06:44I’ll pass. I heard reviews of your previous attempts at self-interested couple counselling, they weren’t great.
Loris growls and curls up, his back turned to him. ‘What’you doing?’
‘Sorry.’
Charles locks his phone and tosses it onto the bedside table. He lies down against Loris to kiss his shoulder blade, his fingers caressing his torso.
‘What’you think you doing now?’
‘Morning...’
‘It’s not. Back off.’
‘It must be noon in some countries. You tell me, you’re the time zone expert.’
‘Am ready to use extreme violence, Charles.’
‘Alright, alright, but you can’t blame a guy for—’
Loris shakes his head, growling again. Charles laughs into his hair and rests his hand on his abdomen.
He won’t get back to sleep. Instead, he will count down the minutes to his work alarm, set early enough to allow for morning fondling.
His favourite ticking clock.
***
‘What are you thinking about?’
Charles scrunches his eyes. His sight is a bit blurry after ten minutes staring at the splashes of white and grey paint framed on the wall of Patty’s living room.
What was he thinking about? He just travelled all around Charland, without really stopping anywhere. But Liv, sitting next to him on the sofa, mostly wants to know if he’s alright, so he smiles, in case his look gave a different impression.
‘I was wondering… how I would have told Fred about Loris.’
‘You don’t doubt he would have been supportive, do you?’
‘No. It’s me. It’s hard to assess who I’d be if he were still here.’
‘Yes, I get that.’
Charles squeezes her hand. ‘What were you thinking about?’
‘Our first kiss...’
‘When was that?’
‘During a high-society Ledwell party at your place. The Downesesweren’t invited, but Fred told me to come anyway. He wanted to see how long it’d take for your mother to spot me and have a conniption fit. When I texted him I was out front, he joined me. We could hear the chamber music played inside by a quartet, so we started waltzing, very badly, for fun. But somehow, the vibe changed. Suddenly, we were holding each other very close, nothing else existed, and he kissed me. My heart kissed him back, but my brain, not so much. “What are you doing, girl? Since when do you kiss Fred? Are you meant to kiss Fred?” Then I looked back into his eyes and, yes, I was meant to… And, yes, I’m aware I’m being corny.’
‘You’re not.’
Charles didn’t chuckle at her words, but at the mention of a very relatable mind storm due to a kiss.
‘Spencer and I saw you that night, slow dancing in the driveway. He made smooching noises, so I called him an idiot, said you guys were friends and dragged him away. But today, I’m not sure what to make of those instances when Spencer was so ingenuously right. I might have to take him more seriously.’
‘How often is he plain wrong, though? George said he ruined his date with a med student because he believed the clever thing to do was to offer to get high on his leg painkillers.’
‘Strong argument in favour of forever shushing him.’
