Page 396 of Small Town Firsts
I looked back out the window. “It’s complicated.”
“Is it? Is he married?”
“What? No. Definitely not. I don’t go there at all.”
“I didn’t either. I usually found out too late when it happened. But a wedding ring isn’t necessary to make a man unavailable.”
“Oh, that’s definitely not our problem.”
I hadn’t meant to elaborate. And in reality, there really shouldn’t be an us. We didn’t fit together in any logical sense. It was just chemistry. It had to be.
Despite what he said, I suspected PMS was looking for the perfect woman to step in and fill his house with two-point-five kids and host dinner parties. He might not even realize how well he was built for exactly that.
That wasn’t me. I wasn’t even sure I wanted children. I hadn’t ever really considered it. But PMS hadfuturestamped on his very patrician forehead. Didn’t he understand we were probably just a phase?
Even if it was getting harder to convince myself of that.
Having a witch for a girlfriend was novel at first. Sex was all well and good—and mercy, we were really good at that part—but it didn’t make for a lasting relationship. And if I did let him all the way in, I wasn’t sure I could actually let him go.
It was better not to get used to him.
“Ahh, so it’s just sex?”
“Yes—no. I don’t know. We’re intense, and the only reason he’s into me is because we were thrown together for a week. He’s April’s boss. I filled in for her this week when she went on vacation.”
“Why do you sell yourself short?” My mother curled her fingers tighter on the wheel. “He sees how beautiful and capable you are. Bonus points that you have a good sexual side.”
“Yes, but it’s too fast.”
“Sometimes it happens fast.”
“Yeah, and then it burns out.”
“It might.”
I jerked my gaze toward her.
She flipped her honey-colored hair over her shoulder. A few thin braids with wooden beads clacked together as she huffed out a sigh. “It might just be a fling. Is there a reason to cut things off? Is he moving out of state?”
“No.”
“Is he dying?”
“What? No.” Just the thought of him not being on this earth made my chest ache.
“Then what’s the issue? Take it slow if you want. That’s how relationships work, kiddo. It’s not an instantaneous thing.”
“Yeah. Maybe.”
I pulled my phone out and found an email notification waiting for me. Part of me wanted to open it, but the rest of me swiped ignore and went to my social media apps. More shares of my little comic. A surprising number of people wanted me to post more.
I knew how things went in the land of the internet. People had short attention spans. So, why hadn’t they moved on yet?
I clicked the phone’s display off and tossed it on the dash. “Wake me when we get there.”
“Okay, sweetie.”
I wasn’t sure how long I hid in the oblivion of sleep. I woke to the loud slap of metal against metal. The hard whack of metal being pounded into the ground was one I was well-acquainted with. I grabbed my phone and shoved it in my back pocket before I hopped out to help her make camp.
