“I’m lying in bed in a nightgown, with nothing underneath.”
“Give me a sec,” and Kate waited, hearing Simon rush up the stairs, presumably ripping his clothes off on the way to his bedroom. Which, she realized, she had yet to see.
“I’m back.”
“I don’t care if you’re back. Are you, um, hard?”
“Shit. I am now.”
“Naked?”
“With the shades down.”
“Oh, you naughty boy.”
“Shit, Kate, don’t tease.”
She ignored that. They put each other on speaker.
“I’m naked now and lying in the middle of the bed. Do you want to know what I’m doing?”
“I want to see what you’re doing, but I guess telling will have to do.”
“I’m running my fingers up and down my pussy. I’ve gotten very wet. You’ve gotten me very wet, you bad boy.”
“Stop. You’re going to make me explode.”
“Do you want me to stop?”
“Good God no.”
“Are you…sure you don’t want me to stop?”
“Jesus, Kate, don’t toy with me.”
“Are you using the Lord’s name in vain?”
“If you’re tempting me with a fucking apple just let me take a bite.”
At this point talk of the Bible was not helping Kate. But she was going along with the flow.
“Shit, Simon. What are you tempting me with? Eve’s the one who got to take a bite.”
“I’d love to be biting your tits.”
“Oh, so you like my…tits, do you?
“I love your tits. What are you doing?”
“I’d love to say I’m…rubbing my tits, but my fingers are running up…and down my—”
“Shit. Tell me you’re inside.”
“I’m inside. Thinking of your dick.”
“Do you want my dick inside you?”
“Always. Tell me you’re close.”
“I’m so fucking close.”
“Do you love me?”
“Of course I love you.”
“Shit. I’m coming.”
“Wait. Do you love me?”
Kate was breathless.
“Of course I love you, you fool”
“Fuuuuuuuuuck.”
After seconds of silence.
“Did you come?”
“I’m afraid I need to change my sheets.”
“Simon. You really are a bad boy.”
And that is the first time they told each other of their love.
“I meant it.”
“So did I. I have to go now.”
“But you’ve just come.”
“You are terrible. I’ll see you tomorrow. Goodnight.”
“Goodnight. My love.”
After each cleaned up, they slept very well.
Saturday
All of this was, of course, crazy. Kate barely knew the guy. Eileen, Suzanne, Kerry, Mary, and Betty were unanimous: SLOW DOWN. On cross-examination, though, each of them admitted that while they did not realize the person they married (or, in Betty’s case, the first woman she married) was “the One” almost immediately, in retrospect they knew that was true. They each admitted that it was crazy for them as well and that they had no regrets. Suzanne and Kerry, of course, both did regret that they wasted all that time being stubborn about each other and so did Mary and Betty when Kate noted that they wasted twenty years being apart.
With her case rested and won, Kate put the it’s-too-soon worries aside. What happened happened and she was too old to waste a minute.
Simon was oblivious to all of the discussions that Kate was having in the prior days. He had been introduced to Edward as Kate’s boyfriend but just what Kate thought that meant in her mind he could not know. Frankly, much as the sex was real and spectacular, he did not dare think their relationship was where Kate thought it was. Simon was playing it by ear. As he had on that day when they walked back from the Metropolitan and she sent him away. It was only her soothing words as he sat on his deck that rousted him from a heretofore unknown agony.
He hoped Kate was not still asleep when he sent her a text at eight, asking whether he could come into the City and when. She was not asleep, as evidenced by his getting her text at 8:03:
{Kate: I’m up. Ready to go. I don’t have anything planned. We can play it by ear. When will you be here?}
{Simon: I’ll shower and shave. Be down ASAP. That OK??}
{Kate: Perfect. Text me when you’re leaving. How long you think it will take?}
{Simon: An hour or so. Shouldn’t be traffic.}
{Kate: Just let me know when you leave. I will see you.}
{Simon: Me too.}
Simon texted when he was leaving the house and called her—using the Volvo’s speaker—when he crossed into Manhattan. She buzzed him in at around ten and had coffee and some bagels with lox and cream cheese ready when he arrived. When done, they decided to go for a walk. No more. No less. They headed into Riverside Park, where Kate so often walked and thought. Kate put her right arm through Simon’s left and they headed down to the marina, stopping at a bench and looking across to New Jersey and up to the George Washington Bridge. And they talked.