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“Oh, so now you’re asking the questions you know the answers to? Come on, Courtney, don’t make me ask you in a bunch of different ways. I’ll die if you do, and I really want to know the answer.”
“You’re asking me what sex is like?”
“Yes! That’s what I want to know. That’s the million-dollar question.”
“It’s a hard one to answer. I guess some of it depends on who you decide to do it with. It’ll probably hurt some. I won’t lie to you about that, but then it’s something I don’t really know how to describe. It’s like falling, you know? It feels like falling, but in a good way. It’s warm and hot and makes you shiver all over. If you’re with the right guy and he takes it slow, you’ll start to enjoy yourself real quick. It’s one of the best things in the world, if you want to know the truth. Why do you think I do it so often?”
I laughed, trying not to be embarrassed by the answer to the question I had almost been too shy to ask. I wasn’t sure what kind of answer I was expecting to get from her, but the one I got was a whole lot more thoughtful and less vulgar than I had thought would come out of her mouth. It left me daydreaming about something I had never even done before, which made the timing of my ringing phone pretty fortuitous.
“Hold on. I’ll be right back.”
I made my way inside, my head still full of the things Courtney had just told me. I laughed out loud when I saw who was calling me.
“Hey there,” I answered, that odd tingling feeling still running through me. “Were your ears burning?”
“Hey yourself,” Neil said in a voice that let me know he was smiling on his end of the phone. “And I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Never mind. Just ignore me. I’m just being silly. What’s up?”
“What’s up is, I’m sitting here in my empty house, and it occurred to me that I’d like to see you again.”
“Sure,” I said, in what I hoped was a light, casual voice. Something that would make my excitement a little bit less obvious. “What did you have in mind?”
“Depends. Are you available tonight?”
“I could be, depending on what you’re thinking.”
“I was kind of thinking that I’d like to make you dinner.”
“Make me dinner?” I asked. “Like, you’re going to cook for me?”
“That’s kind of the idea, yeah.”
“You sure about that? I don’t exactly remember you being a master chef or anything. No offense.”
“None taken. But don’t count me out just yet, Fay. I might have learned a thing or two since we were in high school, you know? I might even be able to make something you enjoy eating.”
“You’ve got a deal, but only if you let me bring the wine.”
“It’s a deal, babe. I’ll see you tonight.”
Babe. After I had given him my yes, Neil had hung up the phone about as fast as a person could do, but he’d called me babe right before he did. That was something new about him. Something new for sure. He’d never called me anything like that when we’d been in high school. It was a new kind of smooth, and it scared me.
It made me wonder what other slick tricks he’d picked up out there in the wide world. The thing was, it didn’t scare me enough to make me want to call him back and tell him I’d changed my mind. In some ways, it only made me want him more. Everything I had told Courtney was true. There was something about him, and there was no way I wasn’t going to find out what it was.
“Hey, Courtney?” I called down the hallway, my voice shaking just like the rest of my body.
“What’
s up? You sound weird?”
“Looks like I’m going to need your help. I’ve got a date at the Driscoll house tonight.”
Chapter 12: Neil
“Ouch! Fuck!”
I dropped the knife I was using to chop herbs into the sink, having to draw on pretty massive reserves of strength in order to keep from hurling it across the room. My claim of being able to cook hadn’t been a lie. I’d taken some classes in Connecticut and had actually gotten pretty damned good in the kitchen. But tonight, I was acting like I’d never even seen the inside of a kitchen. It was pretty fucking bad timing. Fay was going to be here any minute.
