Page 60 of Nights Without Night
It’s unclear what impact going to the V.A. has. It seems to exhaust him so much that he goes out less, and often spends the afternoon in his room after a session. However, he always goes to the sessions, and I start preparing comfort dinners those days to lure him out. It almost always works. We’ll eat together, and I won’t ask him any questions. We’ll just talk or watch a movie.
Somehow, although I can’t pinpoint exactly what, I feel things are getting better.
**********
“Nuh-uh. No way. Nope,” Iva is saying, sticking a finger out at Ezra from where her hand is holding a drink.
“Look, I’m not saying it’s by the size of their hands or whatever, but you can definitely tell if a guy has a big dick from theiraura.”
“No! I know what you’re saying but you. Are. Wrong.”
“I feel there’s a story behind this.”
“There’s definitely a story behind this,” Joaquin says. The four of us stand in the courtyard of Iva’s favourite club. Latino music pumps through the open door, but it's far away enough to be able to hold a conversation in the open air.
“There is definitely a story behind this and rest assured I am right and you are wrong,” Iva tells Ezra.
“Receipts please,” he says, holding the palm of his hand up to the sky.
“Okay, so,” Iva starts, and I’m already smiling at her storytelling energy. “I met this guy the other week, right? He was like,blanquitoto the max. Cute, guy-next-door sort of floppy-haired look, you know? Anyway, so we get to talking and he seems, like, notshyexactly but like he doesn’t go out often, you know? Like, he was rusty. And I’m curious, you know, so I’m asking him questions and eventually he tells me about how he just split up with this long-term girlfriend, like,reallong term. And he’s not shitting on his girlfriend or anything, he’s like explaining how they kept trying even though it obviously wasn’t working and blah, blah, blah, relationship-people stuff.”
“Real sensitive,” I snort.
“I’m not dissing! I’m just saying that people who are scared of being alone can get caught up in the ‘but…’part of ending a relationship and this one obviously dragged on forwaytoo long. It was obvious he needed to change the script for a while, clear the air. So, I was like, you need to have fun, dude. And, lucky for you, I ama lotof fun,” she says, smirking at us. We laugh.
“So, we agree to meet up later that week ‘cause I could tell he was way too green for just a party hook-up, but I made itblindinglyclear that this was a Netflix and Chill situation. We text-flirt, it’s all good, I go over to his place and he’s cooked me a Three. Course. Meal. Like, fromscratch.Himself!” she says, gesticulating wildly.
“Oh my God,” Ezra says, laughing. Out of all of us, Iva and Ezra probably know the ‘Netflix and Chill’ etiquette the best, and a three-course meal is obviously a major misstep.
“What did he make you?” I ask.
“Oh my God. So, he made mushroom soup to start off with and it was sooo good. And then it was this, like, spaghetti but the pasta was super thin, and it had these giant prawns, oh my God. I died. And then he made tiramisu!Himself! From scratch!For a hook-up!”
“Sounds nice,” I say.
“It was nice, yes, but, like, it wasn’t respecting the agreed-to terms! But, anyway, it was fine, but like at the end I was so full I was like, I can’t even think about fucking you right now dude, like I can’t move. And he was totally fine! Like not evena little bitlike, ‘me man, me make you food, you give me sex now’ sort of bullshit. Like, it hadn’t even been a play, he just cooked me a meal ‘cause he thought I would like it? What kinda crazy…?”
“You need to up the quality of your hook-ups,” Joaquin says.
“No! I want sex! Food is great, but I got other people for that! If you’re an FWB, like—I mean you two are a fucking terrible example honestly, the fact that you thought you were friends with benefits and not a straight-up couple for like a year is just ridiculous,” she says to Ezra and Joaquin, who look at each other with sheepish smiles.
“Urgh!Anyway, so we just cuddle on the couch for a bit like we’re an old married couple, Jesus, and I leave or whatever and we agree to meet up the next week and this time I need to makesurehe knows what’s up. So, the day before I text him like,‘don’t cook. I already know what I want for dinner’,” she says, miming with her hands as if she’s texting. We laugh, and she points at us.
“Right? Like, you all get what I’m saying. But this dude texts back,‘what is it? I may not have it anymore but I can go get it if you want.’Like, he thought I’d seen something in his pantry I wanted and offered to get it for me? I was like, you adorable dork…so I text back, ‘no, fool, I’m talking about your dick,’and he was like,‘oh’,” she says incredulously, and we laugh with her.
“Oh my God this guy sounds fucking adorable,” Ezra says.
“I know, right? So anyway, it’s show day, and I go to his and we chat for a bit but I was like, let’s get down to business. I kept an eye on him cause I was like, is he, like, you know, does he want this? But, oh yeah. He definitely want this.
“So it’s getting hot and heavy on the couch and the guy is like, let’s go to the bedroom, because of course he would take it to the bedroom, and I’m like, okay. So we go to the bedroom and I’m feeling saucy, so I just fling myself on the bed and lounge there like a French girl and say, ‘undress for me’. And he’s all shy but he does, it was so adorable he was wearing a button down and he had to undo all the buttons, and then he takes off his pants and I’m like, okay. Like, he was still wearing his underwear and I could definitely tell something was going on down there but I was like, must be a trick of the light, you know? And then he takes his underwear off and he pulls out this fuckingsuper soakerof a dick. Like, I swear to God it swung from one side of the room to the other like,fwoooh, fwoooh.” She sounds out the noise and mimes a swinging trunk. “I was like, it’s not global warming that’s causing all these storms! It’s your dick falling out of your pants affecting the air currents!” she shouts. We laugh loudly around her.
“Iva…” Joaquin between laughs, shaking his head.
“Man…it was just sounexpected.Like, give a girl a head’s up, you know? See if I need to bring a grapefruit…”
“You were blessed by the dick Gods,” Ezra says.
“Some things are a littletoomuch blessing…but that dick was just right! Wassup!” she says, high-fiving Ezra. Joaquin and I roll our eyes, smiling.
