Stay

Summary: AU where they don’t go to the island (and I guess, AU where MC is actually a normal college student). Even without the island, Sean and Amelia still meet.

It was nearing nine pm when a group of jocks piled into the burger joint. There weren’t many others in the restaurant, just an old man Amelia knew from her usual shifts – the same seat at the same time every single night – and a few college kids craving a burger while studying late into the night.

She’d heard from one of her co-workers that roughly once a month, the Hartfeld football team would come from training and order beers, greasy cheeseburgers and fries. Amelia would have guessed this was them even without knowing that, the many Hartfeld letterman jackets giving them away.

They were slightly rowdy, but Amelia had dealt with worse when she did the late shift on Saturday’s and had to deal with drunken students. She just grabbed several menus, the laminate starting to peel away from most of them, and weaved between the tables to them.

It took a few seconds for any of them to notice that she was waiting for their attention, but when one of them did – a tall, gorgeous man with broad shoulders, a brilliant smile, and the name S. Gayle printed on his jacket – he waved the others quiet and turned his smile towards her.

She felt her cheeks redden. Amelia had always blushed easily but she never let it fluster her. Instead of looking away and trying to hide a reaction to his smile, she let her own grow into a coy smirk, purposefully brushing her fingers against the tips of his as she handed him the menu. “Anything I can do for you?”

“Yeah, you can tell us where Steph is,” another interrupted – Hsaio, apparently – and waved his arms in the general direction of the kitchen. “She’s always the one here on Wednesday’s. She’s cute.”

“Craig, that’s rude,” S Gayle said, shaking his head. “Ignore him. We just need eight cheeseburgers, with fries not a side salad, and some beers.”

“Make that seven cheeseburgers and one double cheeseburger with fries and onion rings,” Craig corrected. “I’m carbo-loading.”

“No, you’re just hungry.”

Craig shrugged and turned towards his other teammates, starting up a loud conversation about fries and onion rings and which was better.

“Is that everything?” she asked, her attention solely on Gayle.

“Yeah.” He grinned at her, his gaze travelling over her body and lingering on the name tag pinned to her chest. “Thanks, Amelia.”

She felt his eyes on her as she walked away, making sure to sway her hips just a little bit more than necessary. They made eye contact a few more times when she brought the table their beer and as she attended to the other customers, and when she was feeling particularly daring, she winked at him.

He choked on his beer and the roar of the team grew louder as Craig thumped him on the back.

Amelia made more trips to their table than she usually would have, although that wasn’t because of Gayle. Craig had gotten more boisterous and loud than he had been when he entered, and Amelia wasn’t sure what he’d been talking about, but it had ended with him accidentally knocking his bottle of beer over and spilling it across the table.

“Sorry about Craig,” he said to her. She bent to wipe the table, purposefully making it very easy for him to see down her shirt. He glanced down only once, swallowing nervously before returning his gaze back to hers. “Beer gets him excited. Even before he drinks it.”

Amelia laughed. His smile grew wider.

“So, have you been working here long?” he asked. “I haven’t seen you here before.” Craig had been listening, crowing with laughter when he heard his friend’s question and nudging him with his elbow. Gayle squirmed out of the way, apparently flustered by his friends teasing.

“I’ve been working here for a couple of years now,” she said, finishing wiping the table and straightening up. “But Wednesday’s is usually my day off. I had the time for a few extra shifts this week so here I am.”

She left him to the company of his team then, getting Craig a second beer and then fetching their meals from the kitchen. Half an hour later, she brought the bill, her phone number followed by ‘for S Gayle’ scribbled along the bottom.

