Page 102 of Man Candy

Supports my ideas.

Handles the bad stuff with me.

Loves me no matter what.

Handsome.

Witty.

* * *

Then the pen color changed once more.

* * *

Has a job.

Doesn’t live with his mother.

Isn’t an asshole.

Likes kids. Wants kids of his own.

Committed.

Needs me.

* * *

“I was always looking for a man to meet this list.”

“Your man list,” I stated.

She nodded.

“That dentist? The date I went on? Remember.”

I frowned and even growled a little. “Oh yeah. You came back all bent out of shape about wheat.”

“He met everything on this list.”

That was definitely not what I wanted to hear. “Oh.”

She wrung her hands. “But I didn’t want him. I didn’t even really like him.”

I felt better hearing that.

“You meet everything on this list, Dex. And a few things I didn’t even put.”

I smiled, pleased with myself, but it didn’t matter. Nothing had changed in the time she’d been in my apartment except I longed for her even more and it would hurt like a skate to the jugular when she walked right back out.

“Except it turns out I wasn’t, for you, all the things listed in return.”

“Oh?” I was still fucking confused.

“In a way, I still live with my mother. And father. And… well, I never really grew up.”

I set the toaster on the coffee table and held out my hand. I wasn’t sure if she was going to take it, but I needed to have her close. If this was the last time I could touch her, so be it.

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