23
"Wow, Charlie, that was . . ."
Fantastic? Amazing? Earth-moving?
"Brief," Darla says, staring at the ceiling and blowing out a plume of cigarette smoke.
"It's my first time in a while," I say.
She stubs out the end of the cigarette in a glass ashtray on the bedside table. She cosies up to me. "It's fine," she says, kissing me on the shoulder.
Which, of course, is woman code for not fine.
"I still like you," she says with a smile, snuggling up to me. "And there'll be plenty of other times . . ."
"Er, yeah," I say, wondering what I've got myself into. I decide to nip it in the bud. "Listen, Darla. I'm not the kinda guy you want to be involved with."
Darla squeezes my bicep. "That's why I want to be involved with you," she says.
I'm still trying to figure out what she means when
