Page 40 of Josephine and Clay

Clay: What are you doing?

Josie: Sitting in bed with a book I’m no longer reading because someone keeps texting me.

Clay: Sounds like I’m improving your evening.

Josie: Your self-esteem is astonishing.

Clay: You should see me in person.

Josie: I have. That’s part of the problem.

I laugh hard enough that I feel it in my sore ribs.

Clay: Talk dirty to me, Josie.

There’s a long pause after that one. So long I wonder if I finally pushed too far.

Then…

Josie: Please put your laundry away.

I bark out a laugh and drop my head back against the wall.

Clay: Damn.

Josie: Too much?

Clay: I don’t know if I’ll recover.

Josie: Good. Learn something from this.

Clay: Alright, my turn.

Josie: Absolutely not.

Clay: Coward.

Josie: I’m a professional.

Clay: You say that like I haven’t had you moaning my name against your own front door.

The typing bubble appears, vanishes, appears again.

Josie: You're insufferable.

Clay: There it is.

Josie: There what is?

Clay: The part where you don’t deny it.

Another pause.

Josie: You’re in a remarkably smug mood for someone alone in a motel room.

Clay: Who says I’m alone?

I wait three seconds.