Page 77 of The Husband Diet
‘Really? Since when?’
‘Ever since you fell off the chair in my office.’
Wow. And to think I even had a stuffy nose that day, on top of that horribly thick brown dress and that awful coat. But I needed to believe this whole wonderful Julian thing was true.
What would happen now to Julian’s spontaneous ‘I love you’ when I started snoring or thrashing around like, as Ira was often fond of saying, a pig on a spit? That would certainly be the last of him. And then what would happen tomy‘I love you’? I wasn’t wasting any of those on a man again. At least not until I was good and ready. Until I knew for sure where he stood and how far he would come with me. Literally.
But for now, I’d enjoy the sex and try not to fall asleep at work. It was going to be a long life of sleepless nights if Julian and I were going to be doing this on a regular basis. For once in my life, sleepless nights were a good thing.
‘What are you thinking?’ he whispered into the hollow of my collarbone.
I hesitated. Did Julian need to know everything that passed through my mind? Probably not. But the mistake I’d made with Ira was that he knew nothing of my thoughts, nor I of his. I’d find a happy medium this time, however long (or short) this relationship lasted.
‘You really don’t want to know.’
‘I do if it’s bothering you,’ he answered softly.
‘I was thinking about… my sleeping habits. I’m a real earthquake.’
I felt him grin against my neck as he pulled me closer. ‘I wouldn’t worry about it. I sleep like a log.’
‘No, I mean it. I talk in my sleep.’
‘So do I.’
‘You do?’
‘Real long monologues. It was time I had someone to have a chat with.’
I grinned. ‘Ira didn’t like to chat in bed. He’d always fall asleep when I talked to him.’ A bit too much information?
‘That won’t be a problem seeing that you and I are both perfectly capable of continuing our conversation in our sleep,’ he said, his voice mirthful.
‘Silly,’ I whispered.
‘Tell you what. Whichever one of us falls asleep first has to do the dishes the next evening. How does that sound?’
‘Like a dream,’ I grinned, caressing his chest.
*
The next day, as I helped my aunts do some prep work during a brief visit to the restaurant, I filled them in on Julian, minus the sex, obviously.
‘It’s a sign.’ Zia Maria leaned into me as I helped her dice red peppers for tonight’s special, caponata.
‘Absolutely,’ Zia Martina chimed in, lifting her face from the sink she was happily scrubbing away at. ‘Now she can finally think about her own life with Julian.’
‘Will you two stop it?’ said Zia Monica as she came into the back kitchen and dropped her bag on a bench then stormed into the pantry. ‘If she’s not ready, she’s not ready.’
‘What’s eating you?’ I asked as she whooshed by.
‘Monica’s in love,’ Zia Martina teased, and my eyebrows shot up. ‘Major crush on Father Frank.’
I poured the peppers into the pan with frying onions and potatoes, ready to add the capers. ‘Father Frank? You’re kidding?’
‘I wish I were,’ Zia Martina said. ‘She’s been miserable for a while now.’
Both sisters shrugged.
