“I never even liked contracts, either,” I say instead. “Yet here I am, ready to sign everything you put in front of me.”
“You know that no one is forcing you to agree to any of this, right?”
I study her for a moment.
“What?”
“How could I ever say no when I have all this to play for?” I say, gesturing towards her amused yet dubious expression. “Oh, come on! Don’t pull that face. You know full well the effect you have on me.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Okay.” I lift myself up and sit, as she stays there, splayed out over the sofa. “I’ll regret telling you this.”
“What?”
“It didn’t work.”
“Mmm?”
I gesture between my legs, where my magic wand stands to attention.
“I don’t think I get it.”
“It had been about nine months since… Well… It wouldn’t have worked even under torture.”
“Oh.Oh…”
“Please, don’t make it worse.”
“I didn’t mean to. I’m just surprised, that’s all.”
“You didn’t think that could ever happen to a guy like me?”
“I never thought a guy like you could admit to something like that.”
She’s right again.
“Maybe it was just a blip or something…?”
“It just stopped working. I even went to the doctor about it. They ran some tests, and said that it may have been down to stress. But after nine months, I started to lose hope. I may as well have been dead. Until that night, in the pub.”
She smiles.
“You brought it back to life.”
“Don’t be dramatic. Maybe you really were just stressed.”
“So you don’t think it means anything that, after nine months, it just happened to start working again as soon as it saw you?” I bend down towards her and smile. “It means…” I take a deep breath and take a leap of faith. “It means it doesn’t want anyone else but you.”
“Are you still talking about your magic wand, here?”
“N-no.”
The terror in her eyes is as palpable as the fear in my voice.
“I’m talking about me.”
She lies there, silent for a few moments, giving me extra time to contemplate my own devastation.
