I dialed the number and held my breath. Her smoky voice came over the phone and I thought of the movie line, "You had me at 'hello'."
"Hi Sarah, it's Jake Gottleib.
Her breath caught. "Jake?"
"Yours truly."
"Oh my god! Jake! I can't believe it's you. It's been..."
"Thirty-one years."
"Thirty-one years! How have you been?"
"Mostly well."
"I saw you on Oprah -- what, a decade ago. Great interview."
"Thanks. Actually, that was fifteen years ago."
"You never lost your thick hair. You still looked really fit."
I had to ask. "Did you read it?"
"Of course I read it."
"I mean, you were married by then."
"I had a kid by then. So what?"
"Frank didn't mind all the sex in the novel?"
"Hank," she said.
"Hank," I repeated. "Oprah called it, 'the steamiest story since 50 Shades.'"
"As if I didn't know. That was plastered all over the buses and billboards. But, come on, I didn't tell him, 'By the way, this sex scene is exactly what really happened with Jake and me.'"
"Which sex scene?"
"Ha. You know damn well which one. You spent practically a whole chapter on the man training the woman to love ass-fucking. I guess that scene was important to you."
"It developed her character," I said, "and it showed the power-dynamic in their relationship. But yeah, it was my celebration of you and me. Of our youth. I wanted to get it just right," I said. "I'm glad you recognized us in that scene."
"Recognize?" she said. "You reported every detail. The Gypsy Kings poster on the wall, the bottle of lube dancing off the bed, how I gushed on the sheets when I came. Yeah, it sounded just a bit familiar."
"I tried to capture your feelings. Your reluctance, and finally, your thrill."
"Well, you nailed it."
"Was that a pun?"
She laughed. "Unintended."
A silence.
"Jake, what's up? Are you really okay? Thirty-one years! Why did you call me?"
"Did you like the story?"
"I loved it. It made me nostalgic. It made me horny," she said. "That's why you called? To see if I liked your novel?"
"Partly." I hesitated. "To see if you even remembered me."
"Now you're being maudlin. How could I forget you?"
"Well... all the years." I sighed. "We've orbited the sun thirty-one times since we were a couple."
"I'm not saying I think about you day and night. But
forget
you? Ha. I...uh...never mind."
"What?"
She was silent.
"Were you about to say you remember me when you get out your vibrator?"
"Geez. So blunt!" A pause. "But, yeah. You always could read my mind."
"It was more than a guess, because whenever I 'take matters into my own hands,' I always remember you."
"So you called to let me know you think about me when you jerk off."
"I've never had sex with Donna-"
"-that's as good as the sex we had."
"Now we're finishing each other's sentences."
"Like we always did."
"I really miss how good the sex was. We were so hot together!"
"You don't miss the arguments? Those were really hot, too."
I laughed. "Remember the time you threw your bloody tampon at my head?"
She laughed along. "That was pure slapstick comedy."
"It led to wicked make-up sex."