CHAPTER 32 #2
“Yeah, I like that idea,” she said and made the changes. “Actions are suck, nibble, kiss, rub, tickle, and lick.”
“We can leave those, I think,” Kristina suggested. “They all sound good to me.”
“What if we replace tickle with something since we already have the tickler in the toys?” she asked.
“With what?”
Jennifer looked over at her and replied, “Fuck.”
Kristina swallowed and said, “We should be doing the cards instead of doing this.”
“Probably. Now, the last die is time, which we can just keep, so I can fold now, and you can read the first question.”
“And after that?” Kristina asked. “I mean, after the cards.”
“We’ll see, won’t we?” Jennifer teased and started to fold the first one.
“Right. Okay. The first one is about your favorite sports team. What’s yours?”
“I have no time to watch sports.” Jennifer laughed. “But I grew up loving the White Sox.”
“You did?”
Jennifer nodded.
“Me too,” Kristina revealed.
Jennifer looked up at her then, ceasing her folding, and asked, “Are you from Chicago?”
Kristina nodded this time.
“Do you still live there?”
“Yeah. Outside the city because it’s too expensive, but yeah. You?”
“I have a condo in River North. I just bought it.”
“Really?”
“I’m not rich; I should tell you that. I just finished paying off my student loans.
But my grandfather died about two years ago, and about a year ago, they finished with his estate stuff, and he left me some money.
I used most of that for the house and to finish paying off my loans.
It’s a three-bedroom, two-bath place, about fifteen hundred square feet, and it’s near my new job, which worked out well.
I don’t know that I’ll be there forever, but I wanted enough space just in case. ”
“Space?”
“Kids,” Jennifer replied with a shrug. “I put off having them. Now, I’m forty-two and just starting to slow down, but I’d like at least one.
Two, if the first one doesn’t kill me.” She laughed a little nervously.
“It’s one of the reasons I’m here. I have been making a lot of life changes, and I’m not getting any younger.
I don’t want to be a single mom, but I will if I can’t find someone to share parenting with. I came here to maybe do that.”
“Me too,” Kristina shared.
“Yeah?”
“Bad divorce. She changed her mind on kids and told me she wasn’t attracted to me anymore on more than one occasion, so it wasn’t great, but I want kids and someone to share them with. It’s why I’m here.”
“Your wife said she wasn’t–”
“We don’t have to talk about it,” Kristina interrupted. “We’re doing things here. We can just answer the next question or laugh at the dice.”
“We can talk about whatever you want to, Kristina, but I’ll drop it for now if you need me to.”
“She did a number on me. That’s the short version, anyway. I’ve been in therapy and trying to move past it, but it’s been hard, and I hoped this week could help.”
“Is it?” Jennifer asked.
“I think so. I feel like it is, at least.”
“Good,” she said. “And she’s an asshole and an idiot.”
“She’s both?” Kristina asked.
“She’s an idiot for not finding you completely beautiful, and she’s an asshole for telling you that. God, I’ll tell you how beautiful you are every day if you let me.”
“Well, we did just find out that we live in the same area. Maybe there’s a chance I could find you once a day, and you could tell me,” Kristina joked.
“Maybe we can aim for more than that.”
“Maybe,” Kristina said with a smile. “Fold those dice.”
She pointed at the still-flat dice on the bed.
“Yes, Ma’am,” Jennifer teased and continued to fold.
“So, next question. If money didn’t matter, what would you do for a living?”
“What I’m already doing,” Jennifer answered honestly. “Well, being a doctor in general, helping people. Plus, I love medicine. I love science. I always have. You?”
“What I’m doing now, too. I’m not sure many people would choose to barely make enough money to survive on while listening to nine-year-olds learn how to play a very loud instrument if it wasn’t what they really wanted to do.”
Jennifer laughed and replied, “True. And I guess that’s good: we both have that part figured out.”
She passed Kristina a finished die.
“I mean, I do wish I had a condo in River North, but I wouldn’t trade what I do for that.”
“Did I mention that it has a fireplace?”
“No. It does? Now, I’m really jealous.”
“And a jacuzzi tub. I really wanted a jacuzzi tub.” Jennifer folded the second die quickly and tossed it into Kristina’s lap.
“I have dreamed of coming home to a fire with a glass of wine and doing nothing but reading or maybe talking, if there’s someone sitting next to me on the sofa, and then climbing into that tub. ”
“With someone?”
“If she’s interested.” Jennifer winked at her and tossed the third die at her.
“I’m actually having it wired for surround sound and adding speakers everywhere.
I was hoping to be able to listen to peaceful music while in that tub and sipping my wine, but I’d happily do that with someone else who also loves classical music. ”
Kristina pointed at herself and said, “Me? I love classical music.”
“You don’t say!” Jennifer teased her back and tossed the fourth die at her. “How many kids do you want?”
“One. Maybe two.”
“Well, when they’re little, they can share rooms pretty easily,” Jennifer said.
“Yes, but they can share rooms whenever. Are you one of those elitists who thinks every kid has to have their own bedroom?” Kristina joked.
“No, but things get tricky when they’re teenagers if you have a boy and a girl. I’d know; I have an older brother. He’s two years older, so when he hit that age…”
“Oh, no…”
“Yeah… He did it all the time, and we were still sharing a bedroom, so my dad had to give up his office in the basement, and my brother moved in there.”
“I have a younger brother. I swear, I walked in on him doing that once, and he covered it up, but I’m pretty sure.”
“So, back to my point…”
Jennifer tossed the final die into Kristina’s lap.
“Which was?”
“That if someone wanted to soundproof one of the other rooms and maybe play her music in there, maybe write something that someone else…” She pointed to herself. “Could hear, that would be okay with that particular someone else.”
Kristina smiled and said, “I see what you did there.”
“Well, I was pretty obvious about it, so…”
“Do you believe in karma?” Kristina read from the next card.
“I’m going to say yes. And I sure hope your ex is getting some. Bad karma, specifically.”
Kristina laughed and said, “I’m going to try to be a better person and say that I hope she just figures out what she wants.”
“You’re definitely a better person than me, then, because I hope she gets–”
“Okay.” Kristina put her hand over Jennifer’s mouth to quiet her. “Let’s not talk about my ex all night.”
“I don’t recall seeing ‘cover mouth with hand’ on those dice I just folded,” she mumbled through Kristina’s hand.