Page 37 of Call Me Baby 2: Side B
Her: “How many inches is your dick?”
I tell myself to move, tell myself to slide onto his lap, but I’m stuck in this spot, praying this sick-to-my-stomach feeling shuts up.
“Shit. Yeah. Uh. Five and a half.”
Her: “Head or heart?”
Heart? My heart’s screaming at me to step away from the boy. My head, on the other hand, is lost in a fog.
“Heart,” he chokes out.
“Head be lyin’ when it gets scared.”
Her:
“The worst lie you ever told a girl?”
For a second,
I think his eyes might fall to my tits,
and I go rigid at the thought.
“Promised I wouldn’t leave,” he says.
“Then I did.”
My heart turns slow,
her eyes narrowing at him.
“Why?” I snap.
He flinches, then shifts in place.
“She cheated. So I stepped off.”
His words leave cold
and impale like hail.
“Say I hire you,” I say, my fingers shaking behind my back. “You ever leave me, you gonna man up and say it to my face first?”
His eyes drift between mine.
“If I walk? It ain’t without a reason. But I’d never leave without two weeks’ notice.”
I hate that he said it like that.
As if this is nothing more than a job.
Which is true, but still.
Feels impersonal.
“That’s all I needed to know.” I turn fast and collect my clothes on the way to the table, step into my pants, zip, button, then slide back into my halter, tying the strings one by one.
“I’ll keep in touch,” I mutter, keeping my back to him, listening for the door click before I unclench my jaw.
