“I’m a hundred percent introvert.”
He smirks. “Anything else?”
“I need someone who…” My heart skips a beat.Have I revealed too much?
“What?” he prods gently, like cracking open a door, but just barely, hesitantly. “Don’t hold back now.”
I suck in a breath, then decide to let him in. “I need someone who can be patient about sex. Because if there’s anything that’s truly frustrating about depression? It’s the lack of sex drive.”
Miles presses his lips together in a thoughtful line. “I remember that. But I think that’s where it circles back to understanding, right? If someone understands you, they know you don’t have control over it.”
“You make it sound easy.”
He stifles a laugh. “Oh, honey, I know it’s not. I just believe in communication. Besides, you can still be intimate without being sexual. It’s not an impossible request. Or, at least, it shouldn’t be.”
My heart clenches. Does he really believe that?
“It’s not that I… can’t get aroused, it’s that it’s so infrequent, you know? I can’t just go on a hot date and expect to… do that. It’s not like that for me. It’s always unexpected.”
“But again, understanding,” he says simply. “It’s all tied together.”
“I guess.” I pick at the sheets. Finding someone who understands me is like trying to solve a puzzle with half the pieces. Most days I don’t even understand myself. “Anyway, be right back. I gotta piss.”
“TMI, dude.”
I disappear into the bathroom. When I come back, Clematis is gently batting at the phone with one paw. I snag it before she can knock it off the bed.
“Hey, do you want to see my plant collection?”
Miles instantly perks up. “Yes!”
Switching the camera to the front lens, I walk through my house, avoiding the messy areas as I show Miles every plant. His excitement and praise makes my chest puff out a little.
“Damn. I’m like, crazy jealous right now.”
“This one is Pixie,” I say, touching the rabbit’s foot fern. “She was the first plant I ever bought.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Thought the name would give me good luck. Now I have four of them.”
Miles laughs.
“What was your first?”
“Oh, hell if I know. I don’t keep mine long enough to remember them.”
I gasp. “You have flings with your plants? I could never!”
“Well, I don’t have a choice. It’s not like I can travel with them.”
I hadn’t thought about that. “What do you do with them, then?”
“Give them to co-workers or patients before I leave.”
“You raise them just to give them away?”
Miles shrugs. “Why not? They make me happy, and then they make other people happy, so win-win.”Does this guy’s kindness ever end?“I only have one at the moment. Here.”
