Free The Love of My (Other) Life by Traci L. Slatton

considerate lover I’d ever taken to bed. Not that I had a large sampling to compare him against because I’d married young, but still. I reached inside myself for the union of patience and firmness, the way I often did at work. “Look, I’ve been humoring you.”
    “Humoring me, that’s what you call what we did?
    I knew we should have done it again right away. The decohering slowed me down. Damn!”
    I felt my cheeks burn scarlet. “You seem harmless, despite the delusions and fantasies. But this is real. And there’s a side to it you don’t understand.
    So please, just shut up and let me work it out, so I can keep my thumbs and go back to painting.” I marched back to Guy, steeling myself for a difficult conversation. I could feel Brian’s forlorn eyes on me.

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15
Like a Virgin
    Brian sat on the floor of Tessa’s dorm room in Branford College. She had a tiny single, which seemed wallpapered and carpeted with sheet music.
    The cello leaning against her desk made a dissonant contrast with the boom box, which was blasting
    “Like a Virgin.”
    “Isospin should be allowed, it’s a real word,” Brian grumbled. He looked across a scrabble board at Tessa.
    “Not in the scrabble dictionary,” Tessa said, wagging her finger at him. “You know the rules. Drink!”
    “The scrabble dictionary is out-of-date, unfairly biased against scientific terminology, and just plain wrong, ” Brian said. He reached through the pile of empty Pabst Blue Ribbon cans on the floor to find a full can. His woozy fingers curled around one. He pulled off the tab top and then chugged. Then he belched, an elongated sound like a cow lowing.
    Tessa fell over, laughing.
    “You’re gonna win just because I can’t spell anymore,” Brian said.
    “I’m going to win because I’m the superior player.”
    “In your dreams,” Brian returned.
    “It’s true, I got 800 on the English SAT.”
    “Show off.” Brian sniffed. Then he gave Tessa a serious, brooding look. “What did the male magnet say to the female magnet? From your backside, I found you repulsive. However, seeing you from the front, I find you rather attractive.”
    “You don’t like my backside?” Tessa leapt to her feet, turned, and wiggled her tush at him. Just then, the boom box experienced a moment of quiet. “Justify My Love” kicked up.
    “This is the song I first got laid to!” Tessa said.
    She swayed her hips. She danced rhythmically, seductively, as she sang along with the song—and all the while she stared into Brian’s eyes.
    “You said we could only be friends, but you don’t have to have a PhD to know that’s not friendship music.”
    “‘Don’t want to be your sister, either, I just wanna be your lover,’” Tessa sang, huskily. Then she ran her tongue over her lips.
    Brian grabbed her by the ankles. She tumbled down, laughing. Brian rolled her onto her back and climbed atop her. “What poor schnook did you date rape to this tune?”
    “He loved it,” Tessa said, weaving her arms around Brian.
    “I bet he did,” Brian said. He pressed his lips against hers, softly and quickly.
    “My brother’s math tutor. He was twenty-three.
    I was sixteen. I never told anyone, not even David.
    Kiss me again, Prof.”
    But Brian paused. “What about old David, Mr. Perfect from back home? I don’t want to share you with him.”
    “That’s done,” Tessa said. “He wants a girl at school with him. Besides, he was getting boring.”
    She faked a yawn and rolled her eyes.
    “Good,” Brian said. “Just so you know, I’m telling everyone what we’re about to do. Twice.”
    Tessa laughed. “That’s not very gentlemanly of you.”
    “Yes, it is, because I’m going to marry you, too,” Brian said. Then he kissed her for real because he meant it.

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16
Picnics are such sweet sorrow
    The ugliness that repels us in nature exists, but it becomes acceptable and even pleasurable in the art that expresses and shows beautifully the ugliness