She giggles. “No. Black. Like yours. Those look the coolest.”
I can’t disagree.
“I could see my parents taking weekend trips here and there.” She types on her phone for a second.
“Are you telling him to get one?”
“Yep.” She smiles at me. “We could go on rides with them. Maybe camp or something.”
Holy shit. When did she turn into the woman of my dreams? I remember… the second time I met her. “Sounds fun.”
“It does.” She reaches into the back seat and slaps at her friend. “Wake up.”
“What?” Laura growls.
“You need to get a motorcycle.”
“No.”
“She can ride on the back of Brett’s.” I smirk to myself. Brett’s totally smitten with her, but she won’t call him back.
“No.”
Prudence isn’t going to let her get by with only one word, apparently asking, “Why not? You said, and I quote, ‘he was great in the sack’.”
“He was. I’m not looking for someone long-term.”
Moving on from that, I reach out and take Prudence’s hand. “Your parents loved me. So, now you can’t use that excuse anymore.”
“I guess not.”
* * *
It’slate by the time I pull into Oakbrook. I drop Laura off first, then to Prudence’s place. I’d like to be invited inside, but I’m going to let her offer it up first. When she pushes open her door, I don’t make a move. Not even to turn off the car. She looks over at me and frowns. “Aren’t you coming in?”
“You want me to?”
“Yes.”
I quickly shut off the engine, push open the door, and run around to her side of the car to help her down.
“Full disclosure,” she says walking up to her front door. “I’m too tired for hanky-panky.”
“Gotcha.” Maybe by morning she’ll have her energy up. “We can just spoon.”
That gets a laugh out of her, which makes me laugh too. “Spooning sounds perfect. After a bed picnic. I’m starving.”
“I could eat.” I could eather. Something I need to do again after our first night together.
“Good.”
Like an old married couple, we’re snuggled up in bed watching a rerun of a sitcom from the early 90s. I’ve seen it before, and it’s one of my favorites about a couple from New Jersey. He works for a delivery company, she for an attorney. They’re opposites in every sense of the word, which makes for some funny shit, but nobody is as funny as her old man. He takes the cake. I’m glad Prudence likes it too. The pair of us keep laughing in the same spots. It bodes well for us. While Jackie and I are friends now, that’s one thing we never agreed on. Movies and television. She loved old westerns. Loved ‘em. The black and white ones. I didn’t like ‘em. Hated them is probably a better description. We watched stuff in separate rooms. Hell, most of what we did at the end of our marriage was done in separate rooms.
On a commercial break, I decide to ask her about Barbie. “Did you notice how Barbie was acting today?”
“You mean the way she wouldn’t have anything to do with Travis?”
“Yeah.”
