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"Or I could take you as my plus one."
But instead of taking the bait I've dangled for her, she brings up the thing I'm currently trying the hardest to forget: "Don't you want to save that for Brett?"
"Well…." I hold back the groan building in my chest. "I don't think things are going in that direction for me and Brett."
"What? Why?"
Grabbing a lock of my hair, I twist it around my hand, pulling on it in my frustration.
Not with her, but with how things went during and after my dinner with Brett.
"Denise, whathappened?"
I take a deep breath before saying, "Brett was fine at first. He seemed to like that dress you picked for me."
"I knew he would! Your curves look phenomenal in the dress."
My eyes avoid the mirror again as I feel a blush creep up my neck. "And dinner was great. He paid for everything."
"Oooh, a gentleman, too," her voice chirps through the phone. "I'm liking everything I'm hearing so far."
"But then something… changed. He got this strange expression on his face like I made him uncomfortable. We kept doing this dance where things were flirty one minute but then awkward the next."
Lisa hums to herself as if in thought. "Maybe he's just shy, like Sheila said?"
Even though she can't see me, I shake my head. "I don't think this was shyness. It didn't go away for the rest of the night. And then, when he took me home…."
I close my eyes as the memory returns, the feeling of his arms and his lips still fresh on my skin as if it happened just moments ago.
"I told him to kiss me, Lisa. Ibeggedfor it. And for a moment, he leaned in like he was going to. But then he just kissed my cheek and gave me a quick goodbye. Like the whole night was just a business transaction between us."
Lisa makes a humming sound again. "Ugh. Yeah, you're right. That is a little weird."
I jam my brush through my hair harder than I mean to. "It's fine. It's not something to be sorry about. I'm not sad. If anything, I'm angry."
"Oh?"
Gathering up my hair, I start to reach for my clip to hold it in place. But instead, I look at myself in the mirror again, letting my hair fall around my shoulders as I take in my reflection.
Standard brown eyes beneath short lashes. Wrinkles forming along my face like lines of sand beneath rolling waves. Dark hair the color of dirt, straight and flat and heavy.
My work shirt, freshly washed and ironed, hangs from the back of the door, and without it on, I can see my body, too. Every inch of it above my thighs is visible in that mirror.
Even with my bra on, my breasts hang low, worn from breastfeeding Sophia all those years ago. Stretch marks line my belly, which no longer has the beautiful flatness I was so proud of in college. Age and a baby have changed my body forever, and no matter how many times I see myself, it never feels quite right. Like I've taken the body of someone else.
"He's a grown man," I finally say, tearing my eyes from the mirror. "He should know by now how to state what he wants instead of stringing a woman along like this."
"Not all men get to that point, Denise. And even if he didn't use the words, he still kissed you, right?"
"On the cheek, Lisa. It barely touched my mouth."
"Still. That's more than I've had in a while. I would love to get any kind of kiss from a man who looks likethat." In the smallness of my bathroom, her giggle bounces off the wall like the buzzing of flies. "Do you remember what set him off?"
"We might have been talking about my siblings. And then he spilled some soup on his shirt."
"And then the last time he got awkward was when Tinsley and Brittany were there," Lisa muses, her speech slowing as she thinks. "I think he's just not used to the chaos of your life like you are, Denise. He gets flustered after a point. You'll have to move quickly. Snatch him up before he freaks himself out.”
Another sigh escapes my mouth. "I don't know, Lisa. I… I think I just wish he could make his feelings clearer like Dave used to. Even though Dave is a sleaze, of course."
