When she finished, she looked up, awaiting my reaction.
"Wow." I didn't know what else to say.
Erika burst out laughing. "Oh. My. God. You should see yourself. Don't tell me you're actually speechless?"
"I'm definitely something," I said, wondering what she'd say when I told her that my date had been with Lawton. No doubt, she'd think it was hilarious.
"You know what you need?" Erika said. "To get laid." She slapped the table and gestured toward the poster. "And I know just the guy for the job."
I glanced at the poster. He looked good. No, better than good. Great. Spectacular. And I knew firsthand, he felt even better than he looked.
Memories from the other night flashed in my brain, snapshots that kept coming even as I tried to tuck them away for later. I saw his hands on my breasts, his lips on my neck, his pelvis grinding into mine as his sinewy muscles shifted and rippled in time with our movements.
"Wow," Erika said. "You must really like that poster." She grinned. "Just between you and me, I'm pretty sure I caught Debbie masturbating to it last Saturday."
"Oh stop it," I laughed. "She was not."
Debbie was Erika's roommate at college. I'd met her a couple of times, and honestly, she didn't strike me as the poster-masturbating type.
"Wanna bet?" Erika said. "I finished it up Saturday at the lab, and set it by the door so I wouldn’t forget it when I packed everything up. But then when I get home Saturday night, the thing is propped up by her bed, and she's all funny about it, like she doesn't know how it got in there. But I can tell by the way she says it that she's gotten way too attached to it, if you know what I mean."
I knew exactly how Debbie felt. Somewhere in my phone, I still had that naked picture of Lawton. I meant to delete it. And yet, somehow, I hadn't. At first, it had been because I didn't know how. And then, every time I pulled it up, I just couldn't hit that delete button. But I needed to. Tomorrow, I told myself.
I slid the poster a sideways glance. It's not like I'd been planning to cuddle up with it or anything, but suddenly I wasn't so sure if touching it would be the best idea.
Erika put a hand over her mouth. "Oh crap. I guess I shouldn't have told you that. Don't worry, it's totally clean. I wiped it down just in case."
"Well, that's good."
She grimaced. "I'm making it worse, aren't I?"
I couldn’t help it. I laughed. "Totally."
Soon, she was laughing too. She studied the poster with a critical eye. "Honestly, I can't blame her. Can you imagine getting a piece of that?"
"Oh, I can imagine, alright," I mumbled. Or, I could just replay the scenes from the other night.
"Speaking of which," she said, "I've got something else for you to see." She gave me a wicked grin. "I'm calling it tonight's entertainment, since I figured you'd nix my first idea."
"Which was?"
"Male strippers." She reached into her purse and pulled out a disk in a clear plastic case. Across the case, I saw the words "Rastor Sex Tape" handwritten in big black letters.
My mouth fell open. "That isn't –?"
"Oh, yes it is." She tossed the case onto the table and said, "Go on. Get your computer. I'll get the popcorn."
"Popcorn?" I glanced at the cupboards. "I don’t think I have any."
"You do now," she said, reaching into her bag and pulling out a bag of microwave popcorn. "Go ahead, pop it up. Oh, but first, get your computer, will ya?"
I glanced at the disk. Sure, I'd heard about the infamous sex tape, and I knew it wouldn't be that hard to get, but did I really want to see this?
"What's wrong?" Erika asked.
"I don't know if I can watch that," I admitted.
"Oh c'mon. Why not?"
