if you want to extend our one-night stand to a one-weekend stand, I’d have no objections.”
“Really?” There’s a slight squeak of surprise in my voice, and I know he’ll hear it.
He does. Shaking his head, he reaches over to my face again, this time to brush his fingertips along my cheekbone. “Only if you’re interested. I know stretching it out past one night wasn’t in your plans.”
“It wasn’t. But since we both have nothing better to do...”
We smile at each other. I might have even kissed him, but I’m still holding my plate and have several more bites of waffle to eat. I decide to focus on that instead.
After a minute, Richard asks out of the blue, “So you’ve really never had casual sex before?”
“No. I really never have.” I check his face and see that he looks relaxed, genuinely interested, and slightly debauched with his bristles and bare chest. “Is that so strange?”
“Probably not.”
“I’d bet a lot of people haven’t had one-night stands. Not everyone takes sex lightly.”
“You’re right. Of course you’re right. When you have a lot of casual sex, you start to think everyone is like you, since the people you’re with have the same attitude. But the truth is most people who take sex seriously are at home and not in bars looking to hook up.”
I’m smiling as I put my plate on the nightstand and pick up my coffee mug. “Exactly. Just because you only sleep with women who like casual sex doesn’t mean that everyone is that way.” A question forms on my lips, one I’d normally hold back with my natural reserve. But I don’t this time. “Do you only ever have casual sex?”
“Pretty much. For a really long time. I travel a lot. I’ve never put down real roots. And my job is such that I don’t have room in my life for much else.”
“Have you ever been in love?” I don’t know where I find the courage to ask a question like that of this man. Maybe just because he looks warm and rumpled right now—not the slick stranger from yesterday.
“Yes. I have. A very long time ago.”
“Who was she?”
He gives me a sidelong look. Assessing. Like he’s trying to decide the purpose of this questioning. Whatever he sees in my face must reassure him because he answers easily enough. “We fell in love in college. We got married.”
I should have assumed there was a good chance a man his age would have been married before, but it never even crossed my mind. My eyes are wide, and I prop up more on the pillow. “You were married? For how long?”
“Six years.”
“What happened?”
He gives another one of those half shrugs. It’s a dismissive gesture. As if he’s trying to convince himself that none of this matters very much. “We were young. We tried to make it work but couldn’t.”
“Who did the leaving?” I’m not normally a nosy or intrusive person. I’m not sure what’s gotten into me this morning.
“She did.” He licks his lips slowly. “She... she wanted me to be someone other than I am.”
I’ve finished my coffee, so I set down the cup and roll onto my side so I can see him better. “Who did she want you to be?”
“She wanted me to be a small-town guy. A settled husband. Father.”
“You had kids?”
“No! No, no, no. But she wanted them. We were too young when we got married. We never talked about any of the stuff we should have talked about. It never even occurred to us that we wanted different things out of life. She wanted to move back, and all I wanted was to get away.”
“Get away from where?”
“Oh. Didn’t I say? We’re both from the same small town in Maine. She wanted the life we were raised in, and I... didn’t.”
“I can’t believe you’re a small-town guy.”
“Why not?”
“Because you definitely give big-city vibes. Surely you know that.”
He lets out a slow breath. “Yes. I know that. But I was raised in a small town. What about you?”
“I was born and raised in Boston. Still live there.”
“That’s not really what I wanted to know. Have you ever been married?”
“No.”
“Have you been in love?”
I open my mouth but close it again. Think before I answer. “I... don’t really know. I don’t think so. Not really. I thought I was, but I don’t really think it was love now. Just kind of yearning from afar.”
“That doesn’t seem right. All this time and you’ve never been in love? No