when he sees me standing by myself.
“Hey, Reese,” he says. He looks at the bartender. “A bottle of Bud.” The bartender hands him his beer, and he looks at me and raises his bottle. I clink it with my glass and we both take a sip. I’ve gotten to know Becker fairly well over the past month, but I haven’t spent much time with Jason.
“Having fun?” he asks.
I shrug. “Sort of lonely over here to be honest, but Keith and I have become fast friends.” I nod to the bartender, and he grins. “Have you seen Tess lately?”
He shakes his head. “I was just going to ask you the same.”
“Most of my free time lately has gone to Brian.”
“Most of mine has gone to work. I’m sure Brian told you about our travel schedules.”
“He mentioned a bit of traveling, but he didn’t go into details.”
“Then I imagine he didn’t tell you how much he’s pushed off onto me so he could stay in town with you.”
“He has?”
Jason nods. “He’s into you, Reese. You make him happy.”
“That’s nice of you to say.”
“I mean it. His last relationship had sort of a rough ending. You’re good for him.”
“He hasn’t talked about how his last relationship ended. He’s only mentioned his ex a few times.”
“Oh, I’m sorry I brought it up. It’s not my business to share.” He takes a swig of his beer, which he’s managed to almost drain in our short conversation.
I shrug, but he’s got my mind working overtime. “No worries. He’ll tell me when he’s ready to, I guess.”
“It’s just been hard for him to get past everything that happened, but I’m glad he’s moving on with someone like you.”
“What was her name again?” I ask.
“His ex?”
I nod.
“Kendra.”
Kendra. The same name Hazel brought up.
“That’s right,” I say, wondering how many drinks Jason has had and how much information I can pull out of him this way.
Another man I don’t recognize walks up and starts talking to Jason, so I turn back to Keith the bartender.
When it’s time for dinner, I finally get to sit by my boyfriend, though the conversation flies right over my head. I hear words like predictive analytics, data mining, and statistics, and my eyes glaze over. Give me a conversation about twentieth century American literature and I can talk circles around most people, but when it comes to statistical analysis, the best I can do is talk grade book percentages and class averages. So rather than try to take part in a conversation I know nothing about, I stare out the window at the view. I’m facing the Strip, and I can’t help as my mind drifts back to that night.
The image that stands out most from that night is from the second time we had sex, not the first. He cupped my cheek first, and then he kissed me as he hovered over me. He ran his fingertips along the outside of my thigh before he grazed his knuckles against my wet, sensitive flesh. That image of his hand and my naked thigh lit only from the glowing lights below is what keeps flashing through my mind. It’s not even close to the best part of our night together. It doesn’t hold a candle to other sexy moments and sensual exchanges. But for some reason, the image of his long, strong fingers against the skin of my thigh has stayed with me. It has flashed through my mind at the strangest times, alone or in a crowd, by myself or with Brian or Jill or anyone else beside me.
It keeps coming back, that image, and I can’t seem to erase it no matter how hard I try.
Eventually, I stopped trying.
“What do you think, Reese?”
I snap to attention at the sound of my name and look over at Brian.
“Huh?” I ask.
Kelsey, who is sitting on Brian’s other side, laughs. Bitch.
“I just asked what the average person thinks about cybersecurity,” he says.
“Oh, right. Sorry. Yes, I think it’s necessary.” I fumble my way through some non-response, a little insulted that he referred to me as the average person.
“What about in schools?” he presses.
I shake Mark out of my head and try to focus. “Well, we have a strong IT department where I teach, so many sites are blocked that kids can hardly even research at school anymore.”
“Isn’t that for the good of the kids?” an older man at our table asks.
“Of course it is, but when a kid can’t access a website that shows videos when