“Well, Nick,” Carly said, leaning back in her chair. “I don’t like to use the word diagnosis. To me that means there’s something wrong with you, something that has to be ‘fixed’, and of course there’s nothing truly wrong with you. You’re not sick, are you?”
“Uh, no, I’m not,” I said, confused.
“Right. So what I’m about to say isn’t so much as a diagnosis, but more of something that I want you to try on for size.”
“Okay,” I said slowly, still confused.
“I think you’re missing intimacy in your life.”
“Intimacy?” I said, questioningly. I wasn’t missing intimacy. Do guys really need intimacy in their lives?
“Yes, intimacy,” she began. Her eyes softened. She leaned forward, placing her elbows on her knees, and her shirt opened just a bit more, tantalizing me with her cleavage. “We often think of intimacy as something that is purely physical…you know, *sex*,” she said, placing a confusing emphasis on the word sex. “But intimacy is so much more than that. It’s something that you share with someone, a kind of vulnerability that you don’t feel with someone at work, or a family member. It’s…more comfortable than that, it’s safe.”