Page 96 of A Chance for Us
“Tomorrow.”
I hang up and then immediately call Natalie to ask for help.
Twenty-Four
OLIVER
Ihave small amounts of pain, nothing I can’t handle, but this bulge isn’t going down, and I woke up last night in a pool of sweat. If I hadn’t already promised Maren I would go to the doctor, last night would have convinced me to get checked out. Also, I want to have sex again. The mistake I made was calling to make an appointment while Josh and I were out running errands. My choices were an immediate slot or having to wait a week. That is how I ended up sitting in a packed waiting room with Josh, who is the last person anyone wants around for embarrassing problems.
“So, you pulled a muscle during sex?”
“Can you maybe not say that loud enough that Mrs. Villafane hears?”
“She can’t hear anything.” He waves to her, and she waves back.
“You know they hear everything. Even the things no one actually says.”
“Ehh, they’re harmless.”
“I don’t remember you saying that a few months ago.”
Josh waves to her again. “That was when she was meddling in my life.”
“Right.”
“Back to the issue, you were banging Maren and, what? You twisted wrong?”
“No, it wasn’t like that. It just . . . happened. I don’t know.”
The weird thing is that I have minimal pain so maybe this is some overuse issue. Like, I haven’t had all that much sex since Devney, so maybe my body is expelling a lot of backed up jizz. It could be a thing.
Mrs. Villafane smiles at me and then looks down at my waist. “My husband did that once too,” she informs me.
So much for not hearing. I force a smile. “Good to know.”
“We used to have a lot of sex back then. Wasn’t much else to do. This town was even smaller fifty years ago, you know?”
Kill me now.
I glare at Josh. It’s his fault I’m now stuck in this conversation. “I’m sure he was grateful for the lack of entertainment.”
Mrs. Villafane moves to sit next to me. “I was quite good at role play to keep it fresh. It’s important to do that in a marriage.”
I sputter as my brother chokes on his laugh. “I hear Josh and Delia like to get kinky with handcuffs and things.”
Her eyes widen, and she looks at him. “Joshua!”
“I don’t!” he defends. “I would never.”
“I said role play, not hurting her.”
Oh, this is a great conversation now. “You should give him some pointers. We don’t want Delia to be disappointed. Maybe you and Mrs. Garner can stop by and just let him know about the finer points of marriage since he had horrible examples to show him the way.”
Her eyes light up. “That’s a great idea. I’ll talk to Kristy and we’ll pop over when we see Delia’s at work.”
Josh shakes his head. “Mrs. Villafane, I couldn’t take up your precious time like that, not unless I was sure that several people would benefit from your wisdom. Since Oliver here”—he slaps my back—“is a newlywed, I’m sure he needs a lot of help, not just with the sex, which we know he’s clearly an amateur at since he pulled a muscle having it.”
“I’m here because I did it right,” I inform him.
