I had put this Prada perfume on the inside of my elbows and I wondered if he had even noticed. I certainly noticed that, after he left, I could smell his scent on my skin. We had tried playing a game of truth or dare with cards from a tarot deck, just to further the game we had already played online:
1:04am M:hey kiddo
1:05amMe: what are you doing right now?
1:06amM: right now I'm watching Star Trek 6 on netflix on my tv
1:06amMe: boring
1:06am M: NO WAY! ok kinda
1:06amMe: do you have a car?
1:07am M: remember when 'drove' to your house?
1:08amMe: i didn't know how you got to my house. i don't ask questions
1:08am M: do you have a car?
1:08amMe: no i do not
1:08am M: then how are you gonna get over here?
1:09amMe: i guess i'll have to hitch
1:09am M: that's too dangerous
1:12amMe: i will let you use your imagination. oh I KNOW! why don't you drive to MY house?
1:14am M: mmm ..I suppose I could do that..what are you wearing?
1:23amMe: now you'll just have to find out
1:24am M: oohhhhh k. but I'm pretty tired. I can't stay up till 4 again watching movies
1:25amMe: ok
1:25am M: maybe we could play a game. got any cards?
1:26amMe: probably
1:27am M: ok, see u in a sec
It was that simple.
I didn't end up having a deck of cards, so a tarot deck would have to suffice as the thinly veiled device for sitting on my bed together at 2am. The cards didn't tell us anything we didn't already know. We were both waiting to get laid. He didn't mind that I had been sleeping with his friend about a month earlier, a guy who had since stopped talking to me, a guy who, as this pillow talk session revealed, already had "a lady." I had been spoken of highly, and was assured that he had left out the details.
Afterward, he asked me how I felt.
"Tingly...how do you feel?"
"Like how you feel after you've slept with someone you don't know very well."
He wanted to know the basics, asking my age, and guessing 22. I laughed.
"So you're 26, why don't you have a boyfriend?"
"You're 32! Why don't YOU have a girlfriend?" I was quick on the defense, because I had no answer.
"Because I'm in love with someone who doesn't love me."
I guess I couldn't blame him for being honest.
He left around 3.30am. I stayed up for another hour - slightly shaken by the fact that I felt a little sad and naïve and that sometimes when I think I get what I want, it turns out that I don't know what I want at all.