Page 9 of Special Delivery

“Fellas, fellas... Seems like I haven’t done my job of educating you as a senior of this group.”

“You’re four months older than me,” Wes murmurs.

“Well, dear Wes, I read. Now that I know how clueless you both are, I think my duty is to right that.”

“You mean those silly little books you tend to have in your car?” I ask. A couple of times he picked me up, there were cartoon cover books on the passenger seat. I always suspected they were his daughter’s.

“Those are not silly little books. They are romance books. Written by women, for women.”

“So what?” Wes runs a hand through his hair. “You read them to learn what women like?”

“I read them because they’re great books. It’s a coincidence I can pick up a thing or two from them.” Parker bites the inside of his bottom lip, staring into the distance before slapping the table. “I know. I’ll start a book club.”

“For whom?”

“For you two dumbasses. You really need to broaden your horizons. Besides, you obviously like this girl, and it seems like she’s a freak. You need to be ready for that.”

I pinch the bridge of my nose. “I don’t like… Wes, can you please stop this before it gets too late?”

“I don’t know, man. I dig the idea,” Wes responds.

“You?” I glance at him with suspicion.

“You know I like books.”

“But these… these are books that Parker likes.”

“Hey!” Parker slaps my shoulder. “Don’t knock it ‘till you try it.”

I let out a sigh, obviously outnumbered.

“Good, it’s settled then. I’m starting a book club. The name will be Parker’s Book Club.” His hand motions to the imaginary banner. “PBC.”

I roll my eyes, well aware that once Parker gets an idea rolling, there’s no escaping it. That’s how we started with padel, after all.

“I’ll order the book for you and let you know the time and place of the first meeting.” He slaps a twenty-dollar bill on the table. “I expect you to take this seriously.” He points at each of us before grabbing his bag and leaving.

With a huff, I turn to my other friend who still seems out of it. “What’s wrong?”

His eyes widen. “It’s nothing. Probably nothing.”

“Probably nothing and nothing aren’t the same thing.”

“My mom has some doctor’s appointments, okay? I still don’t know shit, but I don’t plan to speak it into existence.”

His resolute tone settles like a weight in my stomach, and I swallow. “I’m sure everything will be okay.”

“Fuck, I hope you’re right.”

Moving his glasses, he runs his hand over his face, and I notice the dark circles under his eyes. Wes is an only child with a single mom, just like I am. She’s pretty much his entire world. I can’t imagine how he must feel right now.

“I’m here for you, you know? You can talk to me.”

“I know, man. But I want to have more information before sharing it. Anyway…” He sighs. “I should get going. Mom and I are heading to lunch.”

“Sure. See you next week.”

Wes leaves my line of vision, and I focus on the game of padel playing in front of me. My brain replays Parker’s words back to me. Am I really so vanilla to be missing out on a whole world of sexual experiences? I never had any complaints, but I don’t really do repeats either.