“She’s with me, Al. You can go. The place is safe.”
“Oh,” Al said. Then suddenly, Brody heard a muffled noise, and Al said something else. “Sorry to bother you, miss. Just looking for Brody.”
“He’s at work.” Luna’s voice rang out clear as day, and Brody pictured her standing there and assessing Al. What would she think of him? Al was a good guy. He was kind-hearted and sweet. Somehow, Brody just appreciated the fact that Luna didn’t sound upset or embarrassed that he’d stopped by. She was comfortable with herself and her body, and he appreciated that more than she’d ever know.
“Oh, very good. I’ll, uh, just…I’ll go. Nice to meet you.”
A car door slammed and Brody heard the car start.
“Gotta go,” Al said, and he hung up the phone.
Brody stared at his phone for a minute and laughed wildly before calling Luna. As promised, he’d managed to get her phone number. She answered on the first ring.
“Brody,” she said, and somehow, his name came out like a purr. “Funny timing. You just had a visitor. He saw me naked.”
“That was Al.”
“So it was you he was on the phone with,” she said. He could practically hear her shaking her head at the absurdity of the situation.
“I didn’t send him over. He’s an old friend.”
“You know, with the quarantine, he shouldn’t be coming over at all. I could be sick. I might have gotten him infected.”
“You aren’t sick, but I do agree with you. He needs to be careful.”
She paused, and didn’t say anything for a moment. Brody waited. There was something on her mind. He’d started learning what her cues were, and that made him happy. He had finally managed to start figuring out when she was upset by something or when she was pondering something. He’d started to learn when something made her interested or excited or tired or bored.
Finally, she spoke.
“I miss you,” she said. “When are you coming home?”
And there it was.
It wasn’t a whine or a demand or even emotional manipulation. It was simply a fact. He was gone, and they were apart, and she missed him.
Brody always thought that if a woman missed him while he was working that it would bother him. He was very surprised to discover that it didn’t. Not when it was her. Somehow, the idea of Luna missing him didn’t make him feel tense or scared or nervous. He didn’t feel trapped or like she was somehow trying to trick him.
In fact, the opposite was true.
Knowing that she was thinking about him was…freeing. It was comforting. It made him feel like he wasn’t so alone in all of this, and that, more than anything else, made him feel like everything was going to be just fine.
“I miss you more,” he whispered. He was alone in the office. There was no one to hear him. No one was there to judge him or make him feel uncomfortable or awkward for caring. Not that he gave a shit what anyone thought. He was far too old for that shit.
“Is this crazy?” Her voice was a whisper, and she was nervous.
“No.”
“We only just met.”
“It’s not crazy.”
She paused, and he knew she was thinking about how she wanted to phrase whatever words came next. That was fine. He knew what was happening between them was something special, something unusual, but he could handle it. It was fine.
“I like you, Brody. A lot.”
“I like you, too.”
Then an idea struck him. He was alone, and so was she. This was a chance for them to have a little bit of fun even though they weren’t together with each other.