Page 58 of Tempest

“Gavin,” I stop him. “Thank you. For last night, thank you.”

“What are friends for, Ode?”

The best sex of my life. You’re in trouble, girl.

Sighing, I follow him downstairs. He rummages through my kitchen, placing items on my counter.

“Avocado toast, okay?”

“That sounds good, I still have some of the bread you made,” I answer, pulling out a few pieces and popping them into the toaster.

“Do you have a crockpot?”

“I’m ashamed to admit that it’s the only way I know how to cook. I used my oven in New York as storage. I didn’t cook anything in it the whole time I lived there.”

“Storage?” he asks, laughing. “For what?”

“A bin that had all my winter scarves and gloves, mostly. Stop laughing, storage in New York is hard to come by!”

“Suddenly, this house makes more sense.”

“Yes. She’s too big for me. I really only use a handful of rooms. But I love her.” I pull the crockpot out of the cupboard, and he laughs again.

“How old is this?” He takes it from me, seeing all the spots of worn off paint and the dents from not being handled as lovingly as it could have been. But those aren’t from me, it came to me that way.

“Old.” I shrug. “It was a thrift shop find shortly after I moved to the City. It’s one of my oldest companions.”

He gives me a funny look but dumps the contents of the mason jar in it, then fills the jar up with water and adds that, too.

“Should be ready in eight hours.”

“It’s that easy?”

“Yeah, my mom has it down to a science.”

“How is she doing?”

“Good,” he says with a wide smile. “She’s been regulated for a handful of years now; it was like meeting her for the first time. There’s a clarity or awareness in her now that was never there before.”

“That’s really special, Gavin. I’m glad she’s found something that works for her.” It always occurred to me that her mental health weighed on him more than he let on.

We make small talk while we eat breakfast. Mostly about my college experiences and my first jobs. It’s foreign to me, talking about this to someone who doesn’t already know. Usually, the people in my life know more details about the path my career took than I do. I haven’t had to sell myself to anyone in so long now. It’s probably the same for Gavin.

But we don’t know each other’s life stories, and I realize he stayed as closed off to me as I did to information about him. For me, it was a decision made out of self-preservation. Was it the same for him?

When we finish eating, he cleans up, telling me to stay put at the table that overlooks the water. I can see his reflection perfectly in the glass and count every time he looks up from dishes and wiping down my counter.

Part of me wants to turn around. Part of me wants to run back to New York. I won’t do that, though. No matter how complicated he makes me feel, I won’t let his presence make decisions for me. That’s not who I am.

Men don’t rule me, I don’t center myself around them.

No matter how good they are with their dick.

19

Odette

“Who are these women we’re meeting?” Britton asks as I pull into the parking lot of the bar I’ve rented out for the night. It’s a burlesque club, and it was highly recommended for a girls’ night venue.

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