Page 100 of Sharkbait
“Um, James? That’sexactlyas bad as it sounds.”
“It was during the whole wisdom teeth thing,” I explain. “But she doesn’t remember me telling her. And before that, I just... I kept wussing out. It took so long for her to even give me the time of day—”
“One could argue that she gave youplentyin that refrigerator, you ungrateful bastard.”
“May I continue?” I sigh.
“The floor is yours, sir.”
“Thank you.” I lean back in the chair and stare at the ceiling for a breath before focusing on my friend. “We started things off with her literally saying she didn’t want to know anything about me. So I truly thought this would be a one-and-done kind of thing. But then… I learned pretty quickly that you can’t do a one-and-done with Louise. She’s fucking special, man. Little by little, she started letting me in, and I was so grateful for that that I just let things play out between us. Before I knew it, we were friends and—”
“Who fuck,” Wally inserts. “You’re friends who fuck.”
“Way to be crass, dude. And no. That hasn’t happened again since that first night.”
“No shit!”
“It’s true. We’ve made out a bit after the orgy, and she would’vebeen all about a repeat performance in the surgical suite, but…”
Wally gives me a look like I’m a sick, sick man.
“Don’t look at me like that. I put the kibosh on it right away. But we’re getting off track here,” I say, exasperated. “Sex isn’t even the point. I just love being with her. Whatever time I get to spend with her is time I want to have. Doesn’t matter to me one bit what we’re doing.”
Wally blows out a breath. “Damn, you’ve got it bad.”
I don’t disagree with him because the man isn’t wrong.
He lets me continue.
“It took me a while to become friends with her. To gain her trust. Then—get this—she says the one thing she’ll never ever do is date a single dad.”
“Oh snap.”
“I hate when you say that.”
“Sorry. But this is an ‘oh snap’ moment if ever there was one. What did you say to her after that?”
“I froze!”
“Come on, man!” Wally scolds like he’s disappointed in me.
“I mean, I said some stuff about how it’s possible to be a great partner and an awesome dad, but she’s got all this baggage with her own parents, and let’s face it, our time together is limited anyway, so…”
“So what? You’re just not going to tell her?”
“No, I am.”
“You have to tell her.”
“I know.”
“Iris is your whole world, man.”
“Believe me, Iknow.”
Conversation in the room dulls to a soft murmur as Kathleen takes her position in the learning chair. The meeting is about to begin.
Wally whispers, “What are you doing tonight?”
