never thinks about begin to glow and quiver. The roots of her teeth, for example, tingle with excitement.
They are in a small clearing between two remarkable swaths of forest. She says it looks just like the movie Twilight, like the Pacific Northwest with vampires and rain and beauty in the gloom. She tells him some of the things she learned in a class at IU, about how the trees in the center of the woods branch out wider and taller than the trees on the edges because the ones in the middle are struggling toward the sunshine.
He likes it when she talks about stuff that has nothing to do with her needing him. He says, Have you ever heard a bobcat cry out? She says no and he says he heard one the last time he was here hunting and it sounded like little girls being murdered. He shudders because he has two little girls and then she reaches her hand out and closes it over his and the two of them sit there together, watching the woods. It’s a perfect moment in time. In the middle of this tenderness she shivers because she knows the truth even as she tries to shut it out: he is terrible to her. It’s not that he is outwardly cruel but that he almost never considers her heart. He lives his life, full of swing sets and barrier planks and responsibilities to his wife. Lina is a bobcat in the woods; as it cries you feel sad in the moment but later on you sit down to dinner, you hold a child, you pick a piece of gristle out of your teeth. You watch a game. You forget to reply to a text. You fall asleep.
They’re both quiet for a while and then Aidan speaks first, which is odd. He says, You know I was with Kel earlier today?
He means his friend Kel Thomas, who was texting Lina last night and was offering to come to the hotel and keep her company. Lina has a few men like Kel Thomas that she keeps around to make Aidan feel jealous. Or to make herself feel that she won’t be alone for the rest of her life.
I did not know that, Lina says.
Hmm.
Aidan, he wanted to have sex with me. But I didn’t. I wouldn’t. But he did say he would take me out. Just as two adults enjoying some company.
You never know, you might like him. There might be a spark there.
This doesn’t bother you?
You’re your own person, Kid.
Nah, I mean, there’s no spark. He’s your best friend. Besides, he’s a little creepy!
Aidan laughs! Aidan laughs!
They are quiet for another while and then Aidan says, So what’s this thing you brought?
Lina is in control now or at the very least she feels that she is. She says, Get in the back and take off your pants and your shoes.
He gets into the back of the Suburban and she follows. She undresses herself and doesn’t let him touch her just yet. She slips her hand into a pocket of her pants that are on the floor of the car and she pulls out a Cadbury Crème Egg.
You took so long before meetin’ me, she says, I almost ate it.
She winks and he looks at the egg quizzically. She holds it aloft and to the side, in her left hand, and then she moves her face to him and she kisses him and it is fucking amazing. It always is with him. His tongue. Her tongue, which he does not think is like a rough blanket that is offensive to the touch. Then she pulls away from his mouth to unwrap the egg. It has a seam where she splits it in half. She sets one half down on the floor of the Suburban and scoops out the filling from the other half with her index and middle fingers and rubs it all over his penis, down onto his testicles, and then she takes special care glopping a lot onto the head.
She starts sucking it, spreading the sweet gluey crème with her tongue while also licking it up. He pre-ejaculates a little and she lifts her head up and says, Mmm, salty and sweet, fantastic.
And then she brings her face up to his and kisses him with crème on her tongue. She alternates between kissing his mouth and sucking his penis. Everything tastes so good.
He takes his strong arms and clasps one under each of her