Page 22 of Love Resurrected
I wait until the coffee kicks in to video call Sadie.
“Hey, beautiful,” I say when she answers. She looks about as awake as I feel. “What’s the matter? Didn’t sleep?”
“No,” she groans. “Ethan is on a seventy-two-hour shift beginning this morning. So, we had to have sex all night, I’m exhausted.”
I roll my eyes as hard as I can into the camera. “Am I supposed to feel sorry for you?”
She laughs. “Sorry. Tell me again why you’re not having sex?”
“Fuck if I know at this point. I mean, it seemed like a good idea when I started it. Now, I’m not so sure.”
“Because it would make you mature or something, right?”
“Yes, I need to grow up. I’m thirty-five, for god’s sake. I should be thinking about monogamy or some such shit.”
“I can tell you’re excited by the idea.” She sips at her juice, having given up coffee for the pregnancy. A stupid idea, in my opinion. Surely the kid can handle a little buzz now and then.
“Maybe I’ll hit up one of those apps again this week.” It’s my preferred method of hook-ups over just meeting a guy at a bar which anymore seems kind of sleazy.
“What are you doing today?” she asks.
“The mayor called me this morning. She wants me to be the volunteer city program director for the first responder-slash-law enforcement recruitment drive in like, a month.”
“You sound as excited about that as you did monogamy.”
“I am. I mean, I enjoy volunteering, it keeps me busy and helps the community. I just wish I were doing things a little more hands-on, maybe? Like making cookies for kids in cancer wards.”
“You could still do that.”
“True. I just . . . I don’t know, I’m complaining about nothing. This is an important event and I’m happy to help plan it. We have a meeting about it later today. I get to meet the different departments’ liaisons and go over objectives.”
“Scintillating stuff. Hate to break it you to, Ten, but with such excitement in your life, it’s clear you’re already a grown-up. You just don’t realize it yet.”
“Ha. Great.” I finish my coffee and immediately pour another cup. “Why did you ask what I’m doing? What are you doing today?”
“I have zero plans. Wanted to take the birthday girl to lunch.”
“I keep forgetting it’s my birthday. Sorry, can I take a rain check?”
“Why, is your meeting all day?”
“No, I just . . . I don’t really feel like celebrating my birthday.”
“But you love your birthday!”
“Not anymore, I don’t. I’m old, Sadie-Soo.”
“You are not!”
“I am. And it’s not pretty.”
“If you’re old, then so am I.”
“You are. Except you’re about to have a baby, which automatically makes you younger.”
“How?”
“I don’t know, it’s like a reset on your average age or something, and yours gets to lower exponentially because of the baby.”
