Page 58 of Sinful Crimes for the Artistically Inclined
“If we must,” she responded, the sing-song intonation gone from her voice somehow. She took her place on the couch, took the cigarette proffered, and leaned forward for him to light it.
He lit hers and his, then leaned back and said, “This is a nice surprise, Cleo. Tell me what you’ve been up to.”
She blew a sharp wisp of smoke out the side of her red lips. “Why are you being like this?”
He laughed, a little uneasily. “Like what?”
“Usually you would have had me up on the bench by now. What’s changed?”
Percy frowned. “I would not.”
She waved her hand around the room as if to illustrate her point. “The coffee table, the bed, the lounge, whatever it is. Why are we not fucking already?”
His fingers fiddled with the seam of the armchair. “Can’t two old friends just have a drink together?”
She was somewhere between bored and incredulous as she said, “No.”
“Fine then.” Percy laughed softly. “I was trying to be good, but I can’t resist anymore.” He leaned forward with a handsomesmile. She leaned forward with her own satisfied one. He looked into her eyes and waited for a little moment of intimacy to spark between them, while Joe averted his own eyes and stood to leave. Then he heard, “Cleo, I have to tell you… I’m seeing someone.”
Her face dropped as quickly as Joe dropped back to the floor. “You’re seeing someone?”
“Yes.” Percy kept his lovely smile. “I am, and the thing is… it’s serious.”
Cleo looked around the room dramatically. “Well, where the hell is she? Is she here?”
He took a lovelorn sip of champagne, crossing one long leg over the other. “Unfortunately, no?—”
“Then what’s the problem?” She shrugged.
“I’m sorry?”
“She’s not here, so what’s the problem? I’m not going to tell her if you won’t.”
“The problem…” Percy looked perfectly confused now, as though he’d forgotten something, or failed to do the correct thing somehow. “No, maybe I wasn’t clear. I’ve fallen in love with someone, and so… I’m not going to sleep with someone who isn’t them.”
“But…” She seemed equally perplexed. “That’s what we do.”
“Well… Maybe we don’t have to do that tonight?”
“But that’s our thing,” she insisted, tossing her hand around demonstratively. “We meet and we fuck. It’s our thing.”
“That’s not our only thing.” Percy scoffed, unconvincingly.
“That’s our main thing.”
“But we do dinners, and drinks, and we go out… Can’t we just do those things?”
She shook her head like he was an idiot. “It’s all about the sex, Percy.”
Percy, drawing a hand across his stubble, reflected, asthough going over their presumably long history. “Really? Every time it was just about the sex for you?”
“Really!” she insisted. “What? Did you think there was more?”
“Well, not romantically, I suppose, but I thought we were friends. Of a sort. I like you. I like… I like being your friend. I like all the bits that aren’t sex too, the talking and the going out places and all those things.”
Cleo let out a long, tired sigh. “Percy, I’m going to be frank.”
“Do,” he said warily.
