Page 28 of Too Hot to Sleep
She sighed. "Well, hewastrying to do a nice thing—he just caught me at a bad time and put me in an awkward situation. In hindsight, I shouldn't have reacted so... strongly."
"I'm sure he feels the same way. Don't lose sleep over it."
She wouldn't, although the memory of the man hiding his arousal with his hat might make for a bit of sheep-counting.
"Anything else interesting happen today?" he asked.
She liked this change in him. Rob was never much on small talk, but she rather enjoyed sharing the ordinary bits of the day. "Not much happened today. But yesterday I received a letter from my mother."
"Oh?"
"Even living across the country, she has the uncanny ability to make me feel twelve years old."
"Mothers are good that way. Did she give you grief about still being single?"
"W-well, sort of."
"Just doing her job."
She sighed. "I suppose. Is your mother just as bad?"
"Er, aren't they all?"
"When will I get to meet your parents?"
He lapsed into a coughing spasm. "Georgia, I'm suddenly not feeling very well. I think my medicine is wearing off. Could we—" He coughed again, longer and harder. "Could we finish this discussion some other time?"
"Sure," she murmured, feeling contrite for her ill-timing. Darn Ken Medlock for stirring things up inside her. She squirmed against her pillows. "How about—"
"I have to run," he cut in. "Call me tomorrow night?"
"Okay."
But he'd already hung up. She replaced the phone, chastising herself for being so inconsiderate while he was under the weather. They would have plenty of time to talk on Saturday at the wedding. Georgia noticed the light on her message machine was flashing; someone had called while she was talking to Rob. She pushed the Play button.
"Thank you for buying this Temeteck product! This is a test message to allow you to adjust the volume. Press 1 if you don't want this message to play again."
Georgia groaned and pushed "1." She hated the stupid machine. Maybe something was wrong with it. Hoping a bowl of ice cream would help her go to sleep—in lieu of an orgasm—she walked to the kitchen in T-shirt and panties, stood in front of the open freezer door for a couple of minutes to cool off, then carried the snack to the living room and dropped onto the couch.
An upholstered brick. She had furnished what was supposed to be the most comfortable room in the house with a beige upholstered brick. What on earth did Rob see in this horrid couch? She spooned in the first mouthful of Cherry Garcia, thenwondered idly what Rob saw inher.He'd said she was beautiful, but did he see the secret side of her that loved to try on hats and eat ice cream in her underwear?
A few days ago, she'd been on the verge of calling it quits with Rob, but now... now she'd discovered this surprisingly erotic and vulnerable side of him. She was anxious to see him on Saturday, to see if he acted differently, more relaxed. Hopefully the phone sex would open other doors of communication; it had so far. Perhaps they would discover they had more in common than their penchant for detail and fondness of foreign films.
The phone rang, and she reached for the extension. "Hello?"
"You've been holding out on me," Toni accused.
Georgia laughed. "What are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about that big hunky cop who delivered the entire Birmingham city police department to our door. He's gorgeous, and you were so witchy to him!"
"Ken Medlock almost got me fired," Georgia reminded her.
"But he tripled the blood bank reserves single-handedly in a matter of hours."
"He only pulled that stunt so I'd have to buy him a hot dog tomorrow afternoon."
"Oh, how romantic!"
