Page 63 of Life, Love, and Other Messes

“Barely.”

“You’ll fit.”

“You seriously underestimate the size of my ass.”

“I know the exact size of your ass.” Lisa stroked my cheek and kissed me gently. “I hate that she makes you feel that way.”

“I hate that I had to tell you all of that.” Again, I wanted to say those words, the ones she’d almost said earlier, but I said nothing, just held her and let her hold me and thought about how we were both thinking it.

Chapter Fifteen

We decided to cook the turkey at Lisa’s house on Thanksgiving so as not to torture Ollie. We went back to walk him while the bird was in the oven, then returned to Lisa’s for most of the evening. It was strange to have just the two of us there, especially since there would have been at least eleven with my family, but it was nice. There were no worries about whether I was putting too much or too little stuffing on my plate, no stress about what to talk about, no kids fighting in the other room. After we were finished, we watched a movie, then went over to my place together to let Ollie out.

We ended up in bed. Most of our clothing was strewn on the floor, but Lisa’s shoes were on top of my tall dresser so Ollie wouldn’t carry them off. After one round, we lay together, my leg over hers, fingers intertwined. “Are you leaving tomorrow?”

I nodded. “I wish I could stay and drive up Saturday morning, but there’s too much to do beforehand and I’d feel bad asking Missy and Kevin to take care of all of it. My mom wanted me up for Thanksgiving.”

“I’m glad you said no.”

“God, me too. I can’t spend that much time with her. I enter that house and I’m thirteen again. How do normal people do it? How does this work?”

Lisa shrugged. I realized she’d never told me if she got along with her parents or not, just that she didn’t like big get-togethers. All I knew about her family was that she had a younger sister in Vancouver and they often texted while I wrote. I supposed there was a story there, but I didn’t want to ruin things by asking. “June is like best friends with her mom. They talk every day and go shopping and to concerts and shit. And she talks about it all the time which gets super annoying.”

“How is it that some people can transition so seamlessly from child to equal? My mother is never going to see me as anything but a child.”

“Does she see your brother as a child?”

I lay back. “Not really. In some ways. She still thinks he makes bad choices like he’s fifteen, but she mostly treats him as a grownup. It’s probably the wife and kids, but June isn’t married, right?”

“Nope. It’s like her mom was just waiting for her to go off to college so she could have a buddy.”

“Honestly? I hate feeling the way she makes me feel, but I’d rather hang by my thumbnails than be buddy-buddy with my mom.”

“See, there’s a reason for everything.” Lisa was quiet for a moment, then nudged her face into the space between my shoulder and neck. “I assume you’re going to text me all the time to tell me all the gory details of this weekend.”

“If you want.”

“I want. Do you have a picture of this Gerald? So I know what to think when you mention him?”

“Ugh.” I grabbed my phone from the bedside table and called up his profile on Facebook. He hadn’t been active since 2015, but he did have a profile picture of himself. “Enjoy.”

“Yeah, about what I pictured. Is he as boring as he looks?”

“More so.”

“What does he do for a living?”

“I don’t remember.”

Lisa laughed and kissed me. “You’re in for a great weekend.”

I ran my hand down her side. “Shut up. Do you want to just stay here tonight?”

“Yeah.”

I reached to turn out the light and she caught my breast with her tongue. “So hot.”

“No, you.”