sister. Way to go.”
“I figured it was time,” Mary said. “So I went out and I found someone.”
“Weren’t you worried about … disease?” I shuddered a little. “Or … anything?”
“She made him wear a condom.” Claire waved a fry. “Bet you ten bucks.”
“Of course I made him wear a condom,” Mary muttered. “I’m not an idiot.”
“Well, I’m just surprised, that’s all.” I didn’t mean to sound disapproving. I wasn’t, not really. Losing her virginity to a stranger was probably no worse than my giving it up to the high school boy I mistakenly thought loved me. At least Mary had gone into it without romantic expectations.
“Spill it. Was it good?”
Mary shrugged, looking down. Her phone begged for attention again, but she ignored it. “Sure. Yeah.”
“You’re not convincing me.” Claire nudged her.
Mary laughed. “Yeah. It was good. He was pretty hot. And I guess … he was good.”
“What, you guess? You don’t know? If you don’t know for sure, Mare, it can’t have been that good.”
“Why are we getting sex advice from you, I want to know.” I pressed down the top bun of my overstuffed burger, and juice puddled on the plate. I was going to eat the whole thing, I just knew it, even if I’d regret it the next time I got on the scale.
Claire shrugged and dug into her coleslaw. “Because I’ve had the most sex. Duh.”
“Duh.” Mary laughed. “I wouldn’t brag about that, if I were you.”
“I’m not bragging, just being honest. Geez. What I want to know is, how come you all have such a puritanical attitude toward fucking and I don’t. How’d that happen?”
I laughed. “I don’t have a puritanical attitude toward fucking, Claire.”
She gave me a look. “Oh, really? What’s the kinkiest thing you ever did?”
Silence.
“I thought so.”
A triumphant, smug younger sister is quite annoying. I threw a fry at her. She ate it with aplomb and licked her fingers.
“It’s not about the kink,” Mary said. “Gosh, just because we haven’t let anyone tie us up or spank us doesn’t make us prudes.”
Claire laughed, tipping back her head. “Oh, please. These days, spanking’s almost vanilla.”
“What’s the freakiest thing you’ve ever done, then?” I asked calmly, turning the tables.
Claire shrugged. “Cutting.”
Mary and I both recoiled. “Claire, gross!”
She laughed. “Gotcha.”
“Gross,” Mary repeated, looking sickened. “People do that?”
“People do everything,” Claire said matter of factly.
“I’d never let anyone cut me,” said Mary.
Claire pointed with a fry. “You never know what you’ll do for the right person, Mare. Never say never.”
Mary scoffed. “I can’t imagine there could possibly be a right person who’d get me to agree to cutting.”
“Maybe not cutting, but sure as hell it would be something,” Claire said. “Love is some messed up shit.”
“I thought you didn’t believe in love,” said Mary.
“Goes to show what you know,” answered Claire. “I do.”
“Me, too,” I said. We raised our glasses and clinked. “To love. All kinds.”
“Oooh,” said Claire. “Anne is kinky, after all.”
Chapter 03
“So. Tell me about him.” I said this to James as we lay in bed, the covers thrown off us in deference to the heatwave that was too fierce for early June. The overhead fan whirred, stirring air brought in from the lake, but I was still hot.
“Who?” James sounded sleepy. He had to get up early to hit the job site.
“Alex.”
James made a muffled, snorting sort of noise into his pillow. “What do you want to know?”
I stared upward, into darkness, and imagined stars. “What’s he like?”
James was silent for so long I was certain he’d fallen asleep. At last, he rolled onto his back. I couldn’t see his face, but I pictured it as he spoke.
“He’s a good guy.”
What did that mean? I rolled onto my side, facing him. Between us, heat stirred. Reaching out, I could have touched him, but I tucked my hand beneath my pillow instead and found a cool spot on the sheets.
“He’s smart. He’s …”
I waited but couldn’t stand the hesitation. “Funny? Nice?”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
I sighed. “You’ve been friends since what, the eighth grade?”
“Yeah.” He no longer sounded sleepy. He sounded like he wanted to be sleepy.
“So … you have to have more to say about him than he’s smart and a good guy. C’mon, James. What’s Alex like?”
“He’s like the lake.”
“Tell me.”
James shifted, the bed dipping as he moved and tugged the covers with his feet. “Alex is … he’s deep, Anne. But he’s shallow in places, too, when you don’t expect it. I guess that’s the only way to put it.”
I pondered this for a moment. “That’s a very interesting description.”
James didn’t say anything. I heard him breathing. I felt his breath on my face. I felt the heat from his skin, inches from mine. We weren’t touching but I felt him all over me, just the same.
“Okay, how about this? Alex seems easy to know.”
“But he’s not?”
James drew in a breath. Let it out. Took another, a slow, easy pattern that nevertheless didn’t sound relaxed. “No. I’d say not.”
“But you know him? I mean, you were best buddies for a long time, right?”
He
