Nason glances back at Lie. “What?”
“On the phone all day like that?”
“No. We didn’t have cell phones, which meant we had to share the land line.”
I grunt. I don’t miss those days. Getting caught up in phone cords. Wrapping it around my finger until I cut off my circulation because being tied to a wall while you were on the phone could be boring. Not that boredom made you end the call.
“What a life.”
“Right? We were just having this conversation at work. Waiting a week for the next episode of your favorite show to come on. Having to sit through commercials. Sitting at the stereo waiting for your favorite song so you could quickly hit the record button and not miss the first few notes. Playing outside until the streetlights came on. Not having a camera in your pocket. The kids in the office were horrified by these things.”
“Having to wait at the one-hour photo-development place red as beets while we waited for our dick pics to print and praying that they didn’t get flagged by the guy printing them,” I say.
Nason laughs. “Oh my god, I forgot that one.”
“We did that several times as teenagers. As if we were tracking the development of our dicks as we got older.”
He laughs louder. “Oh, god. That’s horrible. We were horrible kids.”
“Nah. Now they just send their cock pics via text message and pray they aren’t shared with the entire world via the internet.”
“Oof. I’m not sure if this is considered progress.”
“Depends who you ask, I guess. The one thing I like to scoff at is all those damn math teachers who insisted that we memorize equations and shit, with their argument being that we weren’t always going to have a calculator in our pockets. Joke’s on them. Not only do we always have a calculator, but now we have the internet to work out any equation we fucking want it to.”
“And yet, I think these generations are becominglessself-reliant because they always have the internet for answers. They don’t need to know a thing. Daniel, my twenty-something intern? I asked him to do something the other day. I don’t remember what—oh, I said something about Kansas City and he told me he’s never been to Kansas. They don’t teach geography, man. I told him to go look up where Kansas City was.”
“What happens when you no longer have access to pocket computers?” I muse.
“You’re free on an island resort like this,” he says, grinning.
Indeed. A life I wouldn’t trade for anything.
Lie’s laughter fills the air again, and I almost scowl at the way my stomach flips at the sound. Fuck my life.
Chapter Three
LIE
I check my bag again.Butter, sugar, vanilla, flour, confectioner’s sugar, and cream of tartar. And the all-important cookie cutters in the shape of cocks. A masterpiece of different shapes and sizes because all dicks are beautiful.
And when I’m finished, all dicks are going to be edible too.
I hear the front door open and quickly, though quietly, shut the pantry door. I don’t bother with shoes since I’m running across the yard to Laiken’s to use his kitchen.
That’s the excuse, anyway. Really, I just want to be around him. He’s home but… sexy. Maybe I should be disturbed that he’s the same age as my dad. He changed my diapers when I was a baby. All of that should bother me, right?
Except that I’m all grown up and so is he. Who knew I was in my silver fox era? I skipped all the other eras and went straight for the older, more experienced goods.
Not that I think anything is ever going to happen. I’m stone cold in the best-friend’s-son zone with this one. That’s fine. Adisappointment and epic tragedy, but fine. I’m still going to flirt with him until the day I die.
Or find someone as equally mesmerizing, hot, and distinguished.
I slip out the sliding glass doors and practically jump off the deck so I don’t make any noise that my mother will hear. When I’m on the grass, I sprint across the yards until I’m standing at the glass door that leads into Laiken’s house.
I knock and wait.
It’s not long before I see him come around the corner.Mm-Mm-MM! Yummy. His shorts aren’t necessarily considered short, but they’re not the long, loose ones that guys these days wear, either. They’re to his mid-thighs and hug his body nicely.
