Page 95 of Gone With the Wine

“What? Why not? If I like it, you should try it.”

“You don’t like it. You’re bullshitting me.”

She giggles. “Okay, I am. I used to subscribe to a newsletter that sent out new sex positions and that one was in it. I think it’s only done in porn movies.”

“You might be right.”

“Then there’s the snow angel. It looked okay for me—on my back, but you on top facing away.”

I squint, trying to picture it. “I can’t…the mechanics…”

“I know. I think it’s dangerous for the guy. You could break your penis. And we don’t want that.”

“We definitely don’t want that,” I reply fervently.

“I like your penis.”

“He likes you, too.”

She laughs again. “I noticed that!”

This is silly and probably illegal, but Christ, I’m having fun. My chest is filled with a lightness I haven’t felt for a long time and I think I could do anything right now. Catch light in a box. Slay zombies. Time travel. I don’t feel like a failure. I feel like I’ve won the Stanley Cup and solved climate change and the rise of fascism.

I fucking love feeling like this. And I fucking love being with the woman who does that for me.

On the way home,Bianca lays a hand on my arm. “Can I show you something?”

“You already did.” I smirk.

She giggles. “No. The cave.”

“Right. Yeah, I want to see it.”

She takes me to the Caparelli buildings and leads me through an old oak door and down a flight of stone stairs. She flicks on a light and a few dusty old bulbs flare to life and illuminate the space.

“Wow.” I look around, taking in the arched ceiling, the old bricks, and all the barrels. “I had no idea this was here.”

“I know.” She moves farther into the space. “It hasn’t been used for a long time. We came down here as kids but it was kind of creepy. I was fascinated by it, though. And look at this…” She walks down to the end of the cave. “These are the qvevris.”

She told me about her dream and hope to make the orange wine using these. It seems…dubious to me, but what do I know? I just loved listening to her talk about it with so much passion.

“I’ve been coming down here sometimes to think.” She gestures around. “It’s a nice, quiet place.”

“Except for the spiders.”

“Can you imagine what this would look like all cleaned up? I’ve dusted things a bit, but I think it would be gorgeous with the brick and the barrels cleaned and better lighting.”

“Oh yeah. It would be cool.”

“I’m sure this is another thing Rosa and I will disagree on.”

“You haven’t talked to her about it yet?”

“No.” I wrinkle my nose. “I know what she’ll say. We don’t have money to do anything with this. But I’m not saying we have to do it tomorrow! We don’t have any wine yet. I know what our priorities have to be. But this could be amazing in the future.”

He nods thoughtfully.

“We could have special events down here—it’s not huge, so not big weddings or anything, but special wine tasting events or private dinners.”

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