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It was close to eleven o’clock before David had a moment to consider what, if anything, he should be doing to craft an interesting opening line of conversation. They hadn’t left Beth Elohim until close to nine thirty, and by that point Dani had reached the manic stage of childhood exhaustion. He’d just been able to get her bathed, and then when he left her bedroom to go downstairs to retrieve her favorite storybook, she’d called her mom for FaceTime on her iPad.
Officially, Mariam and Dani had phone calls on Tuesdays and Thursdays, usually around seven in the evening. Unofficially, David would never stop his daughter from talking to her mom, and Mariam would always stop whatever she was working on for a quick chat. So they talked, and saw each other’s faces considerably more often than twice a week, even though Mariam was still in Maryland.
He’d said hello to his ex-wife and let her know they were at the point in the bedtime ritual where they readRosie Revere. Engineer. Dani, being Dani, asked if her mom could help and so they’d spent a bit more than the usual time it took to do bedtime so that Mariam could peer through the camera in her phone to read the words of her daughter’s favorite book.
It wasn’t the worst way to end a night, but David suspected Mariam wished she’d had some advanced warning by the end of the call. Oh well.
He’d allowed himself time to take a hot shower after putting Dani to bed. While he luxuriated in the townhouse’s excellent water pressure, he’d gone over the conversation with Shoshana at the oneg, embellishing it in that way that was so easy to do when the water was hot.
In his mind he was much more witty. She was much more taken with him. Instead of asking for her number, he’d taken her in his arms and--
Okay, that was probably pushing it.
He probably shouldn’t make a habit of tongue-kissing beautiful women on Shabbat in front of half of his congregation. At least until he’d been there a while longer. Also, so far, Shoshana was the only beautiful woman he’d consider that for. But maybe that was a minor point. He turned off the shower and toweled off as he considered his options here. What was the absolute worst that could happen if he texted her to ask her out for coffee?
Obviously it will be a shanda,the voice of reason said. The voice of reason in David’s head was usually a voice that liked to catastrophize. He imagined it belonged to a gnarled but learned old scholar. Not one of the more famous sages, but an old rebbe with a decent sense of humor, because it definitely liked to exaggerate.
A shanda, really, Moshe? I’m going to shame the community because I ask a beautiful woman out?It was perfectly normal to call your inner voice by name, David supposed.
Well it was normal for him anyway. And if he had to, he could write up a serviceable ‘drash on how this kind of inner-conversation was akin to talking to God.
It’ll be a shanda if you don’t, my friend, the voice of the lesser-known rebbe-sage said in his head.The woman was exceptionally witty.
Fair enough, Moshe.
And she had a great--
That was as far as he was going to allow that particular thought to go.
He agreed, Shoshana did have a great whatever-he-thought-of, but that didn’t mean he was going to let nascent parts of his mind objectify her as a matter of course.
David slipped on a pair of pajama bottoms and went in search of his phone. He didn’t spend years of his life learning how to be himself only to shame his people by missing an opportunity to talk to a pretty girl. Also he really wanted to talk to her.
Five
She’d started with her breasts. Not just kneading her breasts, that was silly and besides, she wasn’t making bread dough. But a slow, deep massage. Shoshana hadn’t planned to end her night this way, but after she’d gotten out of the too-hot shower, she couldn’t help feeling that she ached to be touched.
So that’s why she was laying naked on top of her bed, focusing on the feel of the chenille throw beneath her back. And the way the lotion felt as she worked it into her skin. Moisturizing was important, she thought, smirking. Masturbation wasn’t something Shoshana typically made time for. It wasn’t that she didn’t enjoy loving herself, she just was more likely to pull up an app and find someone else to do it for her. She sighed, turning on her side so that she could reach the drawer of her bedside table.
The vibrator was a kind intended for sucking clitoral stimulation and if she was going to rub one out, she used it to get it over with as quickly as possible. But that wasn’t the mood she was in tonight. She couldn’t stop thinking about David’s eyes at the oneg, that was the problem. The man had great eyes.
“And lips,” she sighed. Vibrator found, she rolled back onto her back.God, his lips were probably amazing.
She turned on the vibrator, its low hum insistent as she touched it to her nipple.Oh yeah, like that, she thought, arching just the smallest bit on the bed. She wondered if David were the kind of man to pay attention to every part of a woman, or if he were more interested in zeroing in directly on the pussy.
No way,she thought, with a wry lift of her lip. She flicked the button on the vibrator to raise the pressure the smallest bit. There was no way a man that could pray like that, that could roll the word of God around in his mouth like it was something precious to be savored, would be the kind of guy who just zeroed in on his own pleasure.
That’s wishful thinking, and you know it, Sho, her mind said, and she made a negating sound in the back of her throat, moving the vibrator to her other nipple. She used her unoccupied hand to roll the first nipple. Her fingers keeping it pebbled as she focused on the second one.Also, since when do you care about God’s word?
She rolled her eyes, closing them so that she was in her own private darkness for a moment. In this dark, she could focus on what it would feel like to be fully naked against that man. She thought about how magnificent he had smelled, and she moaned. To be enveloped by that smell would be something. Heaven. It would be dark, salted chocolate with a hint of spice. Something with bite.
She imagined him nipping at the flesh of her breast, coaxing her to arousal.
Her hand slid over her abdomen, nails scratching light, infuriating lines and she shivered on the bed. His hands were long fingered. The man had great hands. She wondered if he was a musician, she could see him being great on a piano. And then she was thinking about those big hands slipping between her legs.Fuck,yes, that was it.
If she was going to set the scene, she was going to really set the scene.
