Page 32 of When The Rain Falls

"Hey, Aimee?" Ruby asks from behind the curtain. "Question."

"Shoot," I say half-heartedly, still studying the picture on her phone screen. I can’t stop looking at it. I stare and study it like it holds a hidden clue to the mystery that is the man next door.

"Do people actually like giving blow jobs? Like, is it fun?" Ruby blurts out. I have to blink a couple times to process the question. Did she just ask me about blow jobs?

"Wow. Ok. Really?" I ask. "That's your question? You have to go straight to the hard ones? Not like, do corn dogs have actual corn in them or what sound does a bunny make?" I'm not a parent. I need some warm-up questions first.

Ruby throws open her curtain and cocks her head at me. The look she gives me tells me that I do not get warm up questions. "This girl at school was talking about oral," Ruby explains. "And I don't know. It just sounds so gross. Why would you want to do that?” She winces.

Julie peeks her head tentatively out from behind her curtain. Great. Just great. Welcome to dressing room sex ed. I am your very experienced and skilled professor, Aimee Jones. I can provide references. You want my curriculum vitae? It might be a complete book.

"I think it's like spicy food," I tell her. "Some people like it and some don't. And maybe you won't know until you try. It can actually be fun. I don’t know. I like it.”

“Did you always like it? Or did you just learn to like it over time?”

“Is this question going somewhere?” I ask. “Like are you and Rocky?—”

“No,” Ruby says quickly. “We haven’t even kissed yet. That’s the goal for homecoming.”

“Ok, just don’t let him talk you into doing something you’re not ready for,” I tell her.And maybe don’t sleep with him just because you’re lonely,I think to myself.

Ruby smiles at me before looking down at her feet, her bare toes barely visible beneath the hem of her dress. “Hey, Aimee?” she says, her voice growing soft and serious. "Thanks for not being weird. And for giving merealanswers.”

She gives me an actual, genuine smile and she slips back into the dressing room. An actual smile. Not a sarcastic one. Not an ironic one. I sit back against the wall and enjoy the warm feeling rising in my chest. To think she used to scare me.

"It's nice to have someone to talk to who isn't going to freak out, you know," Ruby adds from behind the dressing room.

"No problem," I say casually. But I don't feel casual on the inside. I feel like I’ve won a major victory and my insides are squealing a happy little victory cry.

"Hey, Ruby," I add. "I'd prefer if you didn't go around advertising to your dad about this conversation. I'm not sayingto lie to him. I'm just saying what he doesn't know, won't hurt me."

"You mean, won't hurthim," Ruby corrects.

"No. I meant what I said. If he finds out I'm teaching you about blowjobs, I will be the one hurting. Got that?"

I hear rustling behind Ruby's dressing room curtain and the sound of a zipper.

A store clerk walks in with a pile of dresses draped over her arm.

"So, what do you do with the balls?" Ruby asks loudly. "Do you put them in your mouth, too? Aren't they gross andshrively?"

The store clerk freezes. She looks from me to Ruby's dressing room curtain and back to me. I smile awkwardly and flash her all my teeth. She turns around and walks back in the direction she came from.

“I’m pretty sure shopping with you girls made me five pounds lighter,” I say, giving my abdominal muscles a tentative poke. “I haven’t laughed that hard in forever. And who knew laughing was such a good core exercise. Forget Pilates. We need laugh-o-lot-ees.”

Ruby turns around from her spot in line in front of me and groans. “That was terrible. Likedad joke,terrible.” The girls finally found their perfect homecoming dresses and now I’m taking up Finn’s offer for dinner, on him. I should take the girls to the Lobster Palace, just to take full advantage of this opportunity. But I don’t really like lobster. So, we’re in line for dinner at the noisy food court in the mall.

“You know what? I think dad jokes are underrated,” I tell her. “And dad bods, too,” I add, thinking about Finn’s muscular frame.

“Ew. Aimee. We are about to eat dinner. Don’t ruin Chinese food for us,” Julie whines.

“Hey, there,” I hear a seductively low male voice. I turn around and see a tall man with black, curly hair and piercing blue eyes standing behind me. He’s wearing black jeans and a black t-shirt that accentuates a full sleeve of tattoos. Ooh, a bad boy, perhaps. “I have to ask. There’s no way these are your kids, right?”

“Oh no, I’m the cool aunt,” I assure him quickly. “Although they’re pretty great. I mean, if they were my kids, I wouldn’t have any complaints.”

Ruby’s forehead wrinkles and her eyes soften. And it makes me wonder if maybe she doesn’t hear that she’s great very often. I mean, she has her moments. Moments when she can get cold and standoffish. But most of the time, she’s funny and interesting, if not slightly on the critical and overthinking side.

“I’m sure they are,” the man says, “but there is no way you are old enough to be a mom to teenagers.” I feel his gaze slide up and down my body. My face flushes. Ruby wiggles her eyebrows at me.

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