The team tipped well.

~~~*~~~

He called her on Friday evening – she discovered the S stood for Sean – and they decided to meet for drinks the next day.

Amelia’s lunchtime shift dragged and when she finally did get home, it seemed to take longer than usual to shower the lingering smell of junk food away. It had been a while since she’d been so excited for a date, and her roommate, Diego, was definitely enjoying her enthusiasm a bit too much.

“I’ll be staying late at the library tonight,” he told her just before she left, punctuating his words with a teasing wink. “So you’ll have the apartment all to yourself.”

She didn’t answer. His laughter was loud enough to be heard at the other end of the hallway.

Sean was already at the bar when she arrived. The moment she walked in, he saw her, and she gave him a bright smile and a small wave before crossing the room to join him at the bar. He stood up when she reached him, and it was the first time she’d realised just how much he towered over her. The top of her head didn’t even reach his shoulders.

“Amelia, hey,” he said, bending to press a quick kiss to her cheek in greeting. “You look great.”

“Thanks.” She glanced over him, not too subtly. He didn’t look bad himself, dressed in a polo shirt and jeans, his arms on full display. “You look good too.”

He grinned. “So, what do you want to drink?”

“Whatever you’re having’s good,” she said with a shrug. He turned away from her and back to the bar, tall enough that he only needed to nod at the bartender over the heads of the rest of the crowd to get his attention.

It didn’t take long to get their drinks, but it felt like it did. Neither of them said a word to one another as they waited, not sure how to start a conversation – or if they even could with the noise of the others around them. It was only when they had a beer each, paid for by Sean, and found themselves a small booth that Amelia asked the most boring opening question.

“So, what’s your major?” She grimaced. Sean paused, his beer halfway to his mouth, and laughed warmly. “Yeah, yeah, I know but there has to be a reason it’s such a standard opening. Maybe it’s usually a great icebreaker and I’ve just been unlucky.”

“Economics,” he said, beaming at her. “How about you?”

“Mathematics and Music.”

Sean frowned slightly, leaning back and glancing over her. “Mathematics and Economics share some prerequisites, don’t they? How come I haven’t seen you before?”

“I was thinking the same. I’m sure I’d have remembered seeing you,” she said, resting her hand on his arm and smiling up at him. His frown faded away when he grinned back. “I didn’t take the required maths courses until the last semester of Freshman year. I focused on the other general requirements first and took a few of the basic music courses. I must have missed you.”

They stuck to relatively safe topics for the rest of the evening. By the time they’d both finished their first drink, Amelia knew Sean had two brothers, played starting Quarterback for the Hartfeld Knights and loved to binge-watch The Crown and the Flame.

(“You’ve never seen it?” he’d asked. “You have to at least give it a try. It might not be as good as the books, but it’s worth watching.”

“I’ve read the first book,” she had protested, laughing when he shook his head in disbelief. His enthusiasm was adorable. “I left it too long before starting on the second and I didn’t remember what was going on.”)

After the second drink – another beer for Sean and a fruity cocktail with a mini umbrella for Amelia – he knew she was an only child, had watched Parks and Recreation too many times, and was the principal flautist in the Hartfeld Orchestra.

He walked her back to her flat. She took her keys out of her bag but didn’t use them, the keychain jingling when she turned away from the door and back to face Sean again. “Thanks for the drinks,” she said, sidling just a little bit closer to him. “We should do it again sometime.”

“We should.”

She beamed at him, closing the distance between them with one more step. Sean had to bend his head to keep his gaze locked with hers, and she could see him wondering whether or not she was going to let him kiss her – and if she was, was she just expecting a kiss on the cheek?

As sweet as his uncertainty was, Amelia wasn’t going to let him worry for long. She rose up to her tiptoes, lifting her head so her mouth was almost on his, and then she raised her gaze to meet his. Sean closed the distance between them, his lips soft on hers.

She probably should have kept it brief, just a quick, chaste kiss at the end of a first date, but his lips felt good on hers and she’d never been someone who took things slowly. Instead of moving away, she slid her hands up his muscular arms before wrapping her arms around his neck, pulling herself up and into him.

His surprised exhale was caught by her kiss, but his shock at her forwardness seemed to last barely a second before his arms were around her waist and he was lifting her up so he didn’t need to lean down. Her toes were barely grazing the floor, but she felt secure in his arms, sure he was strong enough to hold her for as long as they continued kissing.

They were both slightly out of breath when they finally parted. Sean lowered her back to the ground, a sheepish smile on his face at her slight stumble once her feet were firmly on the pavement.

It had been a while since a kiss had left her knees weak.

Sean drew in a sharp breath when she trailed her finger from the back of his neck, over his shoulder and down his chest until her hand was flat against his chest. “Do you want to come in?”

He swallowed, glancing over her head at the door behind her and then back to her. “Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

He hesitated for a second, then he nodded. Amelia beamed, turning to unlock the front door and then taking his hand and leading through the building to her apartment. Once there, she let go of his hand and went to the small kitchenette to get herself a glass of water.

