- Aiden -
he couldn’t even look at me.
I hated to make her squirm, but I kinda loved it, too. She always acted so tough, so controlled. It was fun to see her lose it, and the shade of pink her cheeks turned filled my mind with all kinds of inappropriate thoughts.
“You okay?” I asked.
She was entirely focused on her ice cream. “Fine.”
“Does it bother you when I say stuff like that?”
She pushed a piece of hair out of her face. “I wouldn’t say it bothers me.”
“What would you say?”
She shrugged. “I’m just not used to it. I mean, I suspected you were a bit full on, being such a conceited jock and all, but-”
“Hey!” I said. “I am not conceited.”
“Maybe that’s not the right word.”
“Cocky, perhaps, but not conceited."
She sighed, getting the joke.
I furrowed my brows. “Sorry. Please continue.”
“It’s just that you just come on all strong with your muscles and your hair and your eyes and your dimple-”
I smiled and shook my head to the side, as if I had the kind of flowy hair that could be whipped.
She rolled her eyes. “And then you say all these sexually suggestive comments and-”
“And what?”
“I’m not used to it.”
“You better get used to it,” I said. “Besides, surely other guys come on strong when they like you.”
“I guess, but even then I have a hard time taking them seriously.”
“So how long does it usually take then? For you to take a guy seriously?”
“When he says he likes me?”
I nodded.
“I don’t know yet.”
“What do you mean you don’t know yet?”
“I mean, I don’t think most guys really know what they want so their flattery doesn’t usually hold much weight with me.”
“I thought everybody knew what guys wanted.”
“Exactly,” she said, taking a bite of her waffle cone. “But most guys pretend they want more.”
“Whoa whoa whoa.” I raised my hand. “I had no idea you were such an expert. Please enlighten me.”
“What do you want to know?”
“What is it that guys pretend they want?”
She pursed her lips. “Well, I guess a lot of them- or at least the ones I’ve met recently- pretend they want someone to snuggle and play house with, someone they can commit to and build a future with.”
I nodded slowly. “Okay, and what is it that they actually want?”
She looked around and then fixed her eyes on me. “Blow jobs.”
Her comment took me by surprise so much that I almost choked on my ice cream. When I finally stopped coughing, my eyes were watering, and I wiped them with the back of my hand. “I see.”
Lucy cocked her head. “Do you disagree?”
I parted my lips to speak-
“You don’t have to answer that. I already know where you stand on this.”
I raised my eyebrows. “What?! What are you talking about? Where do I stand?”
She broke a bite off her cone and covered her mouth while she spoke. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but a woman’s ability to give a good blow job has probably been your number one dating criteria for the last- I don’t know- five years? Maybe longer?”
I shook my head. “That is not true.”
She squinted at me. “No?”
I clenched my jaw.
“What else are you looking for then?”
“Someone I can have an intelligent conversation with, someone who makes me laugh.”
“But you’d settle for someone who gave good blow jobs.”
“No I wouldn’t.”
“So if we continued doing whatever this is-” she pointed back and forth between us. “But I couldn’t give a blow job to save my life-”
“Anyone could give a blowjob to save their life. Haven’t you seen those prison documentaries?”
She rolled her eyes. “Seriously, Aiden, maybe I really suck at giving blow jobs?”
“I hope you do and hard while you’re at it.”
“Come on, I’m trying to have a serious conversation about blow jobs here.”
“And I’m seriously interested.”
“I guess I just don’t really understand what you see in me when your last few girlfriends were complete twigs who ate nothing but dick.”
“Wow. You liked ‘em all that much, huh?”
She shrugged. “I mean, they weren’t that bad. I don’t mean to be unfair. I’m sure they had nice qualities that I failed to recognize, but I don’t have anything in common with any of them.”
“That’s what I like best about you.”
“The fact that I’m soft all over and won’t suck your dick just to get access to your credit card?”
“No.”
“What is it then?”
I looked around and leaned forward. “The fact that you’re sexy as hell and will suck my dick anyway.”
