Watch the Girls by Jennifer Wolfe

Author:Jennifer Wolfe
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2018-07-09T16:00:00+00:00

33.

A hanging wooden sign out in front of the restaurant announced the name CORE in engraved tavern scrawl. The interior was as warm and cozy as a cabin at Christmas, with knotty-wood floors and tables arranged around a cobblestone fireplace, where flames crackled behind the iron grate. The dining room was half filled with patrons. It was the busiest Stone’s Throw establishment I’d encountered thus far.

The hostess led us to a table near the fireplace and divided the dinner, drink, and specials menus between us. When our server arrived, Porter ordered a bottle of wine. “I hope that’s okay,” he said when the server had gone. “I should have asked if you prefer red or white. Or if you even like wine. I’m a bit nervous. I don’t know if you can tell. I don’t do this often. Dating, I mean. Not dating celebrities.”

I reached across the table and put my hand over his. “You don’t need to be nervous. And I’m really not much of a celebrity.”

He ran a thumb lightly over the back of my hand, and I shivered with involuntary pleasure. “Did I take advantage of you?” he asked softly.

I had to laugh at that. “Did I take advantage of you?”

“Of course not.”

“Just because you’re a man doesn’t mean I can’t take advantage of you.”

He glanced left and right to make sure no one at the nearby tables was listening. “I feel like what I did was…disrespectful.”

What he’d done was get me off in the most satisfying way I could remember. He hadn’t been rough with me, but he’d taken control. At one point he’d held my wrists above my head and wouldn’t let go when I tried to move them. He’d kept them trapped there as he moved on top of me, only releasing me once he came.

And then…he’d gone back to being the man sitting across from me. Sweet. Considerate. Just the right amount of nerdy.

I smiled, but felt something grow heavy in my chest. “Sometimes women like to be disrespected.” Sometimes we needed it. Or I needed it. I wasn’t sure what other women wanted. I didn’t have female friends to talk to about this sort of thing to find out if I was normal.

Our server appeared and listed the specials. We ordered, and then fell into an easy, conversational rhythm, which consisted of me gently probing him with benign questions while avoiding talking about myself. As far as first dates went, it was nice, especially considering that we’d rutted like animals a few hours earlier. What I realized by the time we’d finished our appetizers was that Porter hadn’t done much actual living. Most of his experience of the world had been through a screen.

“Do you think you’ll ever move away from Stone’s Throw?” I asked as I ate the last of our fried calamari (800 calories).

Porter picked up a piece of bread and tore it in half, but didn’t take a bite. “Do I need to?”

The question confused me. “Need to?”

“Am I missing something? I’ve lived thousands of lives, all over the world, in every period of history.

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