Page 58 of If Not for My Baby
Come back here.
The words light up a marquee in my mind. I’ll dream of them. I’ll say them on accident when I mean to place a coffee order.
Come back here.
Suddenly my eyes snap open.
What if he can’t tell I was kidding? What if he thinks he’s upset me? He was so worried about my age and the power dynamic between us that first night.
Oh, God, he’s probably freaking out. Thinking he made me uncomfortable.
I send the next text without thinking.
Clementine:So…what are you wearing?
There. It’s flirty, it’s playful.
He’ll know I’m joking even though I’m kind of not. Whatishe wearing? Does he sleep naked? I don’t think I could withstand that information. My brain might pop like a cherry tomato under someone’s shoe.
Amid the quiet rumbling of wheels on pavement, I hear a low chuckle through thin walls.
Tom Halloran:The chronic sexter cannot be stopped.
Now I’m the one laughing. I use the sheets to cover my mouth. He replies again before I can think of something witty.
Tom Halloran:Nothing attractive I’m afraid.
Clementine:Try me.
Tom Halloran:Trinity College sweatpants that have lost all their elastic. I drag them around like a pauper in a barrel.
Goddamn him.
Clementine:Oh no.
Tom Halloran:That bad?
Clementine:No…That’s the hottest answer
Tom Halloran:WHAT
My laugh threatens to wake the entire bus. I’m sure he’s heard me.
Clementine:Loose sweats show off the V thing! Women love that.
Tom Halloran:Women or you?
Tom Halloran:What is the V thing?
Clementine:You know those defined lines on the sides of men’s abs
Clementine:The ones that kind of point down
Clementine:Nvm let me google it one sec
Tom Halloran:I’m fascinated.
I abandon our conversation to google the name of these muscles. Though they’re apparently where the obliques meet the transversus abdominis, they’re more colloquially known as something else.
