Page 44 of The Moment We Know

“What are you doing?” Jules asked.

“I’m switching places with you.”

“Why?”

“Because you clearly can’t keep an eye out for Anthony, so I’m going to do it.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yes. Now, move it.”

Sighing, as if Paige was being completely immature and unreasonable, Jules picked up her own glass, then slowly slid out of her side of the booth so they could trade seats. When they were both situated again, she played with her wine glass and said, “I’m sorry for … pushing. It’s just really hard waiting for you to have sex. It’s killing me.”

Paige gave her a look full of exaggerated sympathy and reached over to take her hand, squeezing it. “You’ll get through it.”

Jules flipped their hands, so that she was now holding Paige’s. “I just want you to see what it can be like,” she said, mostly serious in the wake of being teased. “To experience some sweaty, needy, mind-blowing sex. There’s nothing like it.”

“It does sound pretty good. I’ll make sure David gives it to me.”

“Make him do it soon. Then, after you’ve been to the Promised Land, send him home and call me immediately to tell me about it. I don’t care how tempted you are to cuddle afterwards—do not let him stay the night, no matter what. I know you two are ‘sort of’ dating, but his staying the night takes that too far.”

Paige, in the process of taking a drink of wine, almost choked and ended up having a coughing fit.

Jules narrowed her eyes. “Oh, God, no. Please tell me he hasn’t already stayed over.”

“He’s already stayed over,” Paige admitted when she was able to speak. “The night he fingered me in the bathtub.”

Her expression turning calculating, Jules said, “And the next morning … that’s when you jerked him off in the shower.”

“Yes.”

“Jesus. How did it get past me that he spent the night?”

“I don’t know. People usually take showers in the morning, so …”

Jules took a deep breath. “Please tell me that was the only time he’s stayed over.”

“It’s been a couple of times, actually,” Paige reluctantly told her. Then, attempting to alleviate some of Jules’s anxiety, she added, “But it’s really not a big deal.”

“Not a big deal?”

“No.”

“Are you fucking crazy? You can’t let him do that anymore. It’s too intimate.”

“Too intimate? I’ll be having sex with him—”

“Sex isn’t always intimate. And it wasn’t supposed to be in this situation. In and out, remember? Smash and grab?” Jules took several deep breaths while Paige watched, surprised at her friend’s response. “Have you stayed over at his place? Correction ... what used to be yours and his place when you were first married?”

“No. He asked me to last night, but I told him no.”

“Thank God. You don’t need to be doing that.”

“Look, I’m not going to lie. I briefly thought about it, but I kept picturing all the things he’d probably done with Ashley on his bed. Like getting morning blow jobs, going down on her, having all kinds of sex. Ugh. And I just couldn’t ignore that big of an elephant.”

“What do you mean? What elephant?”

“That’s another one of our rules. To ignore the elephant in the room—the elephant being his past relationship with Ashley,” Paige explained. “To not let it get in the way of what he and I are doing.”

---