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“Except, I’m pretty sure you’re perfect.”
Henry’s fingers stilled, the second sock poised at the ball of his foot. “Not at all.”
“Then you hide your flaws well.”
“I do hide well. Especially from my dad. Georgie will attest to that, won’t you?”
Cameron’s toes curled in the soft material, and he met Henry’s eyes. “What do you mean?”
Henry’s fingers dragged softly off his heel. Georgie answered quietly from the driver’s seat. “Dad doesn’t know my brother’s bisexual, and Henry is great at keeping it that way.”
Lake: Did you get his number this time?
Cameron: Yes. But I’m not sure I should use it so soon.
* * *
Lake: What’s soon? Didn’t you last see him yesterday?
* * *
Cameron: I thought you’re meant to wait three days? Otherwise it looks desperate.
* * *
Lake: You are desperate.
* * *
Cameron: Thanks.
* * *
Lake: From everything you’ve told me, sounds like this could be something.
* * *
Cameron: You think?
* * *
Lake: Message him. Keep it sexy.
Cameron: Austen was such a saucy storyteller.
* * *
Henry: Bawdy humor and sex-drenched subtext! Love it. Good evening, btw.
* * *
Cameron: I wasn’t supposed to send that!
* * *
Henry: Thank God you did. There’re only so many expository essays on monarch butterflies I can grade in one night.
* * *
Cameron: A strange thought, you in a classroom, thirteen-year-olds calling you Mr. Tilney.
* * *
Henry: They also call me Mr. Til-neigh! Like a horse. Kids have a bizarre sense of humor.
* * *
Cameron: Do you wear a hoodie and leather jacket to work?
* * *
Henry: God no. I go all crusty Englishman on them. Wear a sweater with elbow patches. Talk in a monotone.
* * *
Cameron: How frightening.
* * *
Henry: Perhaps it’ll be my costume for Halloween.
* * *
Cameron: Another reason not to attend.
* * *
Cameron: Crap, the doorbell . . .
* * *
Henry: Later. With more debauched Austen tidbits, please.
Cameron: It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
* * *
Henry: I thought I said debauched?
* * *
Cameron: What else do you think in want of a wife means? The men, they have money enough, they do not need marriage. They want it for other reasons. Sexual ones.
* * *
Henry: Keep talking.
* * *
Cameron: I resin with Austen.
* * *
Cameron: *resin
* * *
Cameron: *resonate
* * *
Henry: As a single man with a good job who’d like sex?
* * *
Cameron: It’s like
* * *
Cameron: a lot of readers see Austen as prime novelist.
* * *
Cameron: *prim
* * *
Cameron: Think her books are sexless. But look deeper, they’re very erotically charged.
* * *
Henry: You believe people think you’re sexless?
* * *
Cameron: I am shy. ppl mistake that for prudishness.
* * *
Henry: You’re not coming across very shy right now.
* * *
Cameron: Isabella and John came over with the Cosmos.
* * *
Henry: That explains things.
* * *
Cameron: Explains what? That I talk about sex? I can do more than talk about it, Henry.
* * *
Henry: I meant that it explains the typos.
* * *
Cameron: Well! Did you know Austen’s original drafts were filled with mistakes? Lot of spelling errors and sloppy punctuation.
* * *
Henry: Are you suggesting she was drunk as she wrote her masterpieces?
* * *
Cameron: No. But she could’ve benefitted from auto-concoction.
* * *
Henry: Right, because she’d never have made any mistakes with auto-concoction.
* * *
Cameron: *correction
* * *
Cameron: Are you teasing me?
* * *
Henry: Yes. It gives me great pleasure.
* * *
Cameron: What else gives you pleasure?
* * *
Henry: The rush of hot air against my skin.
* * *
Cameron: That sounds . . . yes.
* * *
Henry: Rarotonga is a dream with all those warm ocean breezes.
* * *
Cameron: Rarotonga?
* * *
Henry: Little island in the Pacific?
* * *
Cameron: I know where it is. I thought something else.
* * *
Henry: I also sincerely enjoy the double entendre.
* * *
Henry: “Tis no less [a good day], I tell you; for the bawdy hand of the dial is now upon the prick of noon.” Shakespeare is everything.
* * *
Cameron: LOL. I always chuckled at Charley Bates in Oliver Twist!
* * *
Henry: I love Master Bates.
* * *
Cameron: I’m feeling kinda dizzy.
* * *
Henry: Get yourself some water.
* * *
Cameron: I am . . . parched.
Henry: How was work today?
* * *
Cameron: Oh, God. I ate the entire pack of Smarties and took a paracetamol. And another one after reading our messages.
* * *
Henry: I reread our messages too. I enjoyed them as much the second time as I did the first.
* * *
Cameron: About what I said . . .
* * *
Henry: You didn’t mean any of it?
* * *
Cameron: You’re too smart to believe a line like that.
Probably shouldn’t have said some of it though.
* * *
Henry: Saying things aloud is a start to getting what you want.
* * *
Cameron: I’d like to talk about something else. Anything else. The Duke’s Sin.
