Page 61 of Small Town Swoo
Bored again, I scrolled through some mindless bullshit on my phone. I turned on the TV and flipped through the channels. I wandered into the kitchen and opened the fridge, but I wasn’t hungry. When I shut the door, I saw a Moe’s Diner magnet. I pictured Ari behind the bar in one ofthose tight black Buckley’s Pub shirts that showed off her tits. Smiling as she poured drinks and made every guy there want her.
But she wantedme, didn’t she?
Xander’s advice was knocking around in my head like a pinball.If you’re so into someone that you want to sleep with them, there’s good chemistry there. And in my experience, it’s impossible to keep that chemistry from changing things.
Was he right? Was a successful friends-with-benefits situation merely a myth? Xanderhadbeen known to talk out of his ass.
Then I remembered something else.
He’d said not to sleep with the friendagain and again, right? Because that’s where the trouble was. If you kept doing it.
Doing it justonceon the other hand...that would be different.
Once was casual. Once was fun. Once would not create strings or attachments or unrealistic expectations. As long as both parties were in agreement that the show had a limited run, there wouldn’t be any issues. Strings were not formed in one night.
Maybeoncewas the answer.
Once will never be enough.
“Fuck it,” I said.
I grabbed my keys.
She arrived home at ten-thirty.
Parked across from her house, I saw her turn onto her street and watched her car disappear up the driveway. Aftergiving her a couple minutes to get inside, I knocked on her front door.
When she opened it, she wore her work clothes and a smile. “Hi.”
“You shouldn’t open your door so late at night without asking who it is first.”
“I knew it was you.”
“How?”
“I saw your car parked across the street, stalker.” She nodded in that direction. “Have you been sitting there all night?”
“Maybe.”
“Doing what?”
“Thinking things through,” I said, stepping into her house and shutting the door behind me.
“What things?”
I started moving toward her, forcing her to walk backward into the living room. “Delphine never said I had to bealonewhen I stripped down to my purest self. She just said I had to get more comfortable being vulnerable.”
“Interesting.”
I unzipped my hoodie and worked it off, dropping it on the floor. “And is there a more vulnerable act than sex?”
Her back hit the opposite wall, and she flattened herself against it. “I can’t think of one.”
“Me neither.” I braced my hands above each of her shoulders. “I mean, you’re literally laying yourself bare in front of someone.”
“Yes.” Her voice was a whisper.
“Asking them to fulfill your deepest desires.”
