Read Old Friends, New Lovers (Regular Sex Issue 7) for Free Online

though, right?’
    I go from huffing
to scowling. ‘It’s my goddamn birthday Fox. Do you really think I want to end
it on the recollection that I’ve only slept with one man in my entire thirty
years?’
    Fox whistles
under his breath, a blatant expression of the oh-my-god words he doesn’t say as
we reach my door.
    ‘Come in for
five,’ I say, still surly. ‘I’ve got something for you.’
    ‘Is it your
barely perforated hymen?’
    He starts to
laugh slowly, and I choose to do the same because he has an infectious way
about him that I’ve never been able to resist.
    ‘My hymen was
more than perforated by Brynn, thank you very much.’ I close the door behind us
and leave my coat on the hook. ‘Lots of times, in lots of ways.’
    Fox smirks, nods.
‘That’ll be why you ditched him then. Too sexy? Was he wearing you out, Mabes?
A total beast in the bedroom? Did he make you dress up as his hygienist before
he drilled you senseless?’
    ‘I’m not going to
dignify that with an answer,’ I mutter, hanging up his coat beside mine. ‘Coffee?’
    ‘Beer?’
    I shake my head. ‘No
beer. I have rum though, I think?’
    He looks
impressed. ‘Very grown up.’
    ‘We’re thirty
now, pirate. We’re supposed to be grown ups.’
    He drops down on
the sofa, his long legs sprawled in front of him. ‘Pirate?’
    I flop down
beside him a moment later with the rum and two glasses.
    ‘It’s how I think
of you.’
    ‘As in Johnny
Depp?’
    ‘Don’t flatter
yourself,’ I laugh, giving him the tumblers to hold so I can slosh rum into
them. I don’t tell him that he’d make a better pirate than Johnny Depp, even
though the thought runs through my head. God, maybe I shouldn’t drink any of
the rum. The wine in the pub must have gone straight to my head if I’ve decided
that Fox is better looking than Jack Sparrow.
    ‘Pirate as in
someone who never stays around for long.’ I watch the amber liquid swirl in my
glass. ‘And as someone who drinks rum.’
    Fox tastes it
slowly. ‘Maybe I’ve just never had anything to stay for.’
    I look up then,
because the crack of vulnerability in his voice demands my attention.
    ‘You’ve always
had me.’
    He snorts. ‘And you’ve
always had Brynn.’
    ‘I don’t mean
like that,’ I say. ‘You’ve been my best friend forever, Fox, whether Brynn was
around or not, or any of your zillion girlfriends, for that matter.’
    He shrugs one
shoulder in response and takes another good glug of rum.
    ‘So, Mabes.’ He
slides his glass onto the coffee table. ‘Wanna marry me?’
    I look at him over
the rim of my tumbler and laugh. ‘Are you asking me to be your pirate bride?’
    He doesn’t laugh
back.
    ‘Can I ask you
something?’
    The serious tone
of his voice has me knocking back half the contents of my glass. ‘‘Course you
can. Anything.’
    Fox swallows loud
enough for me to hear it. ‘Do you ever wonder what it’d be like if we...’ he
pauses, and I start to panic because I anticipate where this is going.
    ‘Don’t, Fox.’
    He takes the glass
from my fingers and places it beside his, and then he scoots close enough for
our knees to touch as he faces me.
    ‘Don’t what? Don’t
say the things I should have had the balls to say more than ten years ago?’
    He’s serious now,
and so am I, because there’s way too much at stake here to mess this up. He
covers his hands over mine.
    ‘You’re shaking.’
He strokes his thumbs over my wrists. ‘It’s only me, Mabes, not Johnny fucking
Depp. Calm down.’
    My half laugh
catches in my throat, more like a sob.
    ‘We don’t do
this,’ I say. ‘This isn’t what we do.’
    He nods. ‘Not
even in your head? Because we do in mine, sometimes late at night when I’m
lonely. Or when I’m in the shower and I’m horny.’
    ‘Liar. You’ve
watched more porn than Hugh Hefner.’ My voice comes out less shaky than I feel
on the inside.
    ‘Porn helps me
sleep. Thinking about you keeps me awake.’
    ‘Fox...’ I