Page 50 of Heat Advisory

An hour later, I called him to show him the supplies I had gotten for the wedding, and he sat on his couch and pretended to care about all of it, even though I knew the details of the wedding made no difference to him at all.

He shifted on the couch, and something caught my eye as he turned.

“What… What is that on your table?” I asked, squinting to see better.

It looked like a statue of a man, but with plants.

“Huh?” He turned his head toward the table to see what I was referring to and then started to laugh. “Oh, that’s my lazy guy planter.”

The confused look on my face must have said more than words ever could.

“It’s a pot that looks like a statue of a man with one pot on his head for hair, and another small pot between his legs, where I put a cactus so it looks like a dick.” He pointed at the respective pot as he spoke with a grin.

Yep… That was exactly what I’d thought and exactly what it looked like.

“The guys at the firehouse got it for me for my birthday,” he said, grinning from ear to ear.

“What a…umm…lovely gift,” I said, trying to keep a straight face.

“I’d been thinking about getting a pet, but a wise woman once told me that I should start with a cactus,” he said, and memories of our tutoring conversations flooded me.

He remembered.

“I asked Blake because he’s actually really good at gardening and shit, and the next thing I knew the guys bought me the pot and the plants to go in it with a note that said ‘Happy Birthday. Don’t fuck this up.’”

We both laughed, but I also couldn’t help smiling at the fact that he remembered a single conversation from so long ago.

We then went on to chat about anything and everything under the sun. Just like all the other times we’d done this, time flew by, and after two hours of chatting, I was exhausted.

“Okay, it’s time for me to head to bed. I need to get my pajamas on,” I told him.

“You can do that on FaceTime. I don’t mind.” A greedy, wicked smirk played about his face.

I chuckled a little and shook my head. “Goodnight, Jay.”

He sighed dramatically. “Fine. I’ll just have to use my imagination. Goodnight, Cora.”

We hung up, and I thought about him using his imagination to picture me. I smiled, wondering what he would do with that knowledge.

I kept smiling as I brushed my teeth, changed, and climbed into bed. Then I fell asleep using my own imagination of what Jay would look like getting undressed and into his pajamas.

I slept well. And had even better dreams.

I woke to the sound of my phone buzzing incessantly. After a few moments, I reached over to see that the text thread with my sisters was blowing up.

Hazel:

Nigel just threw a scallop at me.

Anna:

Who is Nigel?

Hazel:

Our new octopus.

Iris: