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EMORY

“You knohat they say about an oyster’s aphrodisiac properties”

Really? He was going to use that line? If the guy wanted to think Rocky Mountain Oysters were actually oysters fro to tell hi with a B He was in his thirties, well dressed in a suit and gray tie, as if he came directly frorooe wasn't bad, but he was an idiot He was shoveling in fried bull testicles as if the free food ht run out

My friend Christy had decided to forgo a sit-down dinner for her engageuessed she’d put the Colorado specialty on the roup had taken over a private room that connected to the bar area of a popular restaurant in town to drink and socialize Clearly, the socializing part wasn’t going well because I had to watch Bob/Bill chon on one bull ball after another

I’d nibbled on some chicken satay and bruschetta and a few other options the wait staff had passed around and tried not to wince as he used a cocktail napkin to wipe crumbs from his chin

“You should only eat oysters in the months that don’t have an R” He nodded as if to confirm his statement

“Yeah, you can eat these guys probably anytime,” I replied

He stuck a toothpick in one on the s fried helps”

Yeah, that was it

Christy hadto work his lackluster char real oysters We were in landlocked Colorado not a coastal town

I averted aze toward the wall of s The restaurant was on the third floor of a historic boutique hotel with a western views of the mountains

I really wanted to give him the brush-off, to tell him he needed a breath mint and some dental floss, but he was related to Paul, and I owed it to Christy to keep fro one of her future relatives Besides, I’d probably have to see hi in a few roomsmen As a bridesmaid—the oldest bridesmaid in history—I'd probably have to walk down the aisle on his arm I tried to smile and nod as diplomatically as possible S or an oyster We’d talked about Paul and Christy for a minute or two, but after that… he showed hiaze surreptitiously dropping to my chest, and he had an odd leer It had to be a leer, or he had some kind of tick in the corner of his lip

Why the guy was lingering with , I had no idea I’d been burned by a man, okay, scorched to a charcoal briquette, and I wasn’t looking for another one I’d survived the divorce, survived because Chris needed aone But he ay at college now, and I wasn’t shielded behind the role of parent any longer I could chat about off-sides rules in soccer or PTA fundraisers, but talking to a guy, a real guy and not another parent froh school, was unbelievably hard I doubted Bob/Bill knew about any of that, and probably once he discovered I had a child—even an eighteen-year-old—he'd take his bull balls elsewhere

God, I was such an introvert! I hated big crowds, new people, loud noises I wasn't a party person Because of this, it was hardnew people I was terrible at it, unlike Christy, who never knew a stranger The whole introvert-extrovert dynamic had helped when she’d been able to pull me out ofme around my new department, which had made us instant friends It wasn’t as if I was shy or weird or anything, but I was definitely set in my ways That hat I called it, at least

Christy called it lonely, and I couldn’t think of anythingthan that She considered me lonely

Lonely!

She wasn't being , and it had been even longer since I dated Like almost twenty years Two decades That hy I showed up at the engagement party without a plus-one and why I wasn’t interested in Bob/Bill and his ridiculous pick-up tactics Sure, a guy would be great, but I wanted a few brain cells between the ears While ot the job done, it wasn't like a realhs In a in the twenty-first century Watching Bob/Bill wipe histo win tonight

I sighed and took a sip ofthose oysters out of season,” I said

I took a step away, but he put his hand on ht overlap of his front two teeth “I like to live dangerously” His thumb stroked over my arm, and I stepped back out of the hold

Right I inwardly rolled my eyes

Clearly, he didn’t take any chances since he was talking to me and not some of the other women in the bar area ere er, too At thirty-eight, I wasn't really old, but e Soartener to peewee soccer