Page 66 of After the Siren
‘Morning sex without night-before sex. Your dream.’
‘Get stuffed.’
Not that she was wrong. He did like morning sex, because the fact you were already in bed, and frequently already naked, smoothed out some of the awkward steps betweennot having sexandhaving sex.He liked waking up next to someone, warm and close, and the type of sex you had when that leisurely closeness turned hot.
Sarah, who had been a dedicated morning runner, had not felt the same way about morning sex.
‘So, how was?’
‘Was good.’ He wasn’t sure why he was being cagey. He and Priya had always been open about the details of this sort of thing, often to the peril of people sitting nearby in cafes and restaurants. This felt different, though. Maybe because men were not a shared interest.
‘Here’s to bisexuality,’ she said, raising an imaginary glass.
‘I don’t know if I’m very good at it,’ Theo admitted.
Priya blinked at him. ‘What do you mean?’ She held up a hand. ‘Actually, give me a sec, I need another daiquiri first. Minimum of two daiquiris before I hear about dicks attached to men.’
She secured another drink, pausing to flirt with the bartender some more, and when she sat down immediately put her mouth on the straw. Presumably ready to start chugging. ‘Hit me,’ she said, a bit muffled.
‘I kinda freaked out. About, uh, you know.’
‘I absolutely don’t know.’
‘About blowing him.’
She let the straw fall out of her mouth. ‘Was it ... weird-looking or something? Does he not manscape?’
‘No! I mean, it wasn’t weird-looking. Also,manscape?’
Priya shrugged, unapologetic. ‘It’s a good word.’
‘If you’reCosmopolitancirca 2012, yes.’
‘You’re deflecting.’
He sighed and got it out there. ‘I freaked out about not being good at it,’ he said into his glass.
Priya snorted. ‘Theo.’
‘Don’t laugh at me.’ It felt unfair, her laughing at him after Jake had laughed at him. Even though he knew neither of them was really laughingathim. Jake had sucked his dick, and teased him, and been hot and understanding, and the only thing Theo had done was be weird about it after the fact.
Priya was studying him. ‘You like going down on girls. What’s the difference?’
‘It’s not that I don’t like the idea, it’s just —’
‘— you don’t want to be bad at it?’ She shook her head. ‘You are the worst perfectionist I know.’
Those were fighting words, coming from her.
She took a sip of her daiquiri. ‘I mean, the first couple of times you went down on girls weren’t smooth sailing, and you persisted. Why is this different?’
Priya knew about that because the internet had not been a useful resource for troubleshooting. Priya had been a useful resource. There had been diagrams.
‘I guess ... it just feels different now. I’m in my mid-twenties, I should know what I’m doing.’
Priya gave him a deeply unimpressed look. ‘Now who’s imbibed a whole lot of shit fromCosmo?’
‘I know, I know.’
