A good way to get my attention

Saturday, March 19, 2005, 7:30pm
Steve's house

I am a sick man when it comes to lasagna. If Dunkin' Donuts came out with a breakfast lasagna, I'd be the first one in line every morning. In a perfect world, I'd eat lasagna ice cream and drink lasagna coffee, and hang lasagna air fresheners off my rear-view mirror.

"You are SUCH a good cook when you want to be. This is AWESOME!" Steph says.

"Thanks!"

"I'm eating too much lasagna. I'm gonna go right to sleep!"

"Nah, you won't."

"It's been really nice talking to you lately," she says. "And tonight."

"You too."

"I mean, I didn't really agree with your idea, but I think it was a pretty good idea after all."

"The abstinence thing?"

"Yeah. So it's, what, two more weeks?"

"We made the agreement on March 12th. Today is the 19th, which means we have 24 days left."

"Twenty-four days brings us to, what, April 12th?"

"Yeah, a month."

"Unless we say four weeks instead of a month, in which case it's 21 days."

"True. But you know what else we could do?"

"Hm?"

"The last time we actually did it was March 10th. So if we make the agreement retroactive to that day, AND use your four-week idea, it's down to 19 days."

"I think I could deal with that."

10:30pm

We're sitting on the sofa, watching the news. My right arm is around her shoulders, and she's running her fingers lightly over mine. "I love your hands," she says.

"I like yours too."

"So, have you been doing anything with your hands lately?" she purrs, her eyes rolling up to meet mine.

"You mean my once a week allowance?"

"Mmm-hmm."

"Actually I haven't yet. I'm afraid that if I do it, it's gonna make it ten times worse."

"I KNOW! Me too! I'd just rather not do it at all."

"Has it been hard for you?"

"Oh my god," she says, looking up at the ceiling.

"Yeah, I've been getting a lot of chores done at 5 am."

"So I need to ask you something."

"Hm?"

"I can't do anything WITH you, right?" she asks.

"Mmmmm..."

"Can I do something FOR you?"