AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He cleared his throat, embarrassed. “So, uh, gentler.”
“I mean, did I not say, ‘Gentler,’ seven thousand times?”
Maybe? Maybe, if he thought about it, she’d—
“And you wouldn’t do it! You’d just switch to another body part and maul that part of me.” She gulped at her drink, clearly frustrated.
He felt like shit. “Sorry. Really, I…” Had he been doing it too rough all along? He thought of his college girlfriend Jinia, who surely would have told him if so, because she’d been insistent about other things. Maybe it was because Essence was an elf. Maybe elves were really delicate. Even so, she… “You could have not been like that about it, though. The way you kept correcting me, it was just like I couldn’t do anything right, so I felt like giving up.”
“And men wonder why it is that they think their sex drives are higher than ours,” she said, gesturing at the ceiling. She fixed him with a gaze, very sarcastic. “Maybe it’s because they don’t bother to learn what pleases us and then when we try to explain, it’s too much for their fragile male egos.”
He pointed at her with his free hand. “That’s not fair.”
“Seriously, explain to me why I would want to have sex with you again.”
He sighed. She, uh, she had a point. “It’s not because I’m a man. It’s because I’m… me.” He lifted his shoulders, fluttering his wings. “I’m not great with criticism.”
“Well, it’s not really criticism, is it? It’s like, I don’t know, think of it as if my body is a completely new sport, with completely new rules, and you come to play and try to act like you’re offended because you’re trying to apply baseball rules to basketball. You can’t be perfect at something without any instruction.”
Sure, he could. He prided himself on being good at things. He held himself to high standards. But, yeah, okay, that was… he was just being a jackass. She was right, it was stupid to apply his perfectionist streak in the bedroom. She wasn’t actually annoyed with him because he had been bad at touching her, he could see now. She was annoyed because he wouldn’t listen to her. Maybe he could simply adjust the perfectionism. He’d be the very best at listening, from now on, and at doing what she liked. He sat up straight. “I really want a do-over. I swear to listen to you this time.”
Her lips parted.
“Come on, Essence, we didn’t give this a good try this time. We screwed ourselves by not going on a real date or treating each other like possible real love interests. We’re friends, yeah, but we need to attempt to see each other romantically and sexually, and let’s try again.”
“No,” she said.
“But if I swear that I won’t be a big, fragile baby—”
“No, because it’s doomed,” she said. “What if it doesn’t work out? You’re not thinking it through.”
“I have definitely thought it through,” he said. “I mean, assuming we’re talking about us being, uh, in a relationship? I’ve thought all about it. I’ve imagined us going out to breakfast and me grilling steak for you and us arriving at the office together and—”
“Well, that’s assuming it goes well,” she said. “But let’s be honest, Decker, most relationships do not work out. Case in point, you and me, both attractive and well-adjusted people with a great work ethic and numerous talents. Super functional, both of us, you and me. And? All either of us have had is a string of bad relationships.”
He furrowed his brow. “Well, not all of my relationships have been bad.”
“Then why did all of them end?”
He considered. “Okay, you’re making a good point.”
“Most relationships end. Got to be like ninety percent or something. And even if they progress long enough to get to the point where you get married, it’s got a fifty-fifty chance of not working out.”
“Well, that statistic is all marriages,” he said. “So, it counts in second and third and fourth marriages. And if you get divorced once, you’re statistically more likely to get divorced again.”
“Seriously?” She raised her eyebrows. She considered this. “So, some people might be better built for commitment than others.”
“No, that’s bullshit,” he said. “All people are totally capable of commitment. But some people are lazy.”
“Maybe some people just haven’t met the right person,” she said.
He thought about that. “Yeah, maybe. Maybe it’s easier with the right person.”
“Anyway,” she said. “I want a commitment. A long, lifetime kind of commitment.”
“Me too,” he said.
She gave him a little smile.
