“Sacrement, Monroe, do you actually manage a sex shop?” I can’t keep the bemusement off my face.
She throws back a pull of her drink before resting it on the table again. “I’m not going to confirm that.”
“I wish you would. I have alotof questions.”
She grimaces. “You don’t have to be such a pervert about it.”
“I’m serious! I’m a business owner. I studied economics. The logistics of running a sex shop are actually very interesting to me.”
She shakes her head. “Nuh-uh. I’m changing the subject.”
“To what?”
“I don’t know what. I’m just not talking about the logistics of running a sex shop with you.”
Our server passes by behind Monroe, and I swear he’s about to ask how we’re doing before he overhears the end of her sentence, does a double-take, and keeps on walking.
“Alors,then why don’t we talk about how you went from English grad to adult supply store manager?”
She makes another face at me but consents to the topic.
“I was going to go for my PhD,” she explains, “but I took some time off to save up for the program, and then the management position came along, and it just...never happened.”
“You could still go back to school. You’re young.”
“You say that like you’reold. I’m twenty-seven. I can’t be that much younger than you.”
That would make her five years younger, to be exact. It’s not much, but it’s enough to possibly be significant if we dated.
If we dated? What happened to one drink?
“Regardless, plenty of PhD students aremucholder than you.”
“It’s not an age thing,” she counters, “and it’s not like I’m pining to go back. My life just...took a different path. I found a rhythm. I found a place where I fit. My job is hard work, but at the end of the day, I feel satisfied. I feel like I’ve done well, like I’ve helped people.”
“With the sex toys.”
Iknowshe’d smack me for that if she weren’t in danger of knocking over our drinks.
“Pervert,” she grumbles. “It’s not just about the customers, though. It’s the staff. We’re a family. We support each other. How many people are lucky enough to say that about their coworkers? I couldn’t just leave them. They need me.”
“Sometimes supporting your family means letting them go, letting them leave to do the things they need to do.”
It’s a bold thing to say, and I’m not surprised to see she looks mildly affronted.
“I don’twantto leave. We’re not all industrious pioneers, Bordeaux boy. Some of us can go to bed happy just knowing we made someone smile.”
“Or orgasm,” I amend. “You know, with the sex toys you sold them.”
I can’t stop myself; she’s making this too easy.
“You have the mind of twelve year-old boy, Julien Valois.”
“I think we can both agree I at least have the mind of a fourteen year-old boy. I did get into Cambridge, you know.”
Monroe laughs as I drain the last dregs of Merlot from my glass. She doesn’t have anything but ice left in hers. The server seems to sense the end of a round and shows up to ask if we’d like another. I glance at Monroe. She checks the time.
“I should get going.”
