Your friend,
Cary
Thirty-Six
The reason that Ryan wanted to drop the overnight agreement was because he knew Shiloh would keep following it anyway.
Shiloh wasn’t going to bring some guy home when she had the kids. She wasn’t going to introduce them to a new guy every week. She wouldn’t introduce them toanyoneuntil it was serious.
And that scenario wasn’t even on the horizon, because Ryan knew that Shiloh wasn’t dating. Ryan knew that Shiloh had never really dated anyone but him. And now she was thirty-three and a mother, and she only worked with women and gay men, and she didn’t want to join eHarmony. She didn’t want to go to bars. She didn’t want to join a church or volunteer for a political campaign. She didn’t want to make eye contact with people at Mikey’s parties.
Shiloh didn’t likeanyone. Like, mathematically speaking. The percentage of people that Shiloh met and then liked was too close to zero to be statistically significant.
Was she going to follow in her mother’s footsteps? Make their house a satellite location of Propeller Bill’s Hangar Bar and Grill?
No, she was not.
And Ryanknewit.
Ryanwould be the one to introduce the kids to his latest “friends.” Junie and Gus had already had lunch with women and gone to the park with women, and rented movies and eaten popcorn with women.
Shiloh didn’t need to addbreakfastto that list.
Or midnight run-ins in the bathroom.
Admittedly—admittedly—Shiloh’s romantic life held more potential for danger...
Ryan wasn’t likely to bring home someone who would make a pass at Junie when she was twelve years old and just trying to get some cereal.
(A pass or worse. There was always the danger of worse.)
Shiloh would always have to be more careful than Ryan would.
Unlessshedated women, too...
Not that women were always safe, even if that was an option...Wasthat an option?
Probably. It had probably always been an option. Shiloh knew she wasn’t a lesbian, but she also knew she wasn’t entirely straight. She was as intrigued by k. d. lang as she was by Jake Gyllenhaal. She’d just never gathered enough data to come to a firm conclusion about her sexuality.
Ryan knew that Shiloh barely had any sexuality left.
He hadn’tactuallybeen threatened by finding Caryon the couch...It probably confirmed Ryan’s faith in Shiloh’s chastity.
Shiloh wasn’t going to renegotiate the overnight agreement; she couldn’t trust Ryan’s judgment. The kind of guy who would introduce his girlfriends tohis wifedidn’t get to set the terms thereafter.
Thirty-Seven
Shiloh texted Cary the next day, Sunday afternoon.“thinking abt you + hoping you’re getting good news”
Cary texted back almost immediately.“She’s doing better than I expected. She’s talking—some.”
“that’s great, cary. i’m relieved to hear it!”
“Can I call you?”
“now?”
“Yeah. Or whenever.”
