Page 59 of Rebound With Me
What the fuck was that?Our first not-great phone call. Actually, I’ve been trying to avoid phone calls to her lately, because it’s so hard to end them. I keep wanting to say “love you bye” like a total pussy. Or maybe I just never want to say goodbye to her.
I look around to make sure no one’s looking through the glass walls of my office, before putting my hand on my crotch to make sure I still have balls.
* * *
When I see Charlie bounding down the steps with Nina, he looks like a happy puppy and I get that bittersweet feeling that’s becoming so familiar to me.
“Hey, Punk. What’s that around your mouth?” I wipe a bit of crusty beige stuff from the corner of his lips and he tries to push my hand away.
“Oh, that’s probably hummus.”
“You got him to eat hummus?!”
Nina grins.
“I liked it with the celery and carrot sticks.”
“You got him to eat celery and carrots?!”
“We started with a ranch dressing dip and then I ran out of ranch dressing, so we switched to hummus.” She mouths to me: “I didn’t run out of ranch dressing.”
“You got a lot of tricks up your sleeve, Miss Parks.”
“They pretty much all involve ranch dressing.”
“Oh no, you’ve got a fewothertricks as I recall.” I put my arm around her waist and pull her to me. “Hi.”
“Hi.” She rubs my back. I kiss her, but she keeps her eyes on Charlie.
“Gross,” he says. “Can Nina come to dinner?”
We walk back to my double-parked car.
“Not tonight Buddy, I’m dropping you off at Gabe’s and then I get Nina to myself.”
“For boning?”
“What’d I say?!”
“Sorry Nina,” he says, sheepishly.
She doesn’t laugh like she did yesterday, or every other day I’ve known her.
Something’s up.
“What’d you guys do this afternoon?”
“We just read and watched Netflix.”
“Oh yeah? You Netflix and chilled with my little brother?”
“He’s readingMatilda,” she says in a sing-song voice.
“The girl book?”
“SHE. IS. NOT. MY. GIRLFRIEND!” Charlie stomps on the pavement with each screamed word.
“Alright alright settle down.”
