consider her own made-up list. “That would be a good one, actually. A man’s man. A real man.”
“Doesn’t sound too unreasonable,” I smiled.
Naomi swore viciously under her breath. “Do you know the last guy I dated couldn’t even jump-start a car?”
“Lots of people have triple-A these days,” I shrugged. “Maybe it’s a lost art?”
“A lost art?” she sneered. “Maybe it’s two fucking cables you attach to each battery, red and black. It’s not rocket science, Delaina.”
“Solid point.”
“Shit,” she went on. “The last asshole who took me out didn’t have a pair. His battery died while we were in the restaurant, and when I asked if he had jumper-cables he looked at me like I asked him to solve the Riemann Hypothesis.”
“God you’re such a nerd,” I laughed. “You know that, right?”
“Nerd’s offensive. We prefer the term Geek now.”
“As if anything could actually offend you.”
“Who the fuck doesn’t stuff a simple set of jumper-cables into the trunk?” my friend swore. She still couldn’t let it go. “Or under the seat, or—”
“What is it you wanted again?”
This time she laughed, and her laughter reminded me of how much I loved her. Other than the fact she was socially extroverted and completely unafraid of men, Naomi was a lot like me. We’d met in a cybersecurity class, toward the end of my college career. She’d been taking it for the company she worked at. I’d needed it for my masters. Pairing up for projects had us hanging out off campus, and before long we were friends. It was easy to make friends with someone like Naomi.
“You get your dress yet, bitch?”
At first the question didn’t register. “Dress for what?”
“Uhhh… the wedding?”
My brows crossed. “The wedd—” Suddenly it hit me. “OH SHIT. Heather’s wedding!”
“There we go,” she chuckled. “I just jump-started your brain.”
Panicked, my mind began racing through my mental calendar. My friend Heather had invited me to her wedding, and to stave off boredom I was using Naomi as my plus one. That had been ages ago. I’d totally forgotten.
“Oh wow,” I said. “I… I totally—”
“It’s not this weekend,” said Naomi, putting me out of my misery. “It’s still about a month away.”
I breathed a huge sigh of relief. “Thank God.”
“Yeah.”
“Did you still want to go dress shopping?”
“Nope, I already took care of it,” she said proudly. “For once I’m ahead of the game.”
“Oh.”
“But I figured I’d remind you,” she said. “Because you know… scatterbrain.”
“Scatterbrain?” I said in my own mock-offended tone. “Look who’s talking! More like busy as hell, and—”
“Busy,” laughed Naomi. “Sure.”
Damn, I really needed to go to lunch with Naomi — especially since she was one of the only people I could actually tell what happened. My geeky computer friend was many things, but the one thing she wasn’t was judgmental.
“Shop with me anyway?” I offered. “I’ll buy lunch.”
“Sounds good,” she said. “Except I’m not in town. I’m actually in Irvine.”
“California?”
“Yeah. Tech conference. Nerd stuff.”
“You mean geek,” I teased.
“Whatever,” Naomi chuckled. “You should fly out here, crash my room with me. The weather’s fucking fantastic. And all this nerd shit would be right up your alley.”
“Tempting but I can’t,” I sighed. “New semester is starting up. And they gave me three classes to teach instead of two.”
Somewhere on the opposite side of the country, my friend sighed. “Gonna have to wait until the wedding then,” she said. “We’ll catch up then.”
“Definitely,” I said, my face breaking into a smile just thinking about it. “I… have a lot of stuff to tell you about.”
“Good,” declared Naomi, “I could use some girl time. The nerd world’s come a long way, but it’s still predominantly male.”
“Not jumper-cable male though,” I teased.
“No,” my friend sighed all the way from California. “Unfortunately not.”
Sixteen
CHASTITY
It had taken every ounce of willpower not to call Senan the next day, and the evening was even harder still. I wanted to give him space, though. To let the memory of a good thing lay unblemished, in case I needed to call upon him again, which of course I did.
The worst part was thinking about how his night was going.
I could imagine how it was for most girls, sleeping with a guy for the very first time. Picturing and re-picturing it in your head. Wondering when the two of you would be able to make it happen again, and whether or not it would be even more magical than the first time.
With Senan though, the situation was a little different. And that’s because he wasn’t even close to being mine.
No, the