“I don’t want to disappoint someone that I love.”
“That might be inevitable.”
“Not the way I do it.”
“And what magical way is that?”
“I’m honest.”
“Please explain.”
“I spend time with women who understand that our relationship will be a physically satisfying connection and nothing more.”
“And they go for that?”
“I have had no complaints yet.”
“I could never do that.”
“Why not? We both get something out of it and there are no unmet expectations. No hurt feelings.”
“I doubt that,” I mutter under my breath.
“What’s that, beautiful?”
“I said what about this one?
“Twenty-seven inches is a respectable size. Not obnoxiously big. Where would you put it? On a wall or a tv table?”
“Probably just on top of my dresser. I don’t want to spend the extra funds to have it mounted on a wall.”
“This thirty-two inch is on sale. How about this one? I know someone who can mount it for you at a discount.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, get it.”
It takes ten minutes to find someone who isn’t busy to help us. I honestly was ready to leave, but Jason seems more excited about the tv than I am. He wants me to get it. So we wait. While the sales associate goes in the back to find us the model on sale because there are no more on the showroom floor, Jason watches a news program on one of the model televisions and becomes unusually quiet.
I tap him on the back of his good shoulder.
“Hey, you all right?”
“Yeah, I’m good.”
“What’s this show?”
“It’s a sports newscast.”
“The Rangers again?”
“Not this time. They’re talking about football.”
“Oh.”
The program repeatedly shows a highlight where a player was hit pretty hard.
“Ugh,” I comment. “Football is so brutal. I don’t know how you watch it. Look at how hard they hit that guy. He’s probably still seeing stars.”
