weirdo in the hall is definitely not on my to-do list.” She starts to walk away, but I hold out a hand and stop her.
“I’m saying that I want you, and that you want me, and that looking into that EMT staff room, I can see it’s empty. That kind of thing gives a man ideas.”
We’re almost pressed up against each other again now. She smells of shampoo, but not perfume. There’s a light tinge of sweat, too, that drives me unaccountably insane. She’s all the more alluring for not trying to be.
“Okay, playboy,” she laughs. “Let’s go, right now. I’ll just bend over the ten-year-old TV set and we can go at it. Is that what you had in mind?”
I almost laugh. Women never speak to me like this. I place my hand on the wall above her head. I bring my face close to hers. I can feel her breath on my cheeks, getting quicker. She stares right into my eyes. Our noses brush for a second, neither of us willing to admit shame and back down. My cock is a solid rod in my pants, pressing so firmly the base throbs.
“What is your name?” I ask.
“How is that any of your business?” she counters.
“Because I think it’s only polite to learn the name of a woman before you kiss her.”
She rolls her eyes. “You’re cheesy as hell. You know that, right?”
“It’s only cheesy if it doesn’t work.”
“Dani,” she says. “My name is Dani. Don’t tell me yours. I’m not interested.”
“You’re going to kiss a stranger?”
When she laughs, I smell mint on her breath. She moves the gum around with her tongue and I imagine how it would feel to have that tongue move around other places, to see those blue eyes wide as she licks and … My cock is going to explode.
Finally, after regarding me with a half-smile, she says, “You really are full of yourself, aren’t you? Does this ever work?”
“Now it’s you who has the wrong person. I’m just a shy virgin, looking for love in all the wrong places. Like hospital hallways, for example.” I can’t help myself. I move my fingers up her thighs, pressing down on the stiff material of her scrubs. I feel her quiver. I feel the heat of her.
Higher and higher, I move, and then lean in again. Our lips brush for the barest moment. I want to taste more of her. But then her hand is on my wrist.
“Don’t,” she sighs. “This is—this is just too crazy. Please, what’s-your-name, back off.”
Tilting my head to the side, I step back. “It’s Angelo,” I tell her. “Angelo De Maggio.”
I watch for any sign of recognition, but she just nods. I walk to the nurse’s desk, grab a pad of paper and a pen, and write down my cell number. Then I return to her and press it into her hand. “Remember, I’m sensitive. Don’t call if you plan on breaking my heart.”
She rolls her eyes again, tightening her fist around the piece of paper. “Okay, Jerk I Just Met in the Hallway, I’ll keep that in mind.” She shakes her head. “You might be cute if you weren’t such an ass.”
I laugh. “Classic woman, seeking perfection in a man.”
“Classic man!” she retorts over her shoulder.
“In what way?”
“Thinking with your dick.” She flips me the bird as she goes down the hallway. I swear to Christ my manhood is about to set itself on fire. The last thing I hear before she disappears is, “Fuck you and have a nice day, Angelo De Maggio.”
When she’s gone, I shake my head at myself, because it’s been a long, long time since I haven’t been able to look away from a woman.
And by a long time, I mean my whole goddamn life.
I get the coffee, wondering if I just dreamed that whole thing. Dani will not leave my mind. I have to make a circuit of the hospital to give myself a chance to calm down.
Levi and Madolina are both smiling at me when I return to the room. “I thought you were arguing,” I say, putting down the coffees I went to retrieve.
“I went looking for you,” Levi says slyly. “And you will never guess what I saw, brother. I saw you and a lady all but making sweet, sweet love in the hallway.”
Madolina clicks her tongue in amusement. It sounds just like her rosary beads. “You didn’t tell me you had found a woman, Angelo. What is her name? Is