She gasped. “That’s very presumptuous of you.”
I shrugged. “Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want you to do anything until you’re ready, but I saw your face on Saturday night. It’s only a matter of time.”
She turned red again and tried to make a face like she was pouting, but her guilty smile still shone through. “You’ve basically just proved my point.”
“What point?”
“That that’s all you or any guy is after.”
“I have to disagree with you there. What were the other things most guys pretend to want?”
“Snuggling, commitment, a future together.”
“Can I be perfectly honest with you?” I asked.
“If you must.”
“I’m not going to pretend that there aren’t things higher on my list than snuggling.”
“Obviously.”
“But as far as being committed to you and hoping you’ll be a part of my future, I’m way past wanting those things. If anything, I’d say you can basically take those things for granted.”
She popped the bottom of her cone in her mouth and crossed her arms while she chewed.
I rolled my eyes up to the sky but The Gelateria’s awning got in the way. “In fact, besides my family, there’s no one I’m more committed or tied to than you.”
She swallowed her last bite and grabbed a paper napkin out of the dispenser on the table. “I guess we do go way back.”
“Way back,” I said.
“And you think seeing each other like we did on Saturday is worth risking everything we’ve had up to now?”
I shrugged. “I think it’s too late.”
“And if it weren’t?”
“Wouldn’t you always wonder?”
She rubbed the back of her neck.
“I don’t know about you, but I always wondered what it would be like to hook up. Ya know, in the back of my mind. Didn’t you?”
“I suppose so.”
I nodded. “Glad you chose the stracciatella?”
“Yeah.”
I smiled. “Want to swing by my place for dessert?”
“What time is it?” she asked, pulling out her phone. Her face dropped. “I can’t.”
“Why?”
“I promised Fiona I would do her hair for her date tonight.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
“Isn’t she a stylist? Can’t she do her own hair?”
Lucy shook her head. “Not really. It’s like how dentists don’t clean their own teeth, ya know?”
I stood up and pushed my chair in. “I guess. Who’s she going out with?”
“Peter, the children’s hospital guy.”
“Damn. So he’s a keeper?”
“Yeah. Or at least he’s her first Tinder match who isn’t a total douche bag.”
I sighed.
“Rain check?”
“Sure,” I said, walking over to open the car door for her while she threw her napkins in the trash.
“You don’t have to open the door for me.”
“And you don’t have to make me so damn hard, but you do anyway.”
“Jesus,” she said, rolling her eyes and taking a seat in the car.
“Hey,” I said, turning to her when I got in beside her. “Maybe you could do Claire’s hair for her wedding seeing as how you’re in such high demand.”
Lucy’s eyes grew wide. “I’m so sorry. I should’ve offered. I just figured she already had somebody picked out and Nancy approved.”
“If she doesn’t, would you do it?”
“Of course,” she said. “Please tell her I would be happy to, and not that it matters, but it would save her some money.”
I started the car. “I’m sure she would pay you.”
“Absolutely not. She can pay me in free drinks afterwards.”
“That can definitely be arranged.”
Lucy was quiet on the way home, but warm, too, much like the summer evening.
I pulled in across from her building. “Shame you don’t have more time.”
“Next time we’ll skip the ice cream,” she said, batting her eyelashes.
I reached across the console and rested my palm against her cheek. “Deal,” I said, leaning in and pressing my lips to hers. I kissed her softly, letting my sugar coated tongue drift into her mouth for a taste of her that could hold me over till next time.
When I finally pulled back, her eyes were shiny and she bit her lip. “Maybe I should forget about Fiona.”
“Oh no you don’t,” I said. “I’ll never hear the end of it.”
She smiled. “Thanks.”
I reached into the backseat. “And don’t forget your flowers.”
She put her hands around the plastic covered bouquet and got out of the car. Then she waved at me with her fingers as she crossed the street, still smiling as she looked away.
And I couldn’t believe it.
I hadn’t even gotten lucky, and I still felt like the luckiest guy in the world.