“Then I’m sorry to tell you, but your hard-won wisdom is bullshit. I’m not lost or lonely.” He walks over to the bed and removes his shirt. “I’m just tired.”
“Are you sleeping here tonight?” I ask.
He looks down at the bed and back at me. It’s easy to see the mindlessness of what he’s doing. Just pacing the same steps he’s always walked—at least, until I came along.
But things have changed now.
“Oh, I get it,” I say before he can answer, nodding at him with over-the-top faux sympathy. “You’re nervous to spend a night with me. You’re worried I’ll cross all the boundaries you’ve created and make you want something beyond the clinical, business-only arrangement we’ve struck.”
His gaze turns cold. Flecks of ice sparkling in the lamp light. I’ve hit a nerve, it seems.
“You’re very confide
