Page 5 of Black Reign

So I don't date.

Not really.

There have been women.

Naturally.

Hamptons summers.

Mykonos.

Capri.

Saint-Tropez.

A pool.

A yacht.

Two people who know exactly what the arrangement is.

No promises.

No toothbrush left behind.

No access to my devices.

No expectation that breakfast means anything more than breakfast.

Physical attraction has never been difficult.

It's what comes afterward that creates the problem.

Eventually someone has to speak.

And then I'm bored.

I take another sip of Scotch.

That sounds cruel.

It isn't meant to be.

My brain simply doesn't stop.

I've been tested enough times that the numbers stopped being interesting.

My mother once proudly announced at a dinner party that my measured IQ exceeded Einstein's estimated one.

I didn't speak to her for two weeks afterward.

Intelligence isn't particularly impressive when you're trapped inside it.

Most conversations reach their destination long before the other person finishes the sentence.

Most arguments reveal themselves three moves ahead.

Most people repeat patterns.