“Where’s Dad?” Oliver asks.
“He went down to the docks to pick up some fresh oysters. But I should let you know?—”
We hear a car driving up the gravel driveway through the open windows of the house.
“Let’s go help your dad bring the oysters in,” Georgia says, but Oliver is frowning.
Gloria is grinning.
“That’s not my dad’s car,” Oliver says.
The car doors open and shut, and the front door of the house opens.
A glitter bullet flies towards Gloria.
Ohhh, shit, my brain thinks.Ohhh, SHIT, my vagina squeals.
Gang DILF Dom locks eyes with me across a room for the third time in a week.
Like Pavlov… or was it his dog? Whoever was salivating after being brought a snack. Or whoever was salivating after seeing the person bringing the snack. I’m like him. Or it. I’m salivating at being brought this snack. My salivary glands and my nipples have associated Dominic with a tasty treat.
“Oh,” he says to me, somehow conveying both disbelief and resignation.
I blink in response. Am I magic? Did this happen because I willed it so?
“Dom! Hey, man,” Oliver strides over to his cousin and claps him into a bear hug. “I had no idea you were coming.”
Frankie is now climbing Georgia, who is laughing and squeezing her to death.
“Hold on,” Oliver says, following Dom’s line of sight and turning to look at me. “Do you guys know each other? You guys must know each other.”
I wave like an idiot. “Hey Dom,” I say. “Hey—oof,” I’m cut off and knocked over by Frankie colliding with my middle.
“Frankie,” Dom reprimands, gently, in that voice like the ocean outside. “Too much.”
“It’s okay,” I laugh down at her and give her a squeeze. “How’s it going, little lady? Long time no see.”
She peers up at me. “I just saw you yesterday,” she says very seriously.
“It was a little joke,” I whisper. “I’m very happy to see you, though.”
“Is this weird?” Georgia is saying. “This has the potential to be very weird.”
I shrug, donning Work Lina. “What do you mean?”
Dom is looking at his daughter, who is still wrapped around my hips and unconsciously rubbing her cheek on the exposed skin of my belly. “We’re not coworkers or anything,” he says.
“Two separate entities,” I add on.
“We met very briefly yesterday to go over some back to school stuff?—”
“But he’s completely outside the boundaries of the DOE chain of command.”
“So it’s totally not weird.”
“It’s great, actually.”
“Wonderful.”
