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Laura reaches for her coffee. “Most people would probably wait until after they say good morning before announcing that.”

“Good morning.”

“That doesn’t count retroactively.”

“Do you not want sex?”

Her cup stops before she drinks from it. “That is not what I said.”

“Good.”

She laughs again and sets the cup down. “You really have no embarrassment about any of this, do you?”

“About wanting sex?”

“About saying exactly what you want.”

“Why would I be embarrassed if I want it?”

Laura goes quiet. “I hate that I don’t have a good answer for that.”

“Are you?”

“Embarrassed?”

“About what you want.”

She starts to say no, then stops. “I don’t think so. I always thought I was pretty open.”

“Thought?”

Laura reaches for her coffee but only turns the cup between her hands. “Dave and I had a very good sex life. We knew each other forever, and we knew what worked. So we mostly did what we already knew we liked.”

There is nothing in her voice that makes that sound like a complaint. Dave made her happy. I have understood that from the beginning.

She adds, “I’m beginning to wonder if I mistook comfortable for adventurous.”

Last night everything was new because I had never done any of it. That will not always be true. I will learn Laura, and she will learn me. Eventually there may be things I do not have to ask because I already know.

The thought does not stop at this morning. I want enough time to know her that well.

“There are a lot of things we haven’t tried.”

Her eyebrows rise. “You’ve had sex once. There are definitely a lot of things you haven’t tried.”

“So we should try them.” The way she presses her lips together tells me she wants to laugh again. “What?”

“I’m trying to imagine what you’re going to be like when you discover the internet has opinions about all of this.”

“People have opinions about everything.”

Her lips part. I smile.

“Oh, God.”

I still have not worked out why Laura invokes God most often when no spiritual assistance appears necessary. She picks up her coffee.

“I have to go to work.”