Maybe I’ll let him hear it when he’s deep inside of me.
Thankfully, he puts the penis pocket away and instead settles on a cute knit hat, and he buys me one too.
‘Matching,’ he tells me as we walk out of the store. ‘Like boyfriends.’
I stumble slightly as Dex pulls me from the store. The bag is in my free hand, but I move it around my wrist as he turns to grin at me.
‘Kidding.’ That sign is like a stab to the heart, shocking because I didn’t know how much that would hurt. ‘Come on, so much more to see.’
As he drags me from stall to stall, my mind continues to turn back to that word. Boyfriends. Would he even want that? I need to ask him, but probably not here. And definitely not now. Not when everyone can see what we’re saying. There are some hearing vendors here that don’t sign, but there are plenty that do. And I know the ones that can see what we’re saying and can understand will be nosy bitches. Next thing you know, everything we did will spread around town like wildfire.
I’d rather keep an important discussion like that private. Just like the leather necklace and the assless chaps.
‘Caskets! So weird. I wanna see.’ Dex interrupts my thoughts, his hand flapping toward a creepy death tent.
Why the fuck is this funeral home here selling caskets and urns at a street fair? This is so fucking odd and not a place I want to go on my date.
‘Why do you need to look at caskets? You’re not dead,’ I tell him.
Dex considers it for a moment, rolling his lips between histeeth. ‘May be dead soon with Dennis. Come on. These look so nice.’
As we walk into the large, black tent, I see a familiar pale man looming in the corner, talking to one of the cat café dudes. Archie, I think. When he turns and I see the scar on his face, I realize I’m correct. It is the guy who greeted us at the welcome desk during our café date.
‘Why do you think he’s here?’ Dex asks me, his signs small and slightly hidden.
‘My question is, why arewehere?’
He rolls his eyes like it’s obvious. ‘I want to look at coffins and urns.’
The man speaking with Archie turns and signs for us to wait and then goes back to speaking and signing with Archie.
‘I wonder if he’s a vampire,’ Dex says, and I turn toward him.
‘You high? You eat one of Robbie’s gummies?’
Dex lets out a loud laugh that has both Archie and the coffin salesman turning toward us.
‘Laughing forbidden. Death is never funny,’ the man signs, clearly Deaf. Dex swallows roughly.
‘You’re right. Sorry. I’m so rude.’
Archie stares at us, his head cocked slightly, watching us intently. ‘Death is rude,’ Archie finally says and then motions to the salesman. ‘You can help them. I need to look for something comfortable. Cozy.’
Dex’s eyes widen, his hand tightening around mine as the balding man approaches us.
‘How can I help you? Have you recently experienced a loss? Or are you here for something more…personal.’
Dex’s hand hasn’t loosened up, his eyes slightly wide.
This is what he gets, I think as I stand there, trying to figure out what to sayor do. In my periphery, Archie is crawling into a coffin and lying down. The top closes, and I wonder how long he’s going to be in there, but I refuse to ask.
‘This is for something personal,’ I reply when Dex’s fingers stutter. Dex gapes as I pull him forward. ‘We want to try these out. For sex.’
The salesman just nods, and I drag Dex along, feeling him stumble along behind me, his eyes wide.
‘You…you…sex?’
‘Yes, you’re not dead, so it has to be personal. You want a coffin for sex.’
