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“Agreed.” Fucking glorious.
“Your voice. We’re finding crossover time. This is torture, thinking we weren’t even going to talk until November 9th. Let’s stop being naïve.”
Her words come out raspy and wanton. “I thought we were toughing it out.”
“New plan. We meet in airport lounges, hotels, or rest stops to hold hands or just wave from vehicles. We fuck any moment we can find. We make this happen AND do our jobs. I can’t do mine like this, but I can do it if I have you under me occasionally.”
She sighs. And then my phone pings a text.
TESS: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/r?tb=oc
I merge our calendars. “We’re talking later. I’m making something happen.”
“Do tell.”
“Tallahassee’s a touchpoint for us. Let me see if I can move an interview and our podcast show this Friday. I’ll meet you there. Let’s see if this is just lust.”
“I’m speaking and signing at FSU. And eighteen if you’re keeping track. But I’m staying with a teacher friend of mine.”
I shake my head. “Silly woman. All those spare moments belong to me.”
“We’ve never woken up together before.” Shit, she’s right. I scroll my phone.
“Details on our calendar. How about the Diamond Suite at the Hotel Duval?”
“Is the stripper pole extra?” She laughs at her own joke.
“It’s included. We try this. We’ll fuck, talk, work, laugh, sleep, and screw again.”
“Agenda approved.” She sucks in her breath, and I want to bite her bottom lip.
“And really, someone is paying you $1800 to speak?” I joke.
“Add a zero.”
“Ferrari,” I joke.
“How about vacation after midterms?”
“I’m going to like having a sugar mama.” I’m stupid hard thinking about getting inside this brilliantly funny woman in two days.
She says way too breathy, “I’m going to make you work for it.” And then I send my very first dick pic. She squeals softly. “GTO or Testarossa?”
“Both.”
“I have to go. Someday this will be easier, right?” She uses the word she wrote in her note after our first night.
I say it back, “Someday.” Then we hang up.
I check the clock. Mikey will mock me relentlessly, but I don’t mind so much. I feel compelled to try. This feels different than my past, and I can’t wait to see if we can fit each other into our lives. Dear God, I hope I have room for her. Not sure how to make room, but here goes.
25
Alex
We finally went to sleep around three a.m. last night. My internal clock is so fucked. She made her big appearance this morning and showed me around the campus. After a day of beer in her college haunts, we wander around the tiny downtown. Just walking and talking, and it seems this is who we are and not our third date. Tomorrow I have a live theater taping. Pelosi’s appearing, and I should prep for the interview.
But now, as I lean over the table and look at Tess’s face in the restaurant’s ambient light, all I can think about is getting her back to the hotel.
