Page 8 of About Last Night

“Not as close as I’d like to be. We’re very different and have never quite met the other’s expectations.”

I never know how to respond when I hear about sisters who don’t get along well. I twist my mug on the table, trying to think of something to say before the silence stretches too long. “I liked your Halloween costume last year,” I blurt.

“The construction worker?”

I nod.

Toni laughs and says, “Yeah. I’ve been dressing as the members of the Village People for the last four years. This year I was the biker.”

“Oh,” I say. I lick my lips and shift in my seat at the visuals rolling through my head. Somehow, I get the courage to look Toni in the eyes. “I’m sorry I missed that.”

Toni’s eyes darken. “It was popular, for sure.”

We hold eye contact for a very long time.

“I just pull things from the closet,” she adds.

“Your biker-chick drag is hanging in your closet?”

“It is.”

“Waiting to be worn again.”

“It is.”

“Hmm.”

This isn’t like me, to be so forward, so suggestive. I’ve never been a great flirter, but if the expression on Toni’s face is any indication, I’m doing something right. The silence between us is full of sexual tension, a pull I haven’t felt in a very, very long time. And the eye contact, my God. I refuse to be the one to look away first.

Toni is good at this. Very, very good.

I wonder what Toni is like in bed. What she would let me do…

I’m jarred out of my thoughts when the waitress puts our plates in front of us. We thank her and eat. I barely taste my pancakes and don’t see my food at all. My mind is on other things. I can’t bring myself to meet Toni’s gaze again, sure she will see every thought written on my face.

“What do you do when you aren’t working?” Toni asks.

“I’ve spent most of the last ten years working, climbing the corporate ladder. It didn’t leave much free time.” I cut a square out of the center of my pancakes and spear it on my fork. I take a bite of my pancakes, soaked through with fresh butter and warm syrup, and groan. I open my eyes and Toni is watching me, her mouth slightly open, her eyes dark, and I know all I have to do is ask to get what I want. “I hope that working for myself will give me more free time for…extracurricular activities.”

Toni raises an eyebrow and starts to eat again. “What kind of extracurricular activities do you think you’ll be participating in?”

“Yoga. Reading. Photography.”

“Hiking?”

“I’m not much of a hiker.”

Toni leans back and grasps her chest. “Right through the heart,” she says.

I laugh. “I’m not a complete couch potato. I like to kayak.”

“White water?” Toni asks, hope in her voice.

“More like a calm lake in the middle of the city at sunrise.”

“Well, it’s better than nothing, I guess,” Toni says. “You know, I can help you with your hiking aversion.”

“Can you?”

---