Page 121 of Just Watch Me
“My luxury experience is having somebody rip out my pubic hair by the roots? Sorry, boy, not happening. If you think waxing sounds so luxurious,youdo it. Waxing your bollocks, now … that’s got to be pretty relaxing.”
“Ouch,” he said, and he was laughing. Also forgetting to do his pressups.
“Exactly,” she said. “And now I need to finish my workout, so go do your karaoke, please, and stop bothering me.”
He was still grinning when she rang off.
45
FORWARD PROGRESS
Early September, and the days were getting warmer. Her fifth weekend with the kids, and they were at Zane’s house this time, which meant she’d slept in his bed last night. That could feel odd, when you’d never slept in therewithhim.
She was thinking that because Zane was on the landline with the kids after his match, talking to one after the other. The call had lasted more than fifteen minutes already, and how much time did he have to chat? He’d be out with the team, surely, on their last night on tour. Not only that—on tour in London, which no doubt had manifest delights to offer dozens of rugby boys after an extremely hard-won victory against the Springboks. And after a bruising five-week tour, too.
She’d been making sandwiches while all this chat was going on, because she’d needed to keep busy. Now, Georgia came into the kitchen and said, “Here’s Skylar, Dad. She’s making lunch.” And handed over the phone.
“Hi,” she said. “All right?”
“Never better,” he said. “We won, and I’m coming home.What could be better than that?” He was talking over some noise. Theywereout on the town after the match, then.
“What a marathon you’ve had,” she said. “You’ve done so well, but to have to fly to London from South Africa after four weeks on the road, and then have to play there after only a few days? What kind of jet lag must that have been?”
“Yeh,” he said, “but the Boks had to make the same flight. A bit mad, really, to send both teams halfway around the world when we were right there in Safa with them to begin with, but that’s rugby, eh. Got to keep up interest in both hemispheres with another Rugby World Cup looming next year.”
Another conversation that was interesting, but not precisely intimate. It was so hard to be intimate, being this far apart for this long. She was getting a bit weepy about it again, in fact, hearing his voice. Not like her at all, but this entire relationship would be uncharted territory for anyone, wouldn’t it? Even somebody as self-reliant as she knew herself to be.
He seemed to read her mind, because he said, “Same for you, though. How ya goin’, after another term? And this one with bonus child-minding at the end of every school week? I could be realizing that the reason I haven’t dated anybody is that it would take a warrior to cope. Fortunate that you are one, but it’s been heaps all the same.”
“Well, yes,” she admitted. “I won’t whinge, because it’s not as hard as what you do, but it was a relief to walk out the door yesterday and know I had three weeks of holiday ahead of me. Not sure why this term’s felt harder, and no, that’s not really your kids. It’s been work, but it’s been fun, too. And my kids haven’t complained about being bored once, which is a record. Whatisbothering me is this bloody implant, to tell you the truth. Makes me weepy and tired. Hormones, ugh. I’m about to give up on it and plump for the IUD, strings or no.”
“Of course what you’ve been doing is harder than what I’ve been,” he said. “Are you joking? Teaching all week, then coping with six kids all weekend on your own? I come back to my hotel room in the afternoon and somebody’s cleaned the bath, made the bed, and washed my clothes. Then I go downstairs and eat half my weight in steak and whatever else is going, and somebody else does the washing-up. No comparison. I’m a bit lonely, yeh, but I’ve got about thirty blokes to keep me company, and precisely none of them put their hands on their hips and inform me of all the ways I’m falling down on the job as a dad. But what’s the story with these strings? I haven’t heard about any strings.”
She double-checked that there was nobody lurking around the corner, then lowered her voice anyway. “Apparently the strings of the IUD are stiff at first, and they may graze a man a bit if he actually reaches all the way upto the strings. Could be a nasty surprise, eh. Like harboring a biting animal up there. Startling.”
He laughed. “There’s an image I could do without. But do what you have to do. If you want to put it all on me again, no worries.”
“You mean the condom?”
“Yes. That’s what I mean. Good on ya for saying the word. Getting pretty bold there.”
“Are you sure about that? I’ve heard it doesn’t feel as good, and surely you’ve looked forward to that. To doing it, uh, without. Also, I’d need to use a diaphragm and jelly as well if we wanted to be safe, which we do. Takes a bit of the spontaneity out of it, wouldn’t you say, if I’m dashing to the bath as soon as you start kissing me, and then I’m wrestling with this greased silicone cap, watching it shoot across the room when I squeeze it too hard? You can’t imagine the comic potential as it ricochets off the walls, leaving flecks of jelly in its wake. There I’d be, crawling naked over the floor and scrubbing at the mess, while you waited outside and lost all your … inspiration and started reading a golf magazine or something.” A phone-sex goddess she was not. He was laughing, though, so that was something.
“Of course,” he said, “I could learn to put it in for you. Foreplay, eh.”
“That’s actually hot,” she said. “Who knew? Or are we just deprived? At leastI’mdeprived.”
“No worries. I’m deprived, too. I told you I would be, and here I am, seriously deprived.”
She sighed. “I can hardly believe I’ll see you in two days. I hope you want me to collect you at the airport, because it seems I can’t be stopped. I arranged with Granddad to stay with my kids for that so I can take yours along, as they’re dead keen to see you too. You may want to spend that first night just with them, though, and that’s fine. It’s been odd to sleep in your bed without you when I’ve never slept in itwithyou, but we’re going to Fiji the next day, and I can wait. Somehow.”
“Bugger that,” he answered instantly. “You’ve been in that bed by yourself? Well, so have I, and I’ve missed you. And before you say it—no, not just for the sex. Rack off. When you lot grow up, you’ll want a woman to love too.”
“I’m assuming,” she said, “that that wasn’t meant for me. Are you in a bar? And right next to the others? Seriously?”
“Not because I started out there. Because they decided to come join me at the corner table, for some reason. Must be my animal magnetism.”
“Bloody hell. They allheardthat?Zane.I’m trying to go back over what you said and what I said. How embarrassing. I knowIsaid too much, but I can’t remember what?—”
