The Crowded Room

5. Withering Dicks.

"The three of dicks?’’

Mila’s dim lit bedroom isn’t of much help as I squint my eyes to look at the scribbled words underneath the picture of the tarot card placed flatly on the bed.

That didn’t sound right.

Mila shuts her eyes, her laugh lines protruding from the giggle she allows to escape. She opens her eyes filled with humorous tears and stares at me.

‘’No! It’s the three of decks!’’

She picks up the card and throws it at me as her whole body reverberates from her laughter.

‘’Oh.’’

There’s a brief silence before we both start laughing. My hands clutch onto my stomach to try and ooze my muscles from contracting from the everlasting giggles. This behaviour lasts for at least another half an hour before we both regain our composure.

‘’You clearly have something on your mind.’’

Her words escape with a smile and I bash my head into the nearest pillow to try and cover up my blush. Beau plops himself next to me, licking my exposed arm. I uncover myself from the bedding to pet him on his head.

‘’Frankly I don’t know what you’re talking about.’’

She rolls her eyes dramatically. I can’t try and hide the fact that last week Thursday didn’t happen nor the fact that Pierre got me more riled up in one evening than anyone else has in over three years.

Or maybe ever.

‘’You can’t run away from this conversation much like you can’t run away from him when you go for your weekend visit.’’

She dramatically emphasizes the whole sentence clear enough for me to hear every single word.

Weekend visit.

I dread those words as it is cause for my gut to shrivel and not in a good sense. A whole weekend with Pierre? Why did I ever say yes?  There are so many things that could go wrong; he could think I’m boring, think I’m too quiet, maybe detached and aloof or maybe even worse, he could think that I am bad in bed. I gulp heavily at the thought.

Sex.

‘’Or, so many things could go right.’’

Mila’s words break me from my thoughts. Did I say that out loud?  Deciding not to dwindle from the topic any longer, I sigh and look at her while putting my hair in a messy bun, she packs away the tarot cards and passes me a fluffy black headband and takes out the Iwori face mask and hands it over to me. Beau moves away to lay down on the edge of the bed.

‘’One evening maybe, but a whole weekend? I don’t know. You know I’ve never been that long around a guy before.’’

I open the packet and shove my fingers into the mooshy contents and start to rub it all over my face while thinking of the weekend to come. I’ll be with him and his friends and very much out of my comfort zone.

‘’What’s the worst that can happen?’’

I scoff.

‘’Uh, he literally just has to look at me when I wake up and then he’ll be ready to run away.’’

She rolls her eyes playfully and starts to dig into mooshy substance and starts to gently place it on her face with candid precision.

‘’Not true, I’ve seen you wake up in the morning plenty of times and I have not run away yet have I?’’

I fill our glasses with more red wine.

‘’It’s not the same and you know it, plus he could actually be an axe murderer.’’