the mention of their “intimacy” sting too much. “Two months?” she asked, concentrating on the part that stood out. Kitty had waited two entire months before sleeping with Jeff. And then Babette spouted the next obvious question—“Why?”
“Why did I sleep with him?” Kitty asked, undoubtedly surprised at the question.
Babette gathered her composure. “No, I’m sorry. That’s not what I meant. I guess it just seems a little long to wait in this day and age, you know.” Did that sound like a question of merit? Because Babette needed it to, and she also needed to find out how any woman could have waited two whole months without getting hot and heated with Jeff.
“Oh,” Kitty said, then laughed. “Well, it wasn’t easy, believe me. I mean, he’s extremely desirable, and he definitely has his share and then some of sexual appeal, but that’s just a rule I’ve never broken.”
“What rule?”
“How long I date a guy before I sleep with him. The relationship has to last at least two months before I go to bed with a guy, because I really don’t have any desire for casual sex. If I sleep with someone, then it’s because we’re making love, not merely having sex, you know? Two months seems to be the amount of time I need to make that decision, whether it’s real love, or merely lust. And when we finally got together, it was definitely making love.”
Babette’s stomach churned. Two months she’d waited. Real love they’d made. Babette had a rule about sleeping with guys as well, but hers didn’t seem nearly as conservative anymore. She’d thought the third date should be the deciding factor. But with Jeff, she’d broken even that rule and somehow, at the end of date one, found herself stark naked and panting without any clear-cut reason about why she’d thrown her pitiful excuse for a rule right out the window. Something about being with Jeff made her unequivocally lose her senses. And her panties.
She didn’t want to hear anymore about Jeff and Kitty’s sex life, or rather, their “making love” life. “Okay, let’s move on to the breakup. You said you left with Samuel Farraday. Can you tell me exactly what happened? Did you and your fiancé argue over Farraday, and then you left, or was it something else?”
Kitty’s hair shimmered as she shook her head. “I actually wish it had been something like that, but the truth is I never even told Jeff I’d seen Samuel—well, not verbally, anyway. I told him in the note I left.”
“You broke your engagement with a note?” Babette did her damnedest to control how appalled she was over Kitty’s lack of breakup finesse.
“It was stupid,” Kitty said, vocalizing Babette’s sentiment.
“Well, I’ll do my best to see if I can help, and if the damage is irreparable, I’ll let you know.” She figured she should throw that out there, since she couldn’t imagine any guy in their right mind—particularly Jeff—going back to a woman who broke their engagement via a Dear John letter. But the chance of getting rid of that last student loan and getting a free beach vacation to boot was worth giving it a shot.
“I think I’ve got everything I need,” she said, but then another question tickled the back of her brain, and she couldn’t resist asking. “Wait, one more thing. When did the two of you start dating? And how long did it last?”
“That golf tournament was the first week of August last year,” Kitty said, “and we ended our engagement a month ago, or rather, I ended it when I left with Samuel Farraday.”
The first week of August last year would have been . . . the week after he and Babette had last spoken. Basically, he went from Babette’s bed to Kitty’s. Well, after two months of dating, that is.
Two months. Babette had barely made it inside his condo after their first date before she was naked and on top of him. As a matter of fact, their first time they hadn’t even made it to the bed and had proceeded to have sex against his apartment door, something she thought had been exhilarating and magical at the time. Now, after Kitty’s “waiting until we were making love” sentiment, it felt rather cheap.
“Do you need any additional information?” Kitty asked, unaware of the turmoil her little proclamation had created in Babette.
Again, Babette gathered her composure. She needed this woman’s business. She needed the Love Doctor to succeed and keep her record at a