Page 20 of C is for Comfort

“No… just more reserved than Blake. And more sensible.”

“Hey!” Blake objects. “In all seriousness, I’m glad you had fun. You’ve been crazy stressed recently. I hope this guy helped you let off some steam, whoever he was.”

“He was called Spence.”

“Oh, so you do know something about him,” Archie says.

“Not much. I know his name and that he’s a doctor. A consultant.”

“Aiming high,” Blake says.

“It wasn’t like that.” I lie on my side, facing Blake and Archie. “We started talking. He was really nice and seemed genuinely interested in me. He likes art.” I sigh. “Maybe it was a mistake.”

“Did you have fun?” Archie asks.

“Yes.” I smile. “I can’t remember the last time I had such mind-blowing sex.”

“Then isn’t that all that matters?”

“I guess so.”

“Did you get his number?” Blake asks.

I shake my head.

“Why the hell not?”

“It’s not how it works, is it? Parties like that… they’re just for hook-ups. Right?”

“I suppose so.”

I stare at nothing, roughly looking in their direction but not actually focusing on either of my brothers. “We talked, had sex, cuddled, and said goodbye.”

Blake rolls onto his side and puts his hand over mine. “If you had fun, why do you sound so sad?”

“I don’t know.” Maybe because I wish Ihadgot Spence’s number. “Tell me what happened to you two.”

“I got tied up by Hamish,” Archie says, lying down too.

“I saw that,” Blake says, half turning to look at Archie. “He was trailing a spiky wheel over your body.”

“A Wartenburger pinwheel,” Archie says.

“A what?”

Archie laughs. “You use them for marking patterns onto fabric when you’re sewing. But they feel amazing when wheeled over your body.”

“So you two did get together?” I ask.

Archie shrugs. “We spent a few hours together, yeah. I don’t know if it’s going to come to anything or if I’ll still have a job on Monday morning, but right now, I’m still on cloud nine, so I’m not worrying about anything else.”

“You must have had fun,” Blake said.

“Yeah,lotsof fun. His dick is—”

“Stop!” I plead.

Archie raises his eyebrows. “Oh, come on, how is this embarrassing? You must have seen at least twenty different dicks last night.”