“Um. No thanks.”
“Girls, come on! I don’t need to know what you do in the bedroom.”
“Who says we do it in the bedroom? We prefer the couch,” Alina said, wiggling her eyebrows.
I winced.
“Ew. The couch I sit on when I visit.”
“Oh yeah!”
I let out a long sigh, and I stuck my tongue out in fake disgust for good measure. I loved teasing them about this kind of stuff.
“I don’t know why you’re acting all grossed out. It’s not like we haven’t done it in that seat.” Zainab pointed to the stool I was sitting on, and I jumped off on instinct alone.
“Here? On that? What are you? Animals?” Okay, I may tease them, but this was actually gross. Or fucking weird at the very least.
Both of them burst out laughing, and I stood there watching them, judging them.
“Oh, sit back down, idiot. Of course we haven’t,” Alina said.
“You should have seen your face though,” Zainab added.
I frowned and sat back on the stool—with caution. Thankfully, a customer approached the desk, and I helped them with their purchase, hoping they hadn’t heard our lewd conversation. After they’d paid and left, Zainab turned to me again.
“So you still haven’t done, you know,it?” I shook my head. “Do you want to?”
Images of my alone time from last night flashed before my eyes, but I cleared my throat and swallowed them down before I gave anything away.
“I do,” I said.
“Does he?” Alina asked.
I raised my shoulders and pushed my lips to one side.
“I have no idea. Maybe? Sometimes when he kisses me… properly, I feel like, yeah, he does, but then he’s really not made a move or suggestion. Or maybe he has, and I totally missed it.”
“So maybe him taking you to his bed was a suggestion,” Alina said.
“Um, no. His daughter was sleeping three feet from the bed so that’s a big no.”
Zainab tapped her chin with her index finger, and Alina bit her lip. Both of them looked deep in thought.
“So…” Zainab said after a few moments, “even if he does want to do it, it’s not really feasible with his daughter around. Have you thought about inviting him here?”
“Of course.”
“Maybe do that.”
I nodded and looked down at the counter. Maybe I should bite the bullet and do it. But what if he wasn’t ready? What if that kind of thing scared him away?
“Yeah,” I said. “Maybe.”
With a sigh, I turned to the computer and clicked on my mailbox to check if any requests or invoices had come through.
The email on the top of the page, though, was a newsletter. A Hudson Bell newsletter.
See you there?it read, and I opened it right away.
