“Fast?” Kayla says amusedly, pulling her sleeves over her hands to get warmer as the light breeze picks up. “More of a light speed sort of thing.”
Panda scoots even closer to me. “I’m so happy for you.”
I hug her back in response.
“I don’t see myself ever living with a guy.” The musing comes from my sister. “I swear, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to. I’m not willing to give a hundred percent of myself to anyone but you guys!”
Panda straightens up and turns to Vicky. “Maybe because you don’t give them more than a, what is it? A couple of month’s chance before you set them free.”
“No, but sharing a space. Having someone with you all the time,” Vicky resumes her line of commitment protest. “I for one could never use the toilet when my guy is in the room.”
I nod at Vicky. “You mean with you in the bathroom? Of course not! I also rather do my business with no audience. That’s a given.”
“I don’t mind peeing when Jonathan brushes his teeth,” Pandora says, her attention on her rod as she flips the bail back a little then reels a couple of times, disregarding mine and my sister’s amused frowns.
“You also don’t call him by his mother-loving birth name so you’re not an example.” That’s Kayla.
Vicky then clarifies, “No, I mean, door locked, and the guy is outside the room. I don’t want him there either.”
“That’s bonkers,” Kayla volleys. “What do you do then? Muster up a whole guerilla plan to go wee-wee?”
Vicky takes another rich sip of wine and raises her glass at us, declaring, “Another unpopular opinion in 3,2,1. . . I won’t move in with anyone before he understands that if he wants a future with me it won’t be the traditional one. No wedding, and surely no kids.”
I don’t react. I know my sister’s shticks, so this is not news to me. It pains me though; I know where it is coming from – not from a good place. My friends, however, chorus in unison: “Really?”
It’s Kayla who then adds, “You do want a partner, boyfriend eventually, right?”
Vicky shrugs indifferently. “I’ve been around; met some amazing guys, but as far as the offering goes, I don’t see myself settling down with anyone.”
Panda, bless her sweet romantic spirit, says, “Until the right one comes along.”
Vicky shakes her head, emitting confidence. “I’ve dated princes, believe me. I just don’t see myself willing to compromise anything for anyone. Not to mention, not many men will be okay with going the unpopular no kids in the future journey. People that don’t want the traditional thing are rare at the end of the day when real feelings are revealed.”
Panda shivers a little and turns to button her jacket. She eyes Vicky. “You really don’t want kids?”
Vicky thinks. “No, I don’t believe that I do.” She then shines a smile at us. “I promise to be the awesomest Godmother to your kids though.”
Once again, I find myself listening with half an ear. Once again, I find myself thinking about my boyfriend. My features soften into contentment as I think about the e-mail, not text, the e-mail he sent me earlier.
Hey you,
I know, we talked just 5 minutes ago but I can’t stop thinking about you, and have these conversations with you in my head, so I thought I’d go back to our old deeds . . . The good ol’ days when I tried to charm you with my wit. I wonder if I’m getting Anna points for this one. And here, just a thought, how about we move on from Anna points to a new reward system. I have a few fantastic suggestions. For instance, there are those sex coupon things, just putting it out there, if you need ideas.
I smiled at that, and thought to myself, boy, all you have to do is be present. Believe me, you won’t need coupons. What you’ll need is a taser . . . to keep me away.
So, I’m sitting here, reading a fascinating article on training to identify red flags in the acute care of trauma: who are the patients at risk for early death despite a relatively good prognosis? and eating . . . kale and quinoa salad! Which leads me to cordially demand of you to stop ninja mind tricking me into consuming all these healthy, tasteless foods. They had BLT sandwiches and I took the salad!
Oh, how happy that made me for two and a half seconds till I read further. But then I just laughed. The tease.
Okay, just kidding. I would never do that. Unless it’ll earn more of those, coupons points! I think that I’m onto a promising reward system here, what do you say? (The BLT is divine, btw.)
So, it’s been more than amazing to sleep next to you recently, but I can’t wait to actually get the conscious version of you. Not that I didn’t immensely enjoy your little charming snores, but still. And before you start, waking you up at ungodly hours will never happen, even if you insist. Ever!
Can’t wait to see you awake, responsive, and receptive,
Liam
“Ground rule, I licked it, so it’s mine.”
Just the thought of him, and his flirtatious email, and the fact that he wrote me one. The smile on my face seems to never leave these days.
“Ouch!” My hand flies to my forehead. Startled, I look at my friends. My sister’s malicious little cheeky smile confirms I found the culprit.
“What did you do that for?” I rub my forehead, soothing it from the impact with the tiny pebble my moron sister threw at me.
Grinning, she says, “You’re doing it again, you freak. Just go home and jump his bones already. You’re no use to us here anyway when you’re miles away.”
Panda and Kayla nod with matching smiles. “We’ll love you anyway, go on then sweetie,” Panda says with a whole lot of amusement. “Go, go ahead and climb your boyfriend like the handsome physician timber that he is.”
“I wish,” I say and immediately correct myself. “I mean, not wish to ditch you guys. I mean, I wish he were home. He’ll be back tomorrow. Anyhow, I’m your driver tonight, you clowns.”
My friends’ smiles only widen when I conclude with an audible yawn that I manage to cut only after it was well heard.
“Anna!” Kayla yells, her eyes on the water. “Your bobber . . . ”
I cut my eyes to the water where the bobber sinks and pops right back only to sink again. I point the rod tip up and pull back with moderate pressure. All eyes are on my efforts to pull out of the water whatever I caught. When I finally manage to pull it out, we all break into laughter. On the tip of the string linked to my hunched rod, is what appears to be a soggy diaper.
“If that’s not an omen to not having babies, I don’t know what is,” Vicky murmurs.
Kayla snorts with merriment. “If that’s not a sign to call it a night, I don’t know what is.”
Panda rubs her hands over her arms, doing a little warm-up jig. “It is getting cold uh? Yeah, let’s just go home.”
About twenty-five minutes later, after dropping off Panda and then Kayla, I bring the car to a halt at Vicky’s apartment building. She turns to me, “You sure you don’t want to sleep over?”