Page 31 of A Wife's Duty

Frank laughed. “Don’t worry. Amy knows all about my past and the fact that I only slept with prostitutes. I was clean. I got all the relevant tests and stuff.”

No one had ever talked to her this openly before, it was crazy and exciting, and she loved that he could do that for her.

“Anyway, thank you for the coffee.”

Lucia nodded. “Thank you for teaching me how to make it.”

“No problem. I can’t believe they don’t allow you to learn stuff. Although I’m not surprised. If you started to learn, the men couldn’t control you, could they?” he asked.

She couldn’t argue with him, and instead made her way into the kitchen. Picking up her coffee mug, she blew across the surface and took a sip.

The brochures looked very boring. There were so many choices, and she didn’t even know where to start. Glancing back toward Frank, she decided to stand with him.

“So, if you had the opportunity to go back to college, what would you like to study?” Lucia asked.

Frank laughed. “You have too much choice?”

“Just a smidge.” She held one hand up with her finger and thumb close together. “What would you decide?”

“Simple for me, I simply wouldn’t go back. It’s not something I’m interested in, nor do I care about it.”

“You don’t?”

“Life has taught me everything I know. There is only so much you can learn from a textbook. Sure, it can tell you the facts about shit—science and all that crap—but what can it tell you about life? Nothing. You’ve got to learn to live if you want to make it through.”

“Live?”

“Yeah, you’ve got to learn how to take every moment and opportunity and just go with it. No holding back. The whole ‘no takebacks’ and all that shit. Books are great, don’t get me wrong. They tell some amazing stories, and if I ever dismissed a good book, my wife would kill me. She is a serious book lover of romance, through and through, with the occasional murder mystery.”

Amy sounded like a nice woman, a good woman.

“Is there nothing you would study?”

“No, I know everything I need to know. There is nothing I’m missing. What about you?”

“I have no idea,” Lucia said. “There is so much to learn.”

“Yeah, but the real question is, do you want to?”

Lucia nodded. “I do.”

“Then it should be easy.”

“I just don’t know what I want to learn.” She took another sip of her coffee.

“Then start small,” Frank said. “Start with something you can’t get enough of.”

She went to ask him more questions but at that moment, Boone stepped into the apartment.

“Evening, Sir,” Frank said.

“You all right, Frank?” Boone asked.

Frank finished his coffee. “Delicious. Have a good evening. Bye, Lucia.”

And with that, he was gone.

“You don’t mind that I made him coffee, do you?”

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