“No,” Billie and I answered in unison.
“I should just dump him, right?” I asked them. “I’m confused and that’s not a good relationship look.”
“Also the end of your month’s coming up,” Gina said under her breath.
“What?” I demanded.
“Nothing!” she answered. “I’m just wondering why you haven’t dumped him yet if you’re so frustrated. I remember that surgeon you let go because he filed his nails in front of you. You’re not exactly patient when it comes to this stuff.”
I paused, not sure how to answer that. Mainly because she was right.
Any other guy who frustrated me this bad would have been ghosted by now. But here I was with plans to meet Rhys the next morning for a full morning date. I’d convinced him to let me give him a driving lesson, and then we were planning to eat at Chase Park Plaza for brunch.
I mean, the food there was delicious. But that’s not enough of an excuse for putting up with his confusing as hell behavior.
“I guess I don’t want to dump him yet,” I realized out loud.
“Ding! Ding! Ding!” Gina exclaimed like we were on a game show. “You like this guy and it’s obvious he likes you—who wouldn’t? If he’s The Fine Prince, you’re The Fairest Princess in the land.”
“Doesn’t fair mean White?” Billie asked, wrinkling her face. Unlike Gina, we’re both darker than a paper bag.
“I don’t know, Billie,” Gina answered, obviously irritated. “I’m just trying to get Cynda not to dump another guy before he’s even had a chance.”
“Seven dates is a lot of chances,” Billie pointed out, as practical as Gina is dreamy.
“You know it is,” I agreed. Then I asked Gina. “Have you ever gone on seven dates with someone who didn’t want to have sex with you?”
“No,” Gina admitted, her voice gloomy. “But he didn’t say he didn’t want to have sex with you. Just not yet.”
I rolled my eyes. “Okay, I don’t care how fine he is or funny he is or how much I like hanging out with him. If he not yets me one more time, I’m done.”
“You might also try having a healthy and open conversation about how the both of you are feeling,” Billie suggested. “I read an interesting article that stated…”
“Bye, Billie,” I said before she could start dropping statistics.
“Hit us up on the group text to let us know how it goes!” Gina called out before I hung up.
“No, don’t, Rhys! Watch out! Watch out! Watch out!”
I nearly lost my coffee and my life when Rhys turned left onto a one-way street going right.
Somehow I held on to both though.
“I told you this was a bad idea,” Rhys said, a few minutes and several angry horn blasts from other drivers later when we pulled into a parking lot safe from the oncoming traffic. His expression was half-wry, half-apologetic. Like, he was sorry for nearly crashing my Honda Civic, but really wasn’t this all my fault for letting him drive it in the first place.
I instinctively raised my hand to my neck to measure my pulse rate as I conceded, “I know you told me, and I should have listened. I thought it would be easier. You being a doctor and all.”
“Human anatomy makes sense. The way you’ve constructed your traffic rules does not. It’s all the other way around in England, you know.”
“Yeah, you’ve told me that, like each time you tried to turn into oncoming traffic.”
Rhys glared. “You’re making fun of me.”
“I’m not. I swear I’m not,” I answered, trying but failing to suppress a snicker.
“Yes, you are, and I’m going to make you pay for that.”
A new tension popped up between us. Electric and crackling.
“Oh yeah, how?” I asked, my voice husky.
“Well first, I’m going to grab you around the neck like this.” He curled his hand around the back of my neck. “Then I’m going to apply a very forceful pressure.”
Doing just that he pulled me closer until our lips were almost touching but not quite.
“Now what?” I asked, my heart beating hopeful.
He pushed his lips into mine, invading and taking at the same time. As usual the fire was instantaneous. Hot desire licked through my body.
I didn’t just kiss him back, I pressed my whole body into his, wanting more, demanding more. Needing more.
This was why I’d continued dating him for over a month, I realized as we kissed.
No, we weren’t on the same page sexually, but our chemistry was off the charts.
And the truth was that if he told me this car was where First Sex was finally going to go down, right here in the alley where anybody, including a policeman, could walk by and see, I wasn’t sure my answer would be no.
Not sure at all.
But then he broke off the kiss and expelled a long breath. “Right then, I’ll let you drive to brunch.”