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“Thinking about it. Do you have any opinions on whether I should or not?” I tapped my chin and pretended to think. “Should I sleep naked tonight? Hmmm . . .”
“This is the easiest question I’ve ever answered in my life. Yes, you should sleep naked. If you want to. If that’s what you usually do. Have you seriously been sleeping naked all these years and I had no idea?” She almost looked like that emoji whose head was exploding.
“I mean, I didn’t do it around you. That would have been weird. But I’m guessing it might not have been weird?” This whole night was weird, and I still didn’t know where we were going with all of this. I could still feel the thrust of her fingers inside me and her teeth biting my lips.
“No, it would have been weird back then. I mean, for you.”
I shivered a little bit. Maybe sleeping naked wasn’t the best idea. I wanted to ask Emma what she meant by that, but then Vegas bounded into the room and started licking my legs and I decided that sleeping naked wasn’t the best solution when you had a new puppy that was hyperactive and liked to lick things.
“Okay, not sleeping naked,” I said, as Emma grabbed the puppy and kept him from jumping up on me and digging his little murder feet into my skin.
I pulled some undies, shorts, and a tank out of my drawers and put them on.
“Bummer,” Emma said with a sigh, as she held Vegas.
“I’m sure you’ll see me naked again.”
“Will I?” she asked, and she looked so worried about what my answer would be.
“I mean, I guess? I don’t know, Em. This all is happening really fast and I’m tired and I think I just need to shut down for a little while. Is that okay? I’ll take the puppy though.” I held out my arms for him and she passed him over.
“Yeah, yeah. That’s fine.” It definitely didn’t sound fine, but I needed a break from all this. My entire world had been flipped on its axis and I was floating around in zero gravity and trying to figure out how to stand up again. That was going to take time and sleep and a lot of thinking and processing. I couldn’t do that all in one night, and I didn’t know how to tell Emma that now I needed space from her.
“It’s a lot,” I said, rubbing Vegas’ ears. He loved having them rubbed for some reason.
“Yeah, fine,” she said, but her face fell anyway. It hurt me that she was hurting, but I needed this and I hoped she would understand that.
“I need a snack,” I said, putting my hand on my grumbling stomach. “Like right now. You hungry?”
“Maybe a little.” I heard another stomach noise, and it wasn’t mine. Hers was complaining too.
“Come on,” I said, putting the puppy down. He bolted out the door and into the living room and I heard the frantic squeaking of a toy. We needed to remember to put away the noisy toys before we went to bed every night so he wouldn’t sneak them out and then we’d hear them in the middle of the night.
“What are you going to make?” she asked as I stared into the pantry and then opened the fridge.
“It’s time for . . .” I made my voice deep and intense. “Lazy Charcuterie.” That was what I called it when I wanted to eat crackers and cheese for dinner. I didn’t want to cook or do anything too complicated because I was tired and needed something fast.
“I have some brie, if you want.” Of course she did. Emma always had the good stuff. I raided the fridge and she helped me set up a tray with a few different kinds of crackers, several cheeses, some pepperoni, some grapes, a few handfuls of nuts, and some small candy bars I’d found that I had probably stashed here in case of PMS.
“Classy AF,” I said, looking at the creation. Emma arranged it much more artfully than I would have.
“Shall we?” I asked, picking up the tray. Emma got some seltzer waters and followed me to the couch. I put my feet up on the coffee table and tried to keep the food out of puppy reach.
“Maybe we should do this in bed. I’m having visions of him just flipping this entire thing and then us being really sad. Your room?” My bed was covered in sex sheets that I was going to need to change before I went to bed. I was definitely going to make Emma help me change them since she was partially responsible for them being sex sheets in the first place.
“Sure,” she said, but I could sense hesitation, but she followed me with the drinks as Vegas frolicked happily along beside us, totally convinced that we had made an entire tray of delicious snacks for him. I was going to sneak him some pepperoni when Emma wasn’t looking. I couldn’t be a total monster and deny his sweet face.
We both climbed on Emma’s bed and then Vegas whined to be let up.
“I don’t think we’re going to be able to do this with him up here.” Emma pulled something out of her nightstand.
“That’s why I have these stashed all over the house.” It was a chew toy that might keep him busy long enough for us to inhale our snacks.
“Brilliant. Have I ever told you how much I envy your mind?” It must be so organized in there. Lots of shelves with labels. It probably looked like The Container Store with all her thoughts cataloged and in the right place.
“Maybe, but it’s always nice to hear,” she said, giving me a soft smile. I dug into the cheese and crackers, just shoving them in my mouth indiscriminately. Emma, on the other hand, made little sandwiches and nibbled like a duchess, getting zero crumbs on the bed. We were such a contrast sometimes.
“Are we going to talk about what happened or no?” Emma asked, after she had a few of the cracker sandwiches and moved on to the grapes. I was alternating cheese, crackers, and pepperoni so I got a little bit of each, and tried not to get too many crumbs on the bed.
