“But?”
But.
There were a lot of buts.
But she had a job in Hawaii she’d be going back to soon.
But she didn’t want to hurt his feelings by fucking him and dumping him.
But she really didn’t want to get hurt again herself so closely after enduring the worst breakup of her life.
But her life was at a crossroads right now and complicating it by getting into a short-term relationship with someone wouldn’t make things any easier.
And yet.
“Spicy Indian food,” she said.
“What about it?”
“I love it. Absolutely love it. And I always eat too much of it when I go to an Indian restaurant and I’m always miserable after. But I never regret eating it.”
“Did you just compare sleeping with me to eating Indian food?”
“You said it was okay to do stuff that hurts sometimes. Eating spicy curry does that.”
“You’re a little weird, Jo.”
“You compared fucking me to being an astronaut last night.”
“I didn’t say I wasn’t weird, too. Also I’m going to have sex with you right now.”
“No, you aren’t. We need to talk about this a little bit more.”
“I’m hard already. Just FYI. No pressure.”
“It’ll be a short talk. You have to make me a promise. And you can’t break this promise.”
“What’s the promise?”
“You have to promise me you won’t try to make me stay. You won’t try to make us more than just a two-week thing. You won’t force me to make a big drastic decision about the future when I can barely figure out today, okay? If last night is any indicator of how we are together, the next couple of weeks will be fun.”
“Understatement, but I’m with you so far.”
“It’ll be fun and we’ll be all horny for each other and me leaving to go back to work will suck. But you have to swear you won’t mess with my head or try to talk me out of it or anything. This breakup with Ben has been hellish, okay? I can’t jump into another serious relationship for a while. I need that six months at least. If we’re going to do this—”
“We are.”
“I need you to work with me and not against me. If you can swear you won’t make leaving more difficult than it’s going to be in two weeks, then I’m in.”
“I can do that. I can make that promise.”
“Is that your conscience talking or your, you know, sledgehammer?”
“Can’t tell. They have the same voice, oddly enough. Gets really confusing.”
“Chris.”
“Okay, okay,” Chris said. He kicked open his toolbox and dug around in the bottom. “Here it is.”