“What gave us away?” Leah asked.
“I’m… not sure. I can just tell.”
“Are you always right? I mean, have you ever thought someone was, but they really weren’t?”
“I don’t know. I… um… don’t usually ask.”
“No, I guess not,” Leah said with a laugh. “It isn’t something you just come right out and say.”
Christy glanced furtively at me. “Can we change the subject, please?” She raised her wine cooler and added, “At least until I’ve had a few more of these?” In an even smaller voice she said, “Like, about a dozen.”
“Sure,” I chuckled, “no problem.”
“Sorry,” Leah said. “Sometimes we forget what it’s like for new people.”
“We can talk about something else, sure,” Erin added.
“Yes, please.”
“So, Mark,” Erin said to him, “when do you leave for Seattle?”
“The 27th. My dad’s in Hawaii with his girlfriend, so we’re going to celebrate when they get back. After that, we’re…”
“Are you all right?” I asked Christy in a low voice.
She nodded and took another drink. “I’ll be fine. My family doesn’t…
you know… talk about sex. Not in mixed company, at least.”
I arched an eyebrow.
“Well, the women do. Of course. Sometimes it’s all they ever talk about.
But never with the men around.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s private. Between a man and a woman.”
“But you just said—”
“Don’t use logic against me. My family’s just different. Okay?”
“You’re right.”
“I like your family,” she added quietly, “but they take some getting used to.”
“Fair enough.”
She drained the last of her cooler and handed me the empty bottle. “Just keep giving me these and I’ll be fine.”
I handed over my mostly-full bottle.
“Thank you. And before you say it… I know, you want me to be able to talk about this stuff without being tipsy. Well, baby steps. I’ll get there. But for now…” She raised the bottle and took a drink, albeit a moderate one.
Then a thought occurred to her and her brow creased. “Hold on… do I have to be sober later? If we want to… you know? Tell me now and I’ll stop.”
“No, we’re good,” I said with a chuckle. Then I grinned. “So… you like fellatio more than alcohol?”
“Oh my gosh, yes!”
“Hold on,” Leah said from across the tub, “did I hear someone say
‘fellatio’?”
Christy turned pink and hid her face in my shoulder.
“Guilty,” I said. “Sorry. We were talking about boyfriend-girlfriend stuff.”
“I should hope so,” Leah teased. “I mean, imagine if you talked about fellatio with just anyone.”
“Exactly,” Mark said. “World peace might break out.”
Her jaw dropped. “What?”
“Hey, guys who’re getting a blowjob are pretty happy. They don’t hijack airliners or bomb shit. I’m just saying… Maybe if Yasser Arafat got his dick sucked once in a while, peace might break out in the Middle East.”
“Are you serious?” Leah said. “That’s your solution to the Middle East conflict? Blowjobs for everyone? It’s a lot more complicated than that! For one thing, the Israelis…”
I lifted Christy’s chin until she met my eyes. Relax, I told her with a look.
She nodded. Then she took a sip of wine cooler.
“Better?” I asked softly.
“Yes, sir.”
“Good. ’Cause you aren’t gonna last ten minutes if you keep getting
embarrassed every time we talk about sex. Never mind ten years…”
“I know.” She stiffened as my words sank in. Then she looked up. “Ten years…?”
“Oh, at least,” I said. “Forever, if you play your cards right.”
“Yes, please.” She smiled dreamily. Then she kissed my neck and sighed as she felt my penis stiffen under her. “Mmm… someone approves.”
“Of course. He has very simple desires.”
“He just wants to be loved.”
“Long and often.”
“Mmm, long…”
“Are you all talking about sex again?” Erin said.
Christy squeaked and buried her face.
“Sorry, my fault,” I said. “Again.”
“Well,” Erin continued, “I’m ready for another round of shots. Then we can talk about sex all you like.” She turned to Leah. “Okay if I steal Mark?”
“He’s all yours.”
Erin stood and gestured for him to follow. They climbed out of the hot tub and grabbed a couple of towels from the stack she’d brought out earlier.
Leah watched them go and then returned her attention to us.
“I’m really curious about this sixth sense of yours,” she said to Christy.
“Is it like a light bulb? Some kind of alarm bell? Or just a feeling?”
“I don’t know,” Christy said. “I never really thought about it. I just…
know.”
“It has to be something. I wonder what it is that makes you so sensitive.
You’re bi too, aren’t you?”
Christy shot me an alarmed look, but Leah had already moved on.
“Maybe it’s ’cause you have some kind of radar,” she mused, “that only works on people like you. Like us, really. But I can’t tell if someone else is.
Erin’s even worse than I am, especially in the clue department. She isn’t as bad as Paul, but sometimes I wonder…”
“I’m especially slow on the uptake,” I told Christy.
“You keep saying that,” she said, “but I think it’s really a smokescreen.”
“Really?” Leah said, already on the trail of a new story. “What makes you say that?”
“’Cause he knows so much about me, without being told.” She shot me an accusatory look. “You can read my mind.”
“Maybe he simply pays attention to you,” Leah said. “Most guys just look
at us—women, I mean—and try to figure out how to get us into bed.”
“He already knows how,” Christy muttered.
“Well, that’s what I mean. He pays attention to you.”
“Gosh, does he!”
“And maybe that’s why he can read your mind.”
“You do the same to me,” I said to Christy.
“I do not!”
“Sure you do.” I grinned. “You can always tell when I’m horny.”
“That’s easy. Are you breathing? Then you’re… you know.”
“I know the word,” Leah stage-whispered to her. “You can say it.”
“Sorry. I’m still getting used to how much everyone here talks about sex.”
“I understand. It’s okay.”
“Horny,” Christy said. “See?”
“Good for you!” I said.
“Don’t patronize her, Paul. She isn’t a child. She simply wasn’t raised like we were.”
“You’re right. Sorry.”
“It’s all right. I’m used to it,” Christy said. Then she brightened. “If you get me another wine cooler, I’ll say a few more naughty words.”
“Which ones?”
“Uh-uh. Not until you hand me the drink.”
“Right!” I stretched out an arm and managed to snag the cardboard four-pack. I twisted the cap off a bottle and handed it to Christy before I opened one for myself.
“Penis,” she said after a drink. “Erection.”
“Dick,” I teased. “Hard-on.”
“You have your words, I have mine,” she said primly.
“Fair enough. Any other words you’d like to, ahem, get off your chest?”
“Tits!”
Leah laughed. “You have really nice ones, by the way.”
“Thank you. Yours too.” Christy looked down at her own. “I just wish they were bigger.”
“Don’t we all?”
“See?” she said to me. “I told you, guys like girls with bigger boobs.”
“And I told you,” I said, “I like the ones I can touch, which means yours.”
“You can touch hers too. They’re right there.”
Leah grinned and stuck out her chest.