Page 98 of Love Lessons: Expanded Edition

Landon: Too many decisions.

Would Dustin pick up on that? He really needed Dustin to step in and take charge.

Dustin: Go get dressed up, pretty girl. I’ll order something for us to eat and see you at 6.

Thank God. That was exactly what he needed.

Landon: Thank you.

He thought about adding Daddy to the end. But that wasn’t what they’d agreed on.

Everything just felt overwhelming today.

But makeup? Makeup he could do. After a nice long shower. At least he could be all soft and smooth and sweet-smelling when Dustin came over.

***

By the time Dustin arrived, Lena was feeling a bit more relaxed. The conversations with the parents today still weighed on her, but they’d been pushed to the back of her mind. And hopefully with Dustin there, they’d be pushed away entirely.

He arrived a few minutes before six with a take-out bag, and after he gave her a lingering kiss, he asked about her day.

She let it all pour out, all of her frustration with the situation and fears for her students. While she talked, he led her to the couch and snuggled her up on his lap.

When she finished, he snuggled her for a while and planted tiny kisses on her forehead. It was nice getting the comfort, but the part that she loved best was that he hadn’t asked her anything. He’d just moved her where he wanted her and held her tightly even when she squirmed a bit to test his hold.

No more thinking tonight, pretty girl. Let me take care of everything.

God, yes. That was what she needed.

He moved her gently to the side and went to retrieve their food from where he’d left it near the door. He pulled out sushi, edamame, dumplings, and seaweed salad and laid them all out on the coffee table. It was a beautiful spread, even in the inelegant white Styrofoam containers, and she reached out hungrily.

He caught her wrist and pulled it back to place a gentle kiss on her palm. Then, he moved her hand to her lap. She felt a spark of desire race down her back and felt her shoulders relax.

He prepared a piece of her favorite eel roll with wasabi, soy sauce, and absolutely no ginger, and then held it up to her lips. She accepted it, licking around his fingers.

He always fed her when he wanted to take care of her. And while it wasn’t something she would have expected to like before Dustin, she’d been surprised by how much she enjoyed it.

It was sensual and relaxed in this way that made her feel delightfully dependent and grateful to him for taking care of her.

He alternated between different bites of things, even feeding her the messy seaweed salad with his fingers, though he used chopsticks when he got his own.

As they nestled together, she decided to try talking with him again about what she wanted. She wasn’t quite sure how to bring it up though, so she brought it up indirectly. Can you tell me about your APD?

Dustin looked surprised, but not upset. Sure. I have difficulty with sound discrimination and auditory memory. So sometimes I lose sounds, sometimes my brain fills in the wrong ones, and sometimes it just feels like speech is just moving twice as fast as my brain. And even when I hear it, sometimes I can’t replay it in my mind or put all the pieces together.

He paused to feed her another bite of dumpling and then continued. When I was a kid and people asked me which thing I wanted from a list, I’d always just say the last thing that I heard. It used to really piss off my parents, but it helped me get a diagnosis. Before my aide figured it out, everyone thought I had ADD.

But you don’t have that problem with ASL? Lena confirmed.

ASL is fine and so is reading and writing. It’s really just auditory information that doesn’t connect.

So what would happen if you heard, like, a bell or something?

Dustin shrugged and ate the other half of the dumpling he’d fed her. I might hear it, or I might not. I’ve missed tons of calls and doorbells and stuff because I don’t hear them, though it’s usually better if it’s longer sounds. Like, I miss the chime for a text all the time, but I have my doorbell set to play a really long melody to give me time to hear it.

Well, apparently a bell wouldn’t work. Lena was glad she hadn’t started with that. Although she did have a question.

How do you play music, then?