Page 35 of Curveball

He scrunches his nose. “I like it, but I don’t love it here. I’ll buy a house when I love somewhere. A place I can see myself forever.”

I reach over and run my fingers through his hair. “God, I love your hair.”

He smiles. It’s genuine and carefree. “I know you do.”

“Women must go crazy for it.”

His face falls. “I don’t want to talk about other women.”

“It’s not like I don’t know that you date.”

“They’re faceless and nameless.”

I start thinking about him in high school. I’ve never known him to have a girlfriend.

“Why didn’t you ever have girlfriends when we were growing up? I don’t remember any hanging around your house. Arizona thought you were gay for the longest time. I told her you definitely weren’t.”

He lifts his head before raising an eyebrow. “How did you know I wasn’t?”

“Well, I pined after you, and that didn’t really play into my fantasy.”

He nods. “I had girlfriends, but I was never serious with anyone. I just didn’t bring them home with me. Perhaps in part because I was embarrassed by my absentee parents, and in part I just wanted my own, private, untainted space. I’ve never once invited a woman to my apartment.”

“Never?”

He shakes his head. “No. It’s always her place. My place is sacred. I don’t bring home random hookups ever.”

I tap his chest over his heart. “You’re twenty-eight years old. You’ve never letanyonein?”

“No.”

“I think it’s unhealthy.”

“I never claimed to be healthy.”

I wiggle my hips. “You feltveryhealthy to me.”

He smiles. “We have a physical connection that I can’t explain. Something I’ve never shared with anyone else.”

Part of me is happy that he feels it too, but then there’s another part of me that’s sad knowing we can never be anything more than what we are right now.

CHAPTER SEVEN

QUINCY – AGE 31 {RIPLEY – AGE 26}

“I’m engaged! Ahh!”

My face falls. “To whom?”

I can hear Arizona sigh in disappointment at my question. “To Marc, asshole. My boyfriend. The man I’ve been dating for over two years.”

Ripley and I are in bed. She pinches her eyebrows at my sour expression. I point at the phone and mouth, “It’s Arizona.”

I put the phone on speaker so she can hear but motion for her to be quiet. She nods.

I grumble, “Oh. How about a long engagement? Maybe ten years or so?”

Ripley’s eyes widen and she mouths, “They’re engaged?”

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