Page 32 of Imperfections Forbidden
He doesn’t want to talk about the only woman he let live with him.And I didn’t know he lived with her until he mentioned it.I wonder why?He had to have serious feelingd for her.No woman has ever gotten that close to him before.I’ll leave it alone for now, but I know she must have meant a lot more to him than he’ll admit.I wonder how much more.“Okay.What do you feel like eating?I was thinking about maybe Italian?”I rake my hand through his almost dry hair.
“Are you upset?”
“No.We don’t have to talk about her if you don’t want to.I’m not upset.Now, what are we going to eat?”
“If my girl wants Italian, we’re having Italian.”
After we eat the most extravagant takeout I’ve ever seen, complete with swan-shaped paper napkins, we decide to watch television lying on the couch, my back against his chest.As usual, we can’t decide what to watch.Nothing has changed there.He wants to watch Sunday night football, and I want to watch anything else.
“How is it you never bothered to learn anything about football?You came to a lot of our games.What were you doing?”
“I was cheering when everyone else was.The only reason I came was to support you and Chris.And watch you run around in your tight pants.I guarantee you most of those girls were there to see hot guys.Why else would they be freezing their butts off?For the love of the game?I think not.”
“A lot of those girls knew about football—they bothered to learn something.”
“That’s because they were football groupies.They would bend over backwards doing flips to learn calculus if it meant one of you would give them the time of day.I didn’t have to be a groupie.All the guys on the team knew who I was, and they wouldn’t think about touching me because of you and Chris.”
“Well, it turns out not all the guys,” he says dryly.
Oh no, here we go.
“Fake-ass Barry White.”
“What?”I twist my head around.“What does Barry White and Matt have to do with each other?”He rolls his eyes like I should know.Well, I don’t.
“That’s what the guys on the team called him.He would single one girl out, buy them a drink, and spend the next hour making them feel like they were the hottest thing in the room.Then he would drop his voice real low, lean in close like this…” He puts his mouth against my ear.“Put his thumb in the palm of their hands and rub like this.”He takes my hand and shows me.It feels good.“Then he’d whisper some Barry White shit in the girl’s ear, and that was it, the girl would do almost anything he wanted her to.”
“What did he say?”I ask.
“He wouldn’t tell us.Didn’t want us stealing his lines.Eight out of ten times it worked though.”
“He never tried it with me.”
“That’s what you want, Cat?”He drops his voice low to sound like a cross between Barry White and Matt.“Baby girl.Is that what you really want to hear, sweating and panting on top of you?Baby girrrl.”
I make a face at him and get up.“You need to stop.”I try my hardest not to laugh, but the way he says it really is funny.At least he’s not angry, I don’t think.“Have fun watching the game by yourself, I’m going in the other room.”
“Which room, baby girrrl?”
I smile, keep walking, and yell, “Not funny.”I hear him yell back behind me, “Yeah, it is.Remember that picture of him, sweating all over you like a slimy wet slick back seal, the next time he calls you, baby girrrl!”
Two and a halfhours later he walks into his bedroom.“How was the game?”
“My team won.”He pulls his shirt over his head and walks toward the foot of the bed.
“They kicked ass?”
“You know it.It would have been more fun if I wasn’t left all by myself.”
“Be nicer to me next time; maybe you’ll have some company.”
“Was I being mean to you?”He raises one eyebrow in question.
I should make him suffer the rest of the night while I sleep naked, rubbing against him.That would only make me suffer too.“Weren’t you?”
“I apologize if I hurt your feelings.Is there anything I could do to make you feel better?”
I shake my head like a little girl and give him the pouty lips.He gives me a broad smile.
