Page 43 of Red Snow

“What are you talking about?” she replies as she picks up her box of Kleenex off the floor and uses one to wipe my come off her ass.

“You know what I’m talking about. The last time we hooked up, you got weird on me, and that made it weird here at work. I don’t want to have to worry about that again.”

“Relax, Jarrod. Like I said, times have changed. Ethan doesn’t fuck the way you just did, but he’s still a nice guy, and that’s hard to find for a woman my age. Hell, that’s hard to find, period. I’m grateful for the insane orgasm, but that’s about it.”

“I hope so,” I say as I get up from the chair. “It’s late as fuck. I’ve gotta get home and get some rest before this shit starts all over again in the morning.”

“Yeah, me too. I’ll see you bright and early?”

“Yeah, sounds good,” I reply, still concerned about how awkward it’ll be between us in the morning.

I walk out of Danielle’s office and head for the exit, but before I can get too far, I remember that I left the video from Koot’s playing in the media room. I turn and head that way, and when I cross the threshold, I see the video is nearing its end. Brenda Cox is out of the frame again, and the second guy she talked to, the guy whose last name I completely forgot, is still sitting at the corner of the bar with a drink in his hand. He looks lonely and bored, and I’m certain he’s about to get up and walk away any second now, so I reach for the remote and get ready to press the stop button. But then the world starts spinning.

Just as I’m about to press stop, Brenda Cox re-enters the frame. I already know Marcus stopped the video after she left the frame before, so he never saw what I’m looking at right now. Right there in front of me, I see Brenda talking to the good-looking guy she was speaking to before. She whispers in his ear, they giggle a little, he stares at her for a while like he’s contemplating something, and then it happens. The man stands up, Brenda takes him by the hand, and the two of them walk out of the bar together.