Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 66516 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 333(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66516 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 333(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
“You weren’t a horrible husband, just an unfaithful one.” She lifted the bun, took off a tomato, and chewed on it. “Maybe you’ve turned a corner.”
More like spun in mental circles. “Well, now that you’ll have more time to yourself, you can start dating,” Jason said. “Maybe the no-arm-movement guy is still interested.”
“I’ve spent the last fifteen years focused on other people, and you think I’ll take what little free time I can get and spend it on someone else?” She shook her head. “No way. I don’t need a date. I want to read a book or take a bath or maybe learn pottery.” She sighed wistfully. “There’s a woman in my office who makes lovely vases. I wonder if there’s room in the studio where she takes classes.”
“Sounds like no-arm-movement guy is out of luck.”
She nodded and continued eating her lunch.
“It’s sad,” Jason said. “With his condition, getting a date seems particularly critical.”
“His condition?”
“If he can’t get good range of motion in either arm and nobody will help him out, how’s he supposed to—” Jason raised his hand and moved it up and down in a mimic of masturbation.
Nearly choking on her food, Angela coughed, pulled the straw out of her glass, and gulped her soda. “You’re horrible,” she said. But she was smiling and laughing, so he knew their earlier disagreement was over and he’d been forgiven.
“Ange?”
“Yes?”
“Thank you for”—the list was too ridiculously long to name, and he had no idea where to start—“everything.”
“You’re welcome.”
Satisfied with the resolution, Jason focused on his food.
“So,” Angela said.
Looking up from his plate warily, Jason said, “What?”
“I know you don’t have range of motion issues, but is your, uh, boyfriend taking care of your needs well?”
“Are you asking me about my sex life?”
“Hey, you introduced the topic,” she said, waving a french fry around.
“In a general joking sort of way. Not as part of an actual conversation.”
“So, what? You’re shy all of a sudden? Those pictures I used to find on your phone were the furthest thing possible from a shy courtship.”
Wincing at the memory of Angela holding up his phone and yelling about the chats he’d had setting up places and times to meet men for a quick fuck, Jason looked down at his plate.
“Okay, fine.” She sighed. “I thought maybe we’d gotten there, but I see we haven’t.”
“Gotten where?” Jason asked hesitantly.
She took a bite of her sandwich, wiped the sides of her lips with her napkin, and said, “Friendship.”
“We’re friends,” Jason said in surprise. “We’ve always been friends.”
“I know. I know. But I meant friends friends, you know?”
“Uh, no, I don’t.”
“Our friendship is amazing in the land of Divorceville, but it’s not like we talk as openly as I do with my girlfriends.”
“That’s because I’m a man,” Jason pointed out.
“Which means that you can’t manage to string a sentence together or that you don’t have sex?”
“Do you have a point or are you insulting me for sport again?”
“I never insult you for sport,” she denied.
Jason arched his eyebrows skeptically and popped a piece of salmon into his mouth.
“I don’t,” she insisted. “It’s just a happy little side effect of most of our conversations.”
“If your goal is to get me to talk more rather than less, you’re moving in the wrong direction.”
“Forget it.” Angela picked at the bun. “I’m fine with our awesome divorce friendship.”
Saying she was fine meant she wasn’t fine. That was one of the first things Jason had learned as a married man. Normally, he would have waited for the topic to change or for Angela to bounce back and move on. But after their discussion that day, he realized he owed her more than he could repay. She had been raising his children essentially on her own for five years. Who was he kidding? She had been raising them essentially on her own since they were born.
“Why do you want to hear about my sex life?” Jason asked resignedly.
“Because it’s important to you.” Angela looked at him, her gaze full of sincerity. “I don’t know if we would have ended up getting married if I hadn’t gotten pregnant, but I like to think we would have stayed friends and then you wouldn’t have had to hide so much and maybe….” She sighed. “We used to laugh together all the time, remember? And we told each other about problems with classes and with our families. You confided in me about things that mattered.”
He considered what she said for a few moments and then forced himself to set aside his well-honed habit of deflecting and hiding. “Since December, my sex life has been pretty different.” He cleared his throat. “That’s when things got more”—he tried to think of the right word—“stable with Abe.”
“Different how?” Angela asked interestedly. “Less exciting?”
“No.” Jason thought about Abe begging for him, riding him, sucking him down. His dick hardened and his breath caught. “It’s plenty exciting. I meant it’s been different for me to be with the same guy and nobody else.”