Page 44 of Josephine and Clay

Josie: Obviously.

Clay: You saying you remember my hands?

Josie: I remember enough to know you talk too much.

I laugh softly.

Clay: And yet your legs are still around me.

Josie: For now.

Clay: You’d be kissing me already.

Josie: Maybe.

Clay: My mouth on your neck.

Josie: Clay

Just my name. No punctuation. That makes my freaking heart skip a beat,

Clay: Tell me to stop.

A pause.

Josie: I’m trying to be reasonable.

Clay: Don’t. I’m in no mood for it.

Josie: That much is obvious.

Clay: What do you want, Josie?

There’s a long silence after that, and when she answers, the joke has gone out of it a little.

Josie: You know.

Yeah, I do.

My thumb moves before I can second-guess it.

Clay: Say it anyway.

The response takes so long I wonder if she’s gone. Wonder if I’ve asked for more than she wants to give in writing tonight, where the words sit there after the heat wears off.

Then it comes.

Josie: I want your mouth on me. Your hands. I want you to stop making me type things I’d never say out loud.

I close my eyes and let that land.

Clay: Too late. I’m gonna make you say those too.

Josie: You’re arrogant.

Clay: You like that I know exactly what you mean.

Josie: Right now I might hate it.