Page 33 of Destiny

After that, my mom goes back and retrieves the folder she came for.

“Alright. Well, I got this. I trust you girls can take the place for the rest of the day?”

“Yep.”

“Okay, we’ll talk more about the open mic idea. Love you.”

“Love you too.”

I’m opening the large blinds, but when Micky hears the car drive off, she comes over and says, “Now that she’s gone—there’s something I’ve always wanted to ask you.”

“What’s that?” The light floods into the previously dim room, and it causes me to squint.

“Well, with us talking about your diabetes and active sex life . . .”

I truly have no idea where she’s going with this.

“How do you fuck with that pump thing? If I understand it correctly, it attaches to your body, and then you clip the actual pump part to your pants.”

“Of course, you’d wonder about that.” I laugh. “You can take it off for a little bit.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yeah, for like less than an hour or so.”

“You and Marco can go for that long?” Her jaw is practically on the grungy and somewhat sticky floor beneath us.

“No! I’m just giving you an example.”

“Okay, I was going to say—damn!”

“But after that, you can just reattach it and let the bulky part just chill on the bed next to you.”

“Ah.” She nods. “That makes sense. I was just curious.”

I unlock the front door and lean on the counter while we wait for our first customers of the day.

“Enough about me. What’s going on with you? What was his name? Kyler or something like that?”

“Zephyr.”

“That’s right. The librarian from Rhinelander. You met at FusterCluck’s, right?”

“Yeah.”

“How are things going with him?”

She shrugs and starts fiddling with the skin around her fingers. “It’s casual.”

“Meaning?”

“He sees other people, and so do I. You know that I’m poly.”

“I do, but I thought you could still have serious partners in the mix.”

“You can. I just don’t want that. I hate exclusivity of any kind.”

At that moment, I realized that Marco and I had never talked about the exclusive nature, or lack thereof, of our relationship.

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