I carefully finished the last turn into the narrow parking space. Tomorrow was a street cleaning day, and I had to circle several blocks to find a place on the crowded curbs. A few lone cars awaited their ticketing on the other side of the street, one more hallowed Chicago tradition.
It was well worth the effort. Karen’s lawyer was now demanding that I turn over the silver SUV that was the only real asset in our dissolving marriage. Nice try, asshole. I’d learned the hard way that possession is eleven tenths of the law in divorce.
“I am not your first ex wife,” Karen had pleaded with me over email. She got that one right: Piper was smarter, faster, and meaner than Karen could ever hope to be. And I learned to divorce-fight from Piper. If Karen wanted the car, she could go right ahead and hunt it down.
As a bonus, it was a block away from my date for the evening.
Ramon was a half-hour late to the sidewalk seat at the Avondale Tap. It wasn’t a big surprise: our first attempt at meeting had been postponed for a week when his primary partner got an STI and Ramon had to go get tested himself. But when he showed up, all my annoyance was swept away.
God, he was painfully gorgeous. His lustrous dark hair was tied back, and his skin was a glowing, mouth watering bronze. He had dimples I wanted to kiss right off of his face on sight, and his stubble was so hot my hands twitched under the table. He wore ratty cargo shorts that should have canceled his gay membership and the date on general principle, and all I could think about was getting at his thick, tree trunk thighs.
Ramon was hot enough to get away with it all, and lord, he did. He had nothing to say about his partner, his job, his Cuban heritage, or his life. The one interest he’d put on his Feeld profile was knitting, and he even whiffed on that:
“Oh, yeah, I do it sometimes,” he said. “I guess I should do it more. I mostly like walking.”
There was no saving the date, and I didn’t care. I stuck some bills under my glass and rose, feeling his gorgeous eyes follow me every moment.
“Shall we walk back to my place, then?” I asked.
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