Read Online Long Summer Nights by Kathleen O'Reilly - Free Book Online Page A

emotional.”
    “Which is an excellent point, diverting the conversation from the more important questions, who is he, how did you meet him and is he providing you with sexual happiness?”
    “You’re such a slut,” shot back Jenn, a diversionary tactic designed to hide her recent foray into diversions.
    “Please, you are so transparent. Gratuitous name-calling will not sway me from my purpose, and only make me more curious about what you’re hiding.”
    “I’m not hiding anything,” protested Jenn.
    “Has he seen you naked?”
    “Does everybody have to keep talking about naked?”
    “Aha! He has seen you naked! Now who’s the slut, slut?”
    “We haven’t had sex.”
    “Full-frontal foreplay without stealing home? Fascinating. It gives him depth, character, mystery. Where does he live? Lower East Side? Tribeca?”
    “Harmony Springs.”
    “Oh, honey. I’m sorry. Does he have all his teeth?”
    Jenn snorted in disgust. Why, it sounded exactly like her two days ago. “Do you know how shallow and prejudicial that sounds? There are many people in this town who have excellent dental health. More so than the city frankly.”
    “So why does he live there? Why doesn’t he live in Manhattan?”
    “I don’t know.” It was the mystery to end all mysteries. He didn’t have the small town vibe about him, that easygoing friendliness that populated small towns all over America.
    “Maybe he likes the small town life better?”
    Jenn considered it for a minute. “Is that possible?”
    “I don’t think so.” Martina was silent, mulling the idea. “What the hell. Ask him. Unless you, Ms. ‘I Live To Poke In People’s Lives,’ have suddenly gotten shy.”
    No, shyness had never been her problem. “I asked. He avoided.”
    “Do you need help? I could take the train up there,” Martina volunteered, because in many ways she was just as nosy as Jenn. “We could do good cop, bad cop. I’ll be good cop, you can be bad cop. You’re a lot meaner than I am.”
    “Don’t come up here.”
    “Why?”
    “I have work to do. Real work. This isn’t a vacation. This is my life. What am I going to do if I get laid off?”
    “It’s going to be okay. Labor numbers are looking good.”
    “What about the April circulation numbers for the paper?”
    “Eh…. They could be better.”
    “Thank you for being honest. Depressing but honest.”
    “You’re going to be fine, Jenn. You’re good at what you do. Worst case, if Lizette ends up staying and you’re cut, you’ll land somewhere else.”
    Martina made it sound too easy, but Jenn had clawed and schlepped her way up the ladder, and her nature did not lend itself to clawing and schlepping. She was better at shooting the breeze and chewing the fat.
    “Do you know the lectures I’m going to get from my parents? The unsaid I-told-you-so’s which are so much worse than the real I-told-you-so’s because you both know they’re thinking it, so why not say it? Since I was eight, I’ve had to listen to ‘pick a viable career.’ And what’s journalism? Chopped liver? I tell you, it’s enough to make me whine and kvetch incessantly, repetitively and every other -ly adverb that I’m supposed to avoid.”
    “You do get redundant when it comes to your parents, repeating the same thing over and over, ad nauseum et cetera.”
    Jenn started to laugh, glad that Martina had called. Friends were good. Friends were comfortable. Friends reminded her not to second-guess herself. As opposed to family, who made her question herself on a regular basis.
    “Sorry for the replay. I suppose I’m wasting your minutes. I’ll shut up now and go seek out cool and interesting things to write about.”
    “You sound stressed. You know what works for stress? Sex.”
    “Hanging up now,” Jenn said, and pressed the disconnect button.
    Immediately her phone beeped again. No call, just a text message. Get laid.
    Jenn popped her phone into her purse and sighed.
    Orgasms should have counted