good hug says friend zone. It says bye, thanks for coming. It does not say my body is ready, let’s get it on.”
“It doesn’t?”
“No! Men do not read minds. They don’t pick up on subtlety. They see red light—stop. Green light—go. They do not see fifty shades of gray. At least not the good guys like Noah. If he’s not one thousand percent positive you’re into him like that, he probably wouldn’t try anything.” She put her glass down. “You have to make the first move.”
“I can’t make the first move.” I gulped wine at the thought.
“Give me one good reason why not.”
“Because . . . because I’ve never made the first move. I don’t know how. What if I do it wrong? What if he doesn’t understand?”
“Grab his balls. He can’t misunderstand that,” Chloe said, laughing.
“It’s not funny, Chloe. You don’t know what happened today.” Our salads arrived, and as we ate I told her about how I’d flat-out asked Noah at the beach why he’d never kissed me before.
“Damn.” She looked impressed. “That took some guts. So what happened?”
“At first, he just went silent, and I was dying a thousand deaths in the sand. Then I started babbling about being sorry, and how I shouldn’t have asked, and then all of a sudden—he did it.”
Chloe gasped, her fork halfway to her mouth. “He did? With no warning?”
“No warning. Out of the blue.”
“And? How was it?”
I set my fork down and sighed. “Amazing. Breathtaking. Hot. It made my head spin. But then he jumped up and apologized.”
My sister groaned. “That’s the worst.”
I nodded. “He said he’d always wanted to kiss me, but never had because we were such good friends.”
Chloe sighed. “That’s noble. But not much fun, huh?”
“No. But I mean, I get it. He explained to me all the reasons why it would be a bad idea to mess around with each other, and I agree with all of them. Neither of us wants to throw away seventeen years of friendship just to scratch an itch, no matter how long that itch has been there.”
“No matter how good it would feel to give it a good, hard clawing?”
A tingle started between my legs and raced up my spine. I shifted around in my seat. “No matter what.”
Our entrées arrived and we began to eat, although I hadn’t even finished my salad and didn’t feel that hungry. “I wish I had better advice, Meg. I can see that you’re really into him, and I’ve always thought you two would be good together, but if you don’t want to risk what you have now, it’s probably best to remain friends.”
I thought about that as I pushed a potato around on my plate. “Can’t we remain friends and scratch the itch?”
“You mean like friends with benefits?”
“I guess.”
Chloe shrugged. “You could. I mean, as long as both of you understood exactly what the nature of the relationship was and didn’t have any additional expectations.”
“What other expectations could there be?” I sat up a little taller, the possibility sparking something in me. “I mean, I’m only here for the week. After the wedding, I go back to DC. And he told me last night he’s not interested in dating anyone long term. Since his last relationship fell apart, he doesn’t date at all.”
“So this would be just a fling? Something for fun?”
“Right.” I took another drink, feeling more courageous by the minute. “I feel like we both could use a little fun with someone we trust.”
“Then I say go for it. As long as neither of you is in danger of being hurt, I don’t see why you shouldn’t.” Chloe lifted her glass to mine. “Go get him, tiger.”
I tapped my glass to hers. “But how? Tell me what to do. How did you seduce Oliver?”
“Which time?”
I laughed. “Come on. Help me.”
“Okay, okay. Let me think. Our first kiss was kind of mutual. But our first time, I definitely took the lead—at least at first.”
“What did you do?”
“I showed up at his dorm room and told him to take my virginity.”
I nearly choked on my wine. “What?”
“Yeah, it was amazing.” Chloe looked happy at the memory. “At first he was mad and said he wouldn’t do it.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes, but he changed his mind pretty fast.”
“I bet.” I took a bit of my dinner and tried to think how I could apply her advice to be more proactive. “I’m not sure how I would go about it. My virginity is gone, alas. And I’m not