NICOLE – SIXTEEN AGAIN?

I spread my fingers and hands on the little table in front of Juju. Then I pull them back and look at my hands and fingers closely. I can feel my heart rate speed up a little, thinking about that dinner. Adam. I hate that he saw the little cracks on my fingertips. But it affected me more that he noticed.

“Isn’t there something more you can do for my dry hands, Juju? I can’t stand them.”

“I do my best, Dr. Nic, but you scrub them too much. Maybe the chemicals? Too harsh?”

“Well, I can’t help that. Do something.”

“Ok, ok, I do some extra things. Come back to the recliner with me. You can take nap while I work on hands.”

While Juju is putting my hands through multiple steps of treatment, my thoughts are whisk away to him. I thought dinner was going to be food with some verbal sparring. It would have amused me to counter the typical double entendres, shoot down cocky posturing, even dumb down and swoon at his advances. It was a …