“Because you have good female intuition, honey,” Harriet replies. “I was actually just telling this young man that he should take you out tonight. I can help Bo close.”
She looks around her at the light crowd. “Really? You sure?”
“Absolutely. It’s slow. You know how it gets before Labor Day weekend. Everyone is holding out for the big one. Besides, you’ll need some way of working off all that energy from that caffeine you’re drinking,” she finishes, giving a nod to the coffee Millie holds in her hand.
“Harriet!” Millie scolds.
“I meant, walking that dog of yours,” Harriet replies with feigned innocence.
After Millie and I leave the diner, we turn the corner, headed toward home.
But then I stop. “Hey, maybe we should go out to dinner somewhere like Harriet said. You’re usually working. I feel like we should take advantage.”
After a long sip of her coffee drink, she turns to me and drapes her arms over my shoulders. “I like the idea of taking advantage. But it’s not dinner I’m craving right now.”
She kisses me, long and hard, making my body react, making me want something different from dinner too.
When she moves her lips away from mine, she whispers, “I’ve been waiting all week to do that.”
“Really? What else have you been waiting to do?”
“Let’s get home and I’ll show you.”
My body aches for her by the time we make it to her house, and when we step through the door, she says, “Maybe I should take Junie out first.”
“I just had her out before I went to the diner,” I reply, taking her coffee and setting it down on the nearby table.
“Thank God,” she murmurs as I lift her into my arms—loving how it feels to hold her like this—and carry her to her sofa.
I want to have her in the living room this time. I want there to be another place in this house where she remembers me.
And as I slowly, deliberately make love to her over the next hour, I realize how important it is for me to cling to this idea that the more this place reminds her of me, the more likely she’ll one day break down and call me.
I just sure as hell hope I’m in town when she does.
My hands explore her, my eyes take in the sight of her, and after I’ve made her climax with my fingers and my mouth, I finally slip on a condom and let myself indulge in her.
Yet even then, I take my time. Even when the pace my body demands as I thrust into her increases, I make this last for her, enjoying the way she feels and liking even more that I know she’ll never be taken on this couch quite as thoroughly as I am now.
It’s not until I sense Junie stirring on the other side of the room that I decide to chase my own satisfaction. I don’t want the cold, wet nose of a dog to play Moment Killer for Millie. So I thrust into her again and hold myself deep in her, the pressure always lifting her to new heights. And then, just before I hear the clicking of Junie’s paws against the hardwood, headed our way, Millie shatters beneath me, her channel seizing up and making everything around me disappear from existence as I explode with one final thrust.
I sink down partially onto her—just enough that she can feel shielded by my body, but not enough to smother her.
I love how heavy her breathing is right now, beneath me. I love that I did that to her.
I loveher.
And if there was ever a moment I was tempted to tell her, this is it.
Then, right on cue, I feel that wet nose against my thigh.
“Junie’s awake,” I say. “You know, I kind of like how easily she sleeps through things. Lets me take advantage of you a lot more.”
“Yet another advantage of having a senior dog. I should let her out, though. She’s got that look in her eyes.”
I nod, moving so that she can get dressed, and then glance at my watch. “You know, there’s still time for me to take you out for a nice meal someplace.”
She shakes her head. “I don’t want to be that far away from my bed with you tonight,” she answers playfully as I get dressed. “How about we order Chinese?”