Page 43 of The Single Dad's Guide to Recreation

Me

Of course!

Josh

Just wasn’t sure if you were in bed or what

Me

I’m in bed

All alone

The three dots appear and disappear several times. I’m staring at them, face hot, wondering if that was too much of a hint or if I should say more, when the photo I took of Josh smirking at me over a plate of pasta flashes on the screen. Fumbling to swipe and accept his call, I accidentally hit speaker.

“Hi,” I whisper. “Um, you’re on speaker.”

“I thought you were alone,” he says, his voice so low and growly that my deprived Pandora’s box clenches, jonesing for a special someone to surround.

“I am,” I say, the heat of a blush spreading from my cheeks to my chest. “It’s just, I mean, I don’t know. I’m in my childhood bedroom. I feel like I’m going to get in trouble for talking to a boy late at night. In fact, I’m going to put in my earbuds. Hang on.”

After I do so and tell him that I’m back, he asks, “Did teenage Avery talk to boys late at night?”

I snort. “Only about homework. Teenage Avery was very nerdy. She didn’t, um, find herself until college.”

“Oh yeah? What did she find?”

“That she liked sex.”

“I’d like to hear exactly what she liked. Likes. Can you tell me?”

Without direction, my free hand slides inside my sleep shorts. “Are we having phone sex?”

“Do you want to?”

“I never have, but… yeah, I think so.” A nervous giggle pops out of me. “What do we do?”

“I’ve never tried it either, so don’t laugh if I ask a cheesy question.”

“Like?”

“What are you wearing?”

“Do you want the truth?”

“Of course.”

“Sleep shorts and a tank top.”

“Tell me more about them. So I can picture you.” His voice has dropped, in pitch and volume. I hear rustling, like he’s moving around.

A little shiver goes through me, and my heart drops. Like waaay south. “Well, they’re not very fancy. But they’re super soft. Black, stretchy, cottony things.”

“Are they loose or tight?”

“Um, the top is tight. I like to feel like my boobs are contained, I guess. But the bottoms are pretty loose.”

“So if I was there, I’d have a hard time slipping my hand inside the top, but not the bottoms?”

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