“Bushwork.” Sullivan caught Kia’s slip.
“Brushwork. I saidbrushwork.”
They proceeded around the perimeter of the hall admiring the paintings and giggling a little at how very, very large theywere. The last one featured a woman sitting naked, legs spread.
“Now she’s just showing off.” Kia rolled her eyes. “Let’s eat a sandwich. These are inspired by Ms. Domingo herself.”
Kia spread a waxed tablecloth over one of the benches set in the center of the gallery. She set the picnic basket at one end and opened the parchment wrappers to reveal juicy grilled chicken with pickled red onions and creamy avocado, all nestled between slices of crusty ciabatta bread. The meat was topped with a vibrant slaw of shredded cabbage, oregano, pepper, vinegar, carrots, and cilantro.
They sat, side by side, at the other end of the bench, their shoulders almost touching, sandwiches—on reusable Corelle dishes—balanced on their laps.
“I don’t need to tell you this is the best sandwich,” Sullivan said, covering her mouth as she spoke. “You already know.”
“I still like to hear it.”
“This is the best sandwich ever.”
“Thank you.” Kia bumped Sullivan’s shoulder.
After they had chewed in silence for a few minutes, Kia took a deep breath. “Can I ask you something personal?”
“How I clean my sous vide machine?”
“No, and not what you paid for your stand mixer.”
“What could be more personal than that?”
“You absolutely do not have to answer this—” Kia sucked in her lower lip. “But was Aubrey a good lover?”
“Wow. You’re not interested in my stand mixer.”
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have—”
“It’s okay. It’s just us. The Domingos aren’t listening.”
The gallery full of nudes felt like a place out of time. If they stayed here, there was no lawsuit. Kia wasn’t leaving. They weren’t even online. Kia hadn’t taken out her phone once. It felt safe. It feltlike they’d been here forever.
“At first. I love being in my body. Cooking. Eating. Hiking. Sex.” Sullivan realized she’d leaned into Kia ask she spoke. The length of their thighs touched. Kia had not pulled away, so neither did Sullivan. “I’d try most things twice with the right person. Ihavetried most things with the right people. Aubrey was on that page at first, but the more she did her social media, the more she acted like I wanted sex too much. I never pressured her, obviously, but she spent so much time on her phone. I did suggest that having sex was more fun than watching climbing goat videos.”
“I would much rather have sex with you than watch goat videos.” Kia covered her face with her hand and shook her head as if to say,I just said that, didn’t I?But when she looked up, she was smiling.
“High praise. I’ll take it,” Sullivan said.
They both laughed.
“Nothing kills an orgasm like thinking maybe she’d rather be watching climbing goat videos,” Sullivan said. “I think she lost interest in sex because she couldn’t put it online. So what was the point of spending all that time in bed when it didn’t produce any content.”
“How could anyone want to film content more than have sex with you?”
“I know, right?” Sullivan pulled her shoulders back in a cocky pose, then let them drop. “I started to feel like she wasn’t attracted to me at all even though she swore she was.”
“Well, you’re hot as fuck. If you needed someone to tell you, I’m telling you.”
Kia was still blushing, but she looked Sullivan directly in the eye, and her gaze felt like a punctuation mark that meantwhat I just said is unequivocally true. It made Sullivan glow with pride. Kia’s statement felt like a soothing balm to the one-sided love of her past. A wave of attraction and desire washed over Sullivan asshe held Kia’s eyes.
“You don’t have to answer,” Sullivan said, “but why do you want to know if Aubrey was a good lover?”
“This is the dumb part,” Kia said. “I’m pretty sure I’m not. I kind of missed the part—in your teens and early twenties—when you get good at sex. I was living on a yacht with my dad and a thousand spaniels, and then I was with Gretchen. I should have learned something. We dated for four years. But we never lived in the same city. When we saw each other every two or three months, I wanted to have sex. She wanted to talk marketing strategy. When we broke up and she becamejustmy manager, I could barely tell the difference.”
