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“Pasta and sex.” She shoved his pants past his hips and he left her to kick off the remainder of his clothes.
“The two things I’m good for,” he said, to let her know that he knew the score tonight. He knew she wasn’t asking for a reunion. She didn’t want to relive anniversaries past.
Tonight was about physical need. Sex for sex’s sake.
Knee to the bed, he positioned himself over her. One side of her mouth lifted as she touched his chest and scooted herself back to accommodate him. He liked being accommodated. By this woman especially.
“Kiss me, Jayson Cooper.”
“You got it, Gia Knox-Cooper.” The air grew suddenly heavy. As he tasted her mouth and she wrapped her arms around his neck, he pushed out any thoughts about how she used to be his—how she still had his name. How he’d blown it over and over again and this could be yet another in a great line of mistakes he’d made with her.
Instead he focused on the tight, high breaths coming from her throat. On the feel of her fingernails tracing the lines of his back while he stroked into her. On the nip of her teeth on his earlobe.
Soon, to the crescendo of her hoarse cries in his ears, he followed her over.
And his world went blissfully black.
Unwilling to move from her spot on the bed, Gia stretched like a languid cat before curling into a ball again. Jayson had come out of the bathroom and stepped into their formerly shared walk-in closet, rummaging for what he called “those sexy gold shoes.”
He was talking about a pair of Greek goddess, strappy heels she’d purchased for a Cleopatra costume one Halloween. She’d kept them, even though they were the most impractical purchase ever, because that night he requested that she wear only the shoes. They’d had fantastic sex, which was apparently par for course, and she’d fallen asleep wearing those shoes. She woken with strap marks crisscrossing up her legs. He’d removed her shoes and kissed every inch of her body before bringing her a very strong cup of coffee while she was still in bed.
That’d been a great morning.
He emerged with a white shoebox and shook it. “What’s this?”
“I don’t know. What is it?” But as he came closer and began digging through the box, she knew exactly what was in it. He lowered himself to the edge of the bed and she sat up and pulled the sheets over her naked body to peer inside.
He held up a birthday card with a dog holding a pair of false teeth in his mouth. “You kept this?”
“I like it.” She snatched the card and read the inside. The inscription read “Love you, wife. J.”
“The front is funny,” she amended, tossing it back into the box. She stuck her hand in and came out with a refrigerator magnet from their trip to wine country that read “Let it merlot, let it merlot, let it merlot.”
“I should put this on the fridge.” She set it aside.
“You have a lot of random things in here.” He held up a new pair of shoe strings that were knotted together.
“They were the extra pair that came with my Sauconys. I don’t have those shoes anymore.”
Jayson plucked out a laminated tag. “My old ID badge from the office.”
“You look like a serial killer in that photo.” His hair was longer, and messy, and he had that goatee. His expression was bland and morose.
“Must have been a bad day.” He held the badge next to his face and mimicked his old self. “Before. After.”
“After is better.” She snatched the tag and studied the slightly out-of-focus mug shot. “I liked that goatee though. Why’d you shave it?”
“I got lazy.”
She scraped a fingernail along his cheek. “I like it now though. Sometimes scruffy. Sometimes smooth. You keep me guessing.”
“So do you.” He held her eyes for an uncomfortable beat, one that reminded her more of their past than this shoebox of paraphernalia.
“You rose through the ranks faster than anyone I’d ever seen,” she said to change the subject.
“Oh yeah?” he said distractedly, pulling out her old gym pass.
“Yeah. Even Royce didn’t become chief financial officer as quickly as you became chief technology officer.” She’d never thought about that, actually. One minute Jayson was a web designer with talent to burn and the next running the entire technology department. It’d impressed her. She’d been so elated over his raise, she’d wanted to throw a party but he wouldn’t let her.
