There was no doubt that he enjoyed tormenting me. That big goofy smile on his face gave him away and it only got bigger when he started to look inside the bag. His eyes lit up when he finally saw what I’d bought and he snickered. “Well, lookie here. It’s hot pink.”
“Clutch, just give it to me.”
“I bet you can have all kinds of fun with this little sucker,” he tormented.
“Clutch!” I shouted again.
“Oh, baby. Don’t be embarrassed about it. I’m glad you got it. You’ve been driving everyone nuts with your little moods. I’d like to be the one that took the edge off, but I can wait until you’re ready for that. For now, maybe this will do the trick,” he said with a chuckle.
“My little moods?” I snapped.
“Yeah, your little moods. You’ve been wound up tighter than a girdle on a Baptist minister’s wife on Sunday.”
“You are an ass! Now give me the stupid bag.”
“You’re cute when you get flustered.” His eyes danced with mischief as he handed the sack over to me and said, “I’ve gotta say. I like that I’m getting to you. I bet this will help.”
“Just stop.”
“What? You know that in the nineteenth century, doctors used them to treat hysteria in women.”
“Hysteria? Really?” I huffed. “So, now I’m hysterical?”
“Well…” he smirked.
I dropped my head into my hands and groaned, “Just please stop talking. It’s bad enough you found my vibrator. Hearing you talk about it is making my skin hurt.”
“Oh, come on. Don’t make a big deal of it. Just have fun with it.”
Hadley popped her head into the room and asked, “Have fun with what?”
As soon as I heard her voice, I closed the little white bag and shoved it in the drawer next to me. I stood in front of it with my arm crossed and smiled as I said, “Clutch was thinking of taking us all bowling.”
“Bowling? I haven’t been bowling in forever. That would be fun. When are we going?” she asked.
“I don’t know. We were just throwing out some ideas,” Clutch jumped in, “but, we’ll let you know.”
“Okay.” She looked back over to me. “Can I borrow your nail polish remover?”
“Yeah, sweetie. It’s under the bathroom sink. Just put it back when you’re done,” I told her.
As soon as she left the room, Clutch whispered, “Nice save.” Then he started laughing, and once he started, he couldn’t stop—which made me start to laugh, and before it was all said and done, we were both laughing hysterically.
With tears streaming down my face, I stammered, “You are so bad.”
“You have no idea. You have fun playing with your little toy. Just remember … someday soon, I get my turn.”
By the time Clutch had gone home and the kids were in bed, I was exhausted. I got comfortable on the sofa and turned the TV down low, hoping that I’d be able to finally get some sleep. I hadn’t been lying there long when I found myself staring at the drawer in the kitchen where my little purchase was tucked away. I rolled my eyes and turned back to face the television as I thought about how asinine it was for me to buy something like that. Since I’d never owned one, I was a little curious about how the stupid thing even worked. It was silly. There was no way I was ever going to use that crazy thing. Was I? I rolled over on my side and tried to block it from my thoughts, but only a few moments later, I found myself staring at that same damn drawer. Like they say: curiosity killed the cat.
It was still pitch black outside when I got up for work, well before Olivia and the kids were up and rolling, so I did my best to be quiet on my way out, so I wouldn’t wake them. When I got to the bottom of the stairs, Cyrus was there opening the diner. He saw that I was about to leave and motioned me over to him.
“Cup of coffee before you head out?” he offered.
“Yeah, I could use a cup or two,” I answered as I followed him inside. I waited for him to turn on all the lights before I went to sit behind the counter.
After a few minutes of stirring around in the kitchen, he came out front and started up the coffeemaker. When it was all set, he