neck.

“N-no problem,” she struggled to recompose herself, “Thank you for coming over.”

And after he pulled away- ever so slowly- Sage found herself staring at his lips. After such a warm hug, she was almost certain that a kiss would follow. It would be moving a bit fast, but at the moment, she wouldn’t mind too much if Billy kissed her…

He kissed her cheek. “I’ve got to get going. See you tomorrow morning.”

“Of course,” Sage said vacantly, “Until tomorrow…”

When he turned away, she quickly sniffed her breath. My breath isn’t too bad…

So why didn’t he kiss me?

Sage quickly kicked herself for such thoughts. Look at you, one hug and you’re already getting carried away. Of course he didn’t kiss you! It would be too soon…

It was her day off, so Sage took care of some chores around the house.

Feeling more at ease, Sage practiced for a while in her front yard. She thought of the next day’s busy schedule for work; there were several musicians who were going to practice before and after her. The practice she was getting now would minimize the time she spent fumbling around on stage, she reasoned.

She felt some heat creep up to her neck when she thought about playing with Mr. Ivanov. Ever since her first date with Billy, he had made a few passing comments about her and her “boyfriend”. She of course ignored such comments, or reminded him that such things were inappropriate to say at work, but he just smiled and laughed. It did raise the question of what exactly she and Billy were. “Dating” seemed too casual, and “going steady” seemed too juvenile. But they hadn’t even discussed exclusivity. She blushed as she realized that, while she had assumed Billy wasn’t seeing anyone else, that he might be seeing other women as well. It wasn’t the proper thing to do, but Billy had shown that he didn’t always care about manners…

The question continued to burn in her mind well into dinner. Is he seeing anyone else?

Is that why he’s willing to take it so slow?

The last thought made her choke on her burger. While she was perfectly comfortable with the pace of their relationship, she knew other people would call it “glacial”, to put it nicely.

She needed to talk about this with Billy.

***

Sage slept well into the morning. When you work night shifts your body clock gets rearranged. In all honesty, Sage had never been an early riser to begin with, giving yet another reason being a musician suited her- long nights, late mornings.

Still, she made sure to get up early enough to have breakfast ready, or at least in the making, by the time Billy arrived.

Sage glanced at his baggy, sweaty clothes with barely concealed disdain. This seemed like no way to dress for a date. “Did you go to the gym today?”

Billy looked down at his outfit, as if surprised to see sweats and a t-shirt instead of his usual sweater and jeans. “Ummm… yeah, I, uh, jogged.” He resisted the urge to sniff under his arms. He’d stayed up late painting and when he woke up, he just pulled on the first thing he saw in his closet, which happened to be his unwashed gym clothes from several weeks before. Hopefully he didn’t smell too bad.

Sage seemed to accept his excuse, and gazed at his biceps. He definitely exercised for those kinds of muscles! And while she found him attractive for his interests, she couldn’t deny that twinge of physical attraction either. She cleared her throat and belatedly averted her eyes after a few seconds, cheeks red-hot with embarrassment. What was I doing? She thought to herself, leering at him, like some kind of pervert? What’s wrong with me?

Billy didn’t seem to notice her qualms in checking him out, but he did feel uncomfortable as the silence between them stretched out.

Sage leaned forward to peck his cheek and suggest they get on to breakfast, but Billy’s head swiveled to the side at the last second to look at the food sitting on the counter, leading to their first “real” kiss.

Contrary to what Sage expected, alarms didn’t go off in her head, nor was there any searing hot sensation as their lips pressed together. Instead, she marveled for a second at just how soft Billy’s lips were, which quickly turned into anxiety as Billy sucked a little on her top lip. Was that a normal thing to do when kissing? She had no idea. Is his saliva going to get on me? The thought broke through her anxiety, and gave her the ludicrous desire to burst into giggles. Kissing was so… odd. How did people get used to the sensation?

Belatedly, she pulled back. “I’m sorry-,”

Billy cut her off by giving her a much deeper, more confident kiss. She allowed his tight embrace for several seconds while her mind seemed to be in free fall. Billy definitely knew what he was doing, decently compensating for her inexperience. It didn’t make her knees weak or make stars explode behind her eyes, but she could feel herself go limp in his arms, her hands pressing him closer, the heat radiating beneath the thin fabric of his shirt…

She pulled away firmly once she regained her senses.

“Breakfast is going to get cold,” she said quietly.

Billy gazed at her flushed cheeks and her bright, sparkling eyes and smiled. “Well at least that’s one hunger I can satisfy.”

Sage blushed at the dirty joke, completely unsure of what to say. Billy chuckled and dropped his arms. “Ok, ok, let’s eat.”

Sage watched in mute horror as Billy flung his waffles into his mouth.

“There’s no need to be in such a hurry,” she tried to come off as nonchalant, but instead her words were tinged with nervousness.

“Hm?” he hardly glanced from his food.

“You’re getting food on your shirt!” she snapped, her tone much more harsh than she intended.

This time he looked down. “Yeah, you’re right.” He didn’t make any move to wipe off the errant waffle and syrup from his clothes, but he did slow down. Sage ground her teeth.

“I’m going to have cut breakfast short, I have work today,” she reminded him.

If her annoyance came through at all, Billy didn’t seem to notice it. He just nodded and continued eating.

With the exception of their forks scraping their plates, there was no other noise as they ate breakfast. Sage had run out of things to say and Billy didn’t seem very interested in talking.

Sage glanced at her phone’s clock testily. She didn’t want to be rude, but she was going to be late if she lingered much longer.

Getting Billy out proved to be no problem, eager as he was to return to his painting (and to shower…possibly). Sage was out, in uniform, ready for the carpool minutes before it arrived.

When she got home and loaded the dishes, the washing machine broke with a loud snap and a dramatic flood of water. Great.

She sighed and bent down to fix the broken appliance. Nothing today really seemed to be going right. Physically her and Billy’s relationship was going quickly, threatening to leave her with whiplash, but some of the things he did… it just irked her.

It’s normal to put up with some quirks in a relationship, she assured herself. Nobody could be perfect… or so people said.

After the washing machine she scrubbed at the suddenly filthy countertops. Everything seemed to get dirty so quickly.

Like Billy’s shirt at breakfast, she thought snidely. No- I’m being too hard on him, he was probably just…disoriented! From the kissing and such, her cheeks flamed.

There was still so much she didn’t know about the man who had given her her first kiss. In fact, Billy knew what her house looked like but she had never seen his! If they were going to get more serious, they definitely needed to know each other better.

Maybe I’ll see him tomorrow at his place instead of having breakfast here… it’s not really rude if I just bring breakfast to him, right?

She stopped scrubbing. The countertops sparkled.

Her plan was set. Breakfast tomorrow, at Billy’s. 

AN: Anyone else tired of this? I sure am! I find it really difficult to write Sage and Billy's relationship. Since Sage has never been in a relationship, I've been trying to picture how most people would act in their first (probably teen years?) romance and this was the result. Plus Billy is really rude. In game he insults Sage fairly often, which in real life would (hopefully) get him dumped, or at least a serious discussion. Instead Sage forgives his faults (for the time being at least), I suppose because she's a bit naive romantically. Still, it's hard to write out.