“Tell me that when you’re in your thirties.”
“You’re not that much older than me.”
I huffed loudly at that ridiculous statement. I could give him credit for a lot of things, possibly including being wise beyond his years, but he couldn’t just wish away the age difference. “Uh-huh… What year were you born?”
I was lying on the table, but he still hadn’t started working again. He crossed his gloved hands across his chest defiantly. “1991.”
“Yeah?” I thought for a moment. “Well, that was the year I bought my very first CD. I went to Sam Goody Records at the mall on the bus with my best friend from sixth grade.”
“What did you buy?”That was his comeback? Weird, but okay.
“Nevermindby Nirvana.”
He startled slightly at that but recovered his game face quickly. “Classic choice…and your point?”
“Obviously, it’s a reminder that there is more than a decade between us.” Our easy connection might be undeniable, but those eleven years—they were afact.
He uncrossed his arms and sat down on the stool next to the table, so we could face each other, pausing another few beats before continuing. “True…but that doesn’t seem to matter, does it? It feels like we get along pretty well.” He moved his gloved pointer finger back and forth between us, and his deep voice rumbled. A fissure of awareness ignited in me as he captured my gaze and held it.
“Sure.” I breathed out. “We do okay.” That was an understatement, especially in light of the things he’d said about me earlier, but I still wasn’t prepared to admit anything out loud. I’d come into the studio with that as my hard line, and nothing had changed.
He reached out a latexed finger and ran it thoughtfully over the outline of my lotus. “Look, Sadie. I can’t pretend that how we are together is how I am with my other clients. And deep down, I think you know that.” His finger detoured to trace the circle of the ouroboros. “There’s a lot of other bullshit in my life, but ever since you climbed up on my table, hell, ever since we started talking online, I’ve felt like myself in a way I haven’t in a while. I don’t want you to get stuck on the age thing when it’s obvious that we—”
Renn stopped himself. He sat up abruptly and dragged his hand through his hair, dislodging the little bun-pony and then cursing because it meant he’d have to wash his hands and change gloves. Doing that before sitting down again, a battle played out in his expression before he ground out, “Sadie…I don’t want to cross a line here…but…I can’t have you thinking we’re not on the same level. Because maybe down the road—”
“I get it,” I interrupted him. There was nothing he could say that I was ready to deal with, so I hurried on, “I get it…okay?”
He ran his freshly-gloved fingers over my thigh again, both of us aware he had no legitimate reason to do so other than to touch me. Both of us knowing we desired that touch. “You want to hear something funny?” He asked.
“Hmm?”
“You told me your story about buyingNevermindbecause you wanted to prove how different we are. Like, because I’m too young to have a CD collection, we don’t have anything in common.”
“I guess that’s kind of what I meant. Plus, the reminder that I was busy going to the mall while you were busy being born.”
He nodded. “But what’s funny is thatNevermindis the first album I ever bought, too. I just bought it on iTunes and not at the mall.”
“For real?” I shook my head. No wonder he’d smiled when I’d mentioned the title.
“Don’t underplay this, Sadie.” His deep voice commanded the air as he kept tracing my tattoo with his fingers, pressing them into my skin. “The way we are together is rare, and we shouldn’t dismiss it over something as insignificant as age. I don’t ever want you to think of me as anything less than your equal.”
“Renn—”
“And I don’t want to sound unprofessional, but I need to make sure you understand.” He leaned down until our faces were level. “I’m a grown man, Sadie.”
“He said whatnow?”Zach huffed.
I’d asked Zach to go for a run because I needed to debrief my tattoo session from three days ago. I’d kept the details to myself that long, trying to make sense of Renn’s words before calling in reinforcements. Midday sun hovered pleasantly over the dirt trails, and the Los Angeles skyline gleamed postcard-perfect in the distance, but I barely noticed my surroundings.
“He said ‘I’m a grown man, Sadie.’ But he said it sort of low and growly, like Batman. I’ve been so used to thinking of Renn as all sunshine and rainbows and approachable hotness, but all of a sudden he was…I dunno…aman.”
“That actually sounds…kind of sexy?”
“I know.” I sighed.
I stopped running and pulled off to the side to escape the crowds. A woman in full makeup and lashes jogged by wearing a “Stop the Turkey Holocaust” t-shirt. Gotta love Thanksgiving time in LA. I was happy to be home, but it was a dumb idea to come to Griffith Trails on a sunny weekend.
“So, what happened next?”