off. They spent the next forty-five minutes chatting and pretending to work out. Brian liked her. She was younger than he’d realized, twenty-three, and shy. She was Finnish and had lived in Helsinki until she was nine. Then her dad took a job with Microsoft and they moved to Seattle.
“Do you miss Finland?”
“Not so much. The winters make everyone a bit crazy. And it’s hard to understand if you’re from this country what it’s like to live in a place no one cares about. For a while we all thought Nokia was so important, the great mobile company, and then it stopped mattering, too.”
“Honestly, I don’t think I ever thought about Finland before Nokia. Or since. I probably shouldn’t say that.”
“No, it’s fine.”
Finally, she looked at her watch and stuffed her book in her gym bag.
“I have to go. I’m sorry.”
“Will you be here Monday?”
“Will you?” She winked at him, the flirtiest gesture she’d made, though it was a little bit geeky, too. Again she ran out, no shower.
* * *
All weekend Brian felt like a kid waiting for his birthday, watching the clock. He had a feeling she’d be there Monday. And she was. She smiled when she saw him, patted the bike next to hers. The conversation picked up where it had left off. She’d spent the weekend at home working.
“Your boyfriend must have been bored.” His old rule, better to ask fast, not waste time.
“No boyfriend. He moved to New York last year. Anyway, we weren’t compatible in some ways.”
Brian restrained himself from asking if she meant sex.
“How about you?”
“Married, but we’re getting divorced.” Not exactly a lie. More a matter of timing.
“Terrible. I’m sorry to hear that.”
Her tone was neutral. Was she flirting, or just stating a fact?
“You think you know someone and you don’t at all,” she said.
“Or maybe you know them too well.”
“That too.”
He was looking forward to a long conversation but her phone beeped. “I have to go,” she said. “I have a programming group in ten minutes.”
“You won’t have time to shower.”
She leaned over. “Maybe I like being dirty,” she said, under her breath so only he could hear.
Okay, she was definitely flirting. Don’t wuss out. Ask. In fact don’t ask, just say it. “Let’s have lunch tomorrow.”
“If you’re sure your wife won’t mind.”
“I’m sure.”
* * *
He met her at an overpriced Mexican place in Bethesda. They were early. The restaurant was nearly empty. They picked a booth in the back, ordered margaritas as soon as the waiter came by. She seemed to be having second thoughts.
“Have you ever done this before?”
“No.” And he felt he was telling the truth. The strippers only wanted money. They weren’t really there.
They sucked down the first margs even before the chips came, ordered another round. Twelve bucks a pop and strong. She relaxed.
“My parents are talking about going back to Finland. I tell them they’re crazy.”
“You have family there?”
“One brother, he’s a lot older, never left. Let’s not talk about my family, they wouldn’t like my being here.”
“What should we talk about?”
“C++.”
“Exciting.”
The drinks kept coming and Eve switched sides to sit beside Brian. He realized that without having to talk they had decided what would happen next. More than anything, he felt young, like his mojo had flown back in on the skinny shoulders of this Finnish girl.
When they walked out of the restaurant the sunlight stung his eyes.
“I can’t drive,” she said.
Fifty yards away a Marriott waited. They stumbled in hand in hand and after a short, awkward conversation with the clerk, I know check-in is three but we need a room now, I’ll pay for two nights if I have to, he had the plastic key to Room 524.
“Are you okay with this?” Eve said.
“You have no idea how much. You?”
She squeezed his hand.
* * *
What came next surprised him. Because Eve turned out to be one of those quiet women who was someone very different behind the bedroom door. “See this.” She pointed to a faded yellow bruise on her bicep. “This is what I like.”
She wasn’t the first woman he’d met who found pleasure in pain. “I get it.”
“Yes? Really?”
In answer he picked her up and threw her onto the bed. He slapped and bit and put his hands around her neck and the more he pushed her the more she wanted. Harder. More. Harder. Harder. Yes—
By the time he finished he was exhausted, panting like he’d just finished a race. He pulled out at the last moment. She ran her