She nods, and I kiss her. She still tastes like sex, and my dick stirs again. “I need to, um, get cleaned up.” She pushes those glasses up the bridge of her nose, and Shane groans from across the room.

“Sorry,” he says. “I just think it’s so hot when she does that.”

She rolls her eyes, but I know she likes it. The way he can make any normal thing seem absolutely filthy. And the way that he can make the absolute filthiest things seem normal.

Chapter Fifteen

I pull the knot of the red neck scarf away from my Adam’s apple. “You’re the blond one. Why am I Fred again?” I ask Shane as we wait for Penelope to come out of her room and join us.

“I can’t pull that dude off.” He’s wearing maroon bell bottom jeans and a green T-shirt. “Shaggy is my idol, after all.”

I feel ridiculous. Costume parties aren’t my favorite, but I like the way all the girls dress  up extra slutty for Halloween. Speaking of girls. “I’m assuming she’s Velma.”

“Natch.”

“Why is it taking so long?” Seems like a pretty easy costume to change into, and Shane did all the work putting them together. He lives for shit like this. For someone as lazy as he claims to be, when he’s motivated to put together a big production, he goes all out.

“Women are strange creatures.” He tosses me a beer. “I’m already hard thinking of her in the costume though.”

“Have you always been this into Velma?” Before Penelope, I’d have considered myself a Daphne dude. After Penelope, well, anything that reminds me of Penelope gets me hot. I can’t explain it.

“Yeah, dude. Always liked the smart chicks. And those fucking glasses.”

“I noticed you put your test scores on the fridge. Are you hoping for a gold star or something?”

Shane puts his feet up in the recliner, casual as can be. “Are you not proud of me?”

“Yeah, sure, son. Congratulations on passing all your STI tests.”

“I am sensing sarcasm. But I’m hoping, since we decided to keep this all in the family, that Velma will agree to going raw when we actually do the deed.”

I pull my necktie, cravat, whatever the hell it is, away from my neck again. No condom. Raw. I swallow thickly. “Do you think that’s a good idea? Do we need to have another talk about where babies come from?”

“She’s on the pill. We’re disease free. Sounds like a good idea to me. You ever...without a condom?”