Amelia had expected Sean to follow, but instead, he wandered past the kitchen into the center of the main room. He looked around the small room, his gaze lingering on the sheet music on the stand by the window and the polaroids of her and Diego that they’d tacked to the wall in a messy collage.

“Do you want a drink?” she asked. When he didn’t reply, she abandoned her glass of water on the counter and wandered over to him, stopping in front of him. When she rested her hand on his arm, he met her gaze. “Sean, you know this doesn’t have to be anything more than another drink if you don’t want-”

“I do,” he said earnestly,  and when he cupped her face in his hands, it was her turn to be speechless. “I want to. I really want to, but I don’t usually move this fast. I don’t normally do this.”

He bent to kiss her. His thumb brushed along her cheek, his hand moving to tangle in her hair, anchoring her to him. His other hand dropped away from her cheek so he could trail his knuckles along her side, brushing against the curve of her breasts, her hips, before settling at the small of her back.

Amelia ended the kiss with a teasing nip to his bottom lip, pulling back barely an inch before smirking up at him. “Follow me.”

She stepped carefully out of his embrace, a few loose strands of hair falling into her eyes when he untangled his hand from her hair, and took hold of his arm, leading him through the apartment towards her room.

“You’re sure about this?” he asked once they were in her room, his gaze locked on her as she reached around him to close the door behind them.

“Are you?”

Instead of answering, he lowered his lips to hers, the kiss immediately when he dragged his tongue along her bottom lip and she opened to him. Amelia pressed closer, slipping her hands under his shirt and starting to nudge the fabric up. His abs were solid under her fingers, and she took a moment to trace the defined muscles, satisfied when he shivered at her touch.

Amelia had to break the kiss so she could push his shirt over his head, and once she’d dropped it to the floor, she stepped back to take a look at him. She’d never seen anyone so impressive, and she bit her lip as she let her gaze roam over him. “Wow,” she breathed, her fingers running lightly over his abs. “You’re sexy.”

“Well, so are you.”

She stretched up to quickly press her lips to his, then began a trail of kisses down his neck, his chest. She lingered at his abs, dragging her tongue along the lines of his muscles and feeling him tremble slightly at her touch, his body tense. Her hands were at his belt buckle, deftly undoing it, but other than a teasing brush of her hand against him, she went no lower. Instead, she returned to his lips, grinning into the kiss when she felt his hands at the hem of her dress, nudging it higher up her thighs.

Sean pulled away just long enough to lift her dress off her and then they were pressed together, kissing even deeper than before. Amelia’s hands were on his chest, one of Sean’s spanning her lower back and the other working her bra clasp.

After that, it didn’t take long for them to finish undressing the other and as soon as they were naked, Sean lifted her effortlessly into his arms and carried her the short distance to the bed.

He kissed down the column of her neck, licked along her collarbone, as he stroked his hand up her inner thigh. He drew small circles between her legs, his touch gentle, steadier than she expected, until she came, his name a sigh on her lips.

Amelia barely had time to recover. Sean’s kiss caught the end of his name as she breathed it, and he was already nudging her legs further apart so he could slide one finger inside her, his thumb rubbing at her clit. She clutched at his shoulders, his muscles solid beneath her hands, and when she was trembling again, she nudged him away and reached to the side to rummage in her bedside table for a condom.

He groaned when she rolled it onto him, rocking into her touch. Amelia guided him into her, arching her head back with a satisfied moan when he was finally fully inside her. Her fingers traced made-up patterns onto his back, feeling his muscles flex as he moved over her.

Sean’s head fell to rest against her breast after he came, and it only took a few clumsy strokes of his fingers for her to follow him. He rolled off her as she tried to catch her breath, the two of them not touching until he reached out and laced their fingers loosely together.

“What now?” he asked quietly, after a few minutes of comfortable silence. She looked over at him. “Like I said before, I don’t usually… move this fast.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t usually move slow.”

“Oh.” He frowned. “Do you want me to go? Is that how this works?”

Amelia laughed. “No, no, you can stay. I want you to stay.”

She felt his gaze on her as she clambered over him, wanting to go and clean up a bit before going to sleep. She hesitated only a few steps away from the bed and then turned back to press a light kiss to his lips before slipping on a short robe and leaving the bedroom.

He was sat on the edge of the bed in his boxers when she returned, his fingers busy typing something on his phone. “Everything alright?”

“Yeah, sorry,” he said, putting his phone down on the bedside table and watching her as she untied the robe and climbed back into bed. “I had to tell Craig I wouldn’t be coming home tonight.”

Sean had to silence his phone when it immediately began to buzz constantly with replies from Craig, and as he glanced over a few of them, Amelia turned onto her side so she could try to sleep. When he was done chuckling over his friend’s messages, she felt him moving next to her and then his hand was on her hip, his touch hesitant.

“Can I-?” Amelia nodded, swallowing when she felt his arms wrap around her waist and his lips against her neck. “‘Night.”

“Goodnight.”

In his arms, she slept surprisingly well.

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