TWENTY-EIGHT
KITTY
FIVE DAYS LATER
Playlist recommendation:
Church - Chase Atlantic
“The doctor’s visiting tomorrow.”
Stan hummed as he tossed the glossy onions he’d been sautéing in a skillet.
I finished braiding my hair. “You know… the doctor?”
Another hum followed a sprinkle of salt onto the clove of garlic he squished with his fork and threw onto the heat next.
“Okay, I lied. Aliens are visiting.”
“Yeah?” He grabbed the bottle of what looked like chili flakes and shook that onto his concoction.
“Yeah,” I concurred as he added in some cherry vine tomatoes. “They want to pump me full of eggs so I can spawn the next generation.”
“Really? That’s nice,” he mused, also pressing the tomatoes with his fork then ladling some of the pasta water from the pot that boiled away on the stove.
Exasperated, I turned to him, relieved when the movement no longer triggered excruciating pain. “Stan!”
“What?” He frowned at me but, after cutting off the heat, stopped what he was doing to haul me into a hug. “Did you say you were lying about something?”
I huffed.
This man, I swear.
“The doctor’s coming tomorrow.”
He looped his arms around my waist so I wore them like a belt. “What time?”
“You don’t have to be there. I wanted you to know so you can stop babysitting me.”
His eyes narrowed. From vague to intent—oooof, that shouldn’t have been hot.
Tell that to my ovaries.
Throw in rolled-up sleeves and all those yummy veins circling his forearms?
Excuse me while I ovulated.
“I’m not babysitting you,” he grumbled, his aggravation coming across loud and clear as he released me to put the heat back on and agitate the skillet.Could he look more European if he tried?“I want to know what’s going on with you. I need to know that you’re healing.”
“I can tell you that. I’m a lot better. Easier to move, easier to breathe. Don’t feel like a freight train rolled over me, either.” I wasn’t willing to share precisely how I knew I was better—the urge to sit on his dick grew ever more desperate.What a plight.“Now, what’s going on with you?” When he rubbed his chin, I warned, “And don’t say ‘nothing,’ either. You’re distracted.”
His lips twisted into a sheepish smile, one I added to the list of smiles in his coterie.
This bizarre interlude, a pocket out of reality where I healed, had created this intense awareness of him. I already felt as ifwe’d been dating a decade, but the length of time I’d known him could be counted in days.
I’d never experienced intimacy like this before.
“A few years back, I found this forum.”
