Mal’s smile is wide and broad. Her teeth…I realize now that she hides them when she smiles; she always seems to catch this. But I’ve caught her off-guard. She’s genuinely happy and when she lets her guard down, I can see all her teeth. Little imperfectly set jewels, but perfect to me.
“I found my muse.”
Her eyebrows knit together in slight confusion. “Oh? What is it? Who?”
“False modesty doesn’t suit you. It’s you. You’re my muse. Was that not obvious?”
She shakes her head. “Nothing is obvious. I will always need you to spell it out for me.”
I softly kiss her on the nose, the forehead and both eyelids.
“Then I’ll spell it out for you. I don’t draw but I want to draw your face. I don’t sculpt but I want to carve a graven image in the shape of you and carry it around with me like a little fertility goddess. I don’t play a single instrument but I need to write you a hundred love songs.”
Her eyes shine and when I finish talking, I feel as though I’ve said too much.
“That was unbelievable. I don’t even know what to say after that.”
“You don’t have to say anything,” I say. “Just let me get lost in you.”
“Quinn."
“I know. You’re thinking of your daughter’s happiness, and I don’t want to make anything awkward or difficult. So if we need to keep this quiet, or press pause for now, we can just…”
“Maybe we should, but it’s not that. I haven’t had sex with anyone since Shelby’s dad. Fifteen years ago. I know it seems insane, but I’m nervous.”
I grip her tight to me and kiss her again. I will keep kissing her and whispering to her. I am determined to keep doing this until she gets it through her head there is nothing unsexy about being somewhat inexperienced. Until she understands that she deserves some pleasure. She accepts my kisses again and relaxes her body into me. Her kisses bewitch me. Her sighs are like incantations that ensnare me. There is nothing else in the world but us.
A phone rings. But it’s impossible that a phone is ringing, because we are in space right now. We are floating together in another time and place altogether where there are no phones.
There’s the ringing again.
Nope. No technology allowed in this dimension. We keep kissing.
And again.
Finally realizing it’s the ringtone I’ve set for the school, and that today is still, in fact, Tuesday, I pull away from her face.
“I should probably answer that.”
“All right, fine, check it,” she says, letting me go to occupy herself with breakfast cleanup.
I place the phone on speaker, and I hear it’s the voice of Headmistress Moody.
“Whoa,” Mal whispers, wiping icing up from the countertops.
“Mr. Pope, unfortunately we have an issue with the gymnasium on the day you requested for the bake sale. I know last night when you emailed me the details, I said the room was free that day but I just checked my records again and somehow I missed something and the room has been previously booked. It’s strange. I’m very sorry. We’ll try to work something else out.”
Mal puts her hand out and without thinking, I hand the phone to her.
It’s not until she’s speaking that I realize we’ve just made the first misstep in keeping our relationship a secret. Because, why else would my boss think I’m with the school’s bake sale queen at 7 a.m. on a Tuesday?
“What about the elementary school gym, ma’am?”
Still, despite the blunder, it’s amazing watching Mal work her magic on this hard-as-nails headmistress, but really, this is too much negotiating for a simple bake sale.
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I put my hand on her shoulder and whisper, “Mal, it’s okay. It’s just a bake sale. There will be other writing workshop trips.”