Page 113 of Lovebug
“Geez, is that woman on every board known to man?” I marvel.
“I believe she is, yes.” He laughs lightly, then continues. “And no, we have never dated. What else…? You asked how I knew about Doreen’s ‘business?’ Finance people talk. I knew the guy who started it. He brought the plan to me about a year ago and asked me to partner with him on it, but all signs pointed toward it being a disaster. In hindsight, I should have been a better person and steered folks away from it from the get-go. But I guess it took meeting you and seeing you deep in it to really care.”
“And now, you really are better? Recovered?” I ask.
“Completely in the clear, yeah.”
“Amazing,” I breathe. “I’m so, so happy about that.”
“Me too, Mabel Again. Me too.”
He kisses me softly on the lips, and I feel my heart flutter.
“Now. Did I cover everything?” He squints up at the sky like he’s trying to remember the litany of questions I fired at him a few minutes ago. “Ah, one more. I’m thirty-three,” he says like it’s no big deal.
“Oh, snap!” I blurt, then cover my mouth with both hands.
He laughs. “Did you just ‘oh, snap’ me?”
“I did. I’m sorry! You’re just evenelder-er than I thought.”
“Is that a problem?”
I consider his question a moment.
“Not at all. Just… wow. You’re nine years older than me.”
“Almost ten actually. My birthday is next Saturday.”
“Whoa. Happy… almost Birthday.”
“I thank you.”
My eyes drift over to the outdoor shower that now holds quite a vivid memory. He follows my gaze and smiles.
“Can I make a confession?” I say in a small voice.
“Of course.”
“I’d, uh, I’d actually never done that before. What we did this afternoon.”
“You’d never pulled a fully-clothed snarky sugarmaker into an outdoor shower and had your naked way with him?”
“Oh no, I do that constantly,” I joke. “But the particularwayI engaged with the sugarmaker… that was new for me.”
“You’re kidding me.” He suddenly looks pretty displeased.
“I’m not, no.”
“Let me get this straight. You’re telling me that schmuck I met this afternoon never went down on you? Not that I really want to think about him doinganythingto you. But listen, I’m a modern man, I can handle knowing you’ve been with other people before me. What I can’t handle is knowing you were with someone for so long who clearly didn’t treat you the way you deserved to be treated.”
“In fairness, the lack of funilingous wasn’t really his fault.”
“Oh, no?” he says doubtfully.
“No. See, he was tongue-tied as a baby, and the doctor didn’t snip his frenulum fully, so his tongue tires quickly.”
“Ridiculous excuse,” he huffs. “Pitiful. In case it wasn’t completely clear, you can rest assured now, beautiful. Because my frenulum is fine.”
