Page 64 of Size King

“And well,” I say. “What are you up to, man?”

“Nothing much, chillin’,” he says in a jive voice. “Dude, I’ve been having to ice my balls since Sunday morning.”

I burst out laughing. I know the feeling all too well.

“You thinking of hooking up with your gal again?” Luke asks me.

“I didn’t get her number,” I lament. “And I only got her first name, so I don’t know how the hell I’d find her on the internet.”

“Oh, damn, that sucks,” he agrees. “You guys didn’t exchange numbers on the ride to my place?”

“Bro, we made out during theentirecab ride,” I say proudly. “We hardly said a word to each other after the bar.”

“Letting your bodies do the talking, all right,” says Luke with the same sense of pride. “I’ll concede to you, Mason; I’m glad we went over and talked to those girls. Good fucking call, buddy. I had a lot of fun.”

“My pleasure,” I say and laugh. “I think it—Yeah, it was just a one-night stand.”

“What do you mean?” he asks.

“She and I had awonderfulnight together,” I elaborate. “She honestly—I’m not bullshitting you—she may have been the best lay I’ve ever had.”

“Wow,” he says, sounding sincerely impressed. “High praise.”

“It was fucking epic from beginning to end, dude,” I say. “I didn’t think I’d ever have sex like that for real. I don’t need to be a glutton. We had that night. Maybe that was enough. I’m not going to assume I was her best, but let’s just say, she saw multiple orgasms, okay?”

“You’re such a fucking braggart,” he jabs jokingly.

“Seriously, though,” I say. “I’ve never been with someone that came so easily! She was soaked, dude. I’m kind of surprised she didn’t ask for my number.”

“Yeah, same here,” says Luke.

“Did you get info from Emma?” I ask him. “You two exchange numbers?”

“If we did, I have no idea what I have it saved under,” he replies. “I’m kind of surprised to hear you talking like this. I thought you’d be thrilled. It was a sweetheart deal, amigo. We drank, had a good time at the bar, had a lot of sex, and now, we’re all returning to our regularly scheduled programming. And they left when we were asleep! If I believed in marriage, I’d say let’s marry those chicks. Such an awesome night.”

I decide not to push the conversation any further regarding Jillian. We finish up our brief talk just as I pull into Home Depot, making plans to go to a hockey game later that week.

An inevitable thing that comes from living in a small town is that everyone around you knows you. Practically every other person that I run into is someone that I know. It looks like damn near everyone is prepping for a harsh winter.

I find the aisle with fire extinguishers, grab two, and head for the registers. Fortunately, they have self-checkout, so I go for that.

Unfortunately, another person that I know is at the self-checkout section and sees me before I can turn around. She is a girl that I slept with once before. It was a bad mistake and the major reason why I decided to stop sleeping with Wrightwood locals. Never have I had a fling that I want to take back so badly.

We met at a bookstore in town. We were both seeking similar poetry books, so we got to talking. We really clicked, but I wasn’t looking for something serious with her. It also didn’t help that we both lied about our age—ironically, we even made the exact lie down to the fake age and the incremental differences. She said she was twenty-five but was actually twenty. I said I was twenty-five but was actually thirty. The sex was pretty good, but afterward, I felt like just being friends. She didn’t see it my way.

“Hi, Katie,” I say to her as I begin purchasing my fire extinguishers.

“Hi, Mason,” says Katie. “Putting out a fire?”

“Not yet.” I chuckle. “Better safe than sorry.”

“How’ve you been?” she asks.

“Pretty good,” I answer. “You?”

“Eh, been better.”

I nod, smiling politely while trying to get the register to scan the damn barcode.