Page 82 of A Novel Love Story

Junie rolled her eyes. “Bea’s the best he’ll ever get.”

“But she can do better,” Gemma replied.

I said, without thinking, “I think they were perfect for each other at the time. Happy, for a moment.” When the women gave me a curious look,as to wonder how I knew about Bea, I lied. “Anders told me about her.”

“Really? She left before he came to town,” Junie said, frowning, “but he is really good at picking up on things. I feel like he always knows more than he’s letting on.”

“Ruby is convinced she knows him from somewhere—elementary school, maybe? Because he’s so familiar.” Maya sipped on her drink, and flagged Gail down to order some onion rings with chili and cheese.

Gemma agreed. “You know, I thought I was the only one who thought that. WhereisRuby, by the—oh.” At the front of the bar, the door swung open and Ruby came in like a hurricane. “Never mind.”

Ruby climbed up onto the barstool with a dramatic groan. “Oh mygod, Jake just split me like atree.”

Gemma almost spewed her mojito, and Maya handed her a napkin.“Ruby!”

“It’s true!” She drank a sip of Maya’s rum and Coke, and crunched the ice between her teeth. “I haven’t had sex that good inyears.”

I tried not to choke on the complimentary peanuts that were, very quickly, becoming hazardous to my health. “You don’t say.”

“I just don’t get it,” she went on, flagging Gail over to order herself a beer. “I love Jake, but he’s never been very attentive, and suddenly he justknewwhat I was upset about. Like he was paying attention.”

“Oh, Ruby, you know he was paying attention the entire time,” Gemma said, finally recovering herself. “Weren’t you just saying last week how he always set the timer for the coffeepot for your morning shifts? And he premade all the scones?”

She replied, “But that was for the café. I didn’t think …” She shifted on her barstool. “I guess I didn’t realize that it was mutual. That he missed our time alone together as much as I did.”

“And everything is okay now?” I asked tentatively.

She turned her kohl-rimmed eyes to me and narrowed them. “No,” she replied, and leaned toward me, “it’sbetter. We’re actually going to go on dates again, and he’s planning a vacation—just the two of us! And oh mygod, I have to tell you, the way he used his mouth—”

“Okay,” Gemma interrupted loudly. “We’re good. We don’t need a play-by-play.”

Ruby sucked in a breath through her teeth. “Ooh, your sex life that vanilla, Gemma?”

“It’s perfectly acceptable,” she replied quickly. “We don’t really get to do …it… a lot, you know, with Lily.”

Maya said, “Sis, youcansay ‘sex.’ It’s not a bad word.”

Junie, who had been abnormally quiet as she texted someone on her phone (probably Will), agreed. “There’s also plenty of other words you can use.” Then, to Gemma’s utter horror, she began to list them off on her fingers, “The horizontal tango, slamming the clam, schnoodlypooping, boning the graveyard, feeding the kitty, the ol’ in and out—”

Gemma buried her face in her hands. “I hate all of you.”

“—filling the creme doughnut, stuffing the taco, the forbidden polka—”

“Weget it onperfectly fine, thank you.”

“—skeet shooting, parallel parking, hot yoga, making whoopee—”

Ruby said, “Lust and thrust.”

“Ooh, that’s a good one.”

“Spelunking,” I added, and everyone murmured with a nod.

“Parking the Plymouth in the garage of love,” Maya said with a wiggle of her eyebrows.

Gemma replied, looking like she was regretting ever leaving Sweeties today, “No one says that.”

“Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo,” Ruby added. “Extreme flirting.”

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