Page 24 of Twisted Needs

“Em.” I stare at her flatly, picking at the shell of a pistachio. “You’re fucking with me.”

Em shrugs, grinning like a shark. “She’s very nurturing.”

“You’re actually fucking with me.”

“She’s flexible,” Emelie continues like I didn’t speak. “Very flexible. Most dancers are, as you know.”

The way she says it immediately makes Luca start laughing.

“Oh no, she used the voice,” he says, pointing at her. “She’s genuinely trying to pimp this woman out to you.”

Emelie rolls her eyes dramatically. “I’m making sure you won’t die alone. You know how much I worry.”

“Since when?” I laugh begrudgingly and drag a hand down my face, sinking deeper into the bench seat.

It always slips back into this whenever I visit them. The three of us curled up at the table. Emelie and I shit on each other while Luca sits there watching us like it’s foreplay. All we’re missing is my ex-wife and her new husband bickering on the other end of the table.

“You need to settle down,” Emelie says eventually, taking a long sip of beer. “You give my husband bad ideas about himself.”

“What bad ideas?” I laugh.

“That a man can live like you forever. It is not realistic, Park. You are almost forty years old.”

“Here’s my theory.” Fully amused, Luca leans back with an excited grin. “I think being captain just broke his dick. Too much pressure to get it up…no one likes a limp dick.”

I flip him off without even looking. “Works just fine, thanks. You know, I’ll show you if you want⁠—”

“Ta guele.” Emelie narrows her eyes at me over the rim of her bottle, throwing a pistachio shell right at me. “Nuh-uh. Don’t give him any ideas.”

“Emelie, honey,” I laugh. “Your husband has a breeding kink. There’s no way he’s gonna leave you for me and my magical cock.”

Her mouth drops open. “Va te faire foutre.”

I lift a shoulder and shrug. “Am I wrong?”

“No,” Luca snorts, hiding his grin with his fist.

“No,” she says immediately. “You know what…Fine. Maybe Park has it all right.”

“I might.”

“No kids,” she continues. “Nice big townhouse. Nice big bank account. Maybe we should give it another shot, Park.”

“You wish.”

It’s easy to forget I slept with Emelie before Luca did. Call me a man whore all you want, but I like to take the credit for them getting together. If Emelie and I weren’t so incompatible, I wouldn’t have ended up begging Luca to take her off my hands.

“I don’t know,” she sighs, giving me a softer look. “I just think that you are so lonely,” she admits. “Jen remarried so quickly⁠—”

“And I couldn’t be happier she found someone⁠—”

“Non, just let me finish,” Emelie tells me. “You haven’t found someone. There’s no boyfriend or girlfriend. You’re just…it’s not good for a man like you to live like that.”

“A man like me?”

“A man who takes care of people,” she clarifies. “You’re a provider, but have no one to provide for.”

Something in my chest tightens unpleasantly. That’s the annoying thing about Emelie. Half the time she’s just fucking with me, but then she says shit like this and it feels like I’m getting hit right in the throat.