Page 18 (1/2)

"Well, there’s never any danger ofsomeone if you work from home, or at a bar where you’re sure to never meet anyone you like"

She looks up atroom "What about you? When was the last tiirlfriend?"

"Freshives o"

"I know But ere together for a while before then" I sit at the edge of hs I’m still only in my towel

"Luke?"

I can feel her eyes on my face, and turn to look over at her Just by her expression I know she’s putting two and two together "Yeah?"

"How exactly do you know Mia?"

I smile but I don’t feel it move past the twist of my lips "She’s my ex"

"Oh" Her eyes fall closed "Oh I’ve heard ether for a long time"

"Our first kiss e were twelve"

"And your last?" she asks

My heart hurts with a phantom limb pain, the way it always does when I remember: we both kneas the last kiss "Nineteen"

London stands, opening her eyes, wiping her hands down her sides, and looking around as if searching for so "I feel a little weird about this all of a sudden"

I follow her when she walks into the bathroo up her pile of discarded clothes "God, why?" I ask "Mia certainly doesn’t care"

"She doesn’t know about this," she says,between us "I , but we are friends and apparently I’ve been banging her ex"

"We haven’t really ‘been banging’ You’ve banged me twice and actually, I’ve done most of the work You can claim thirteen percent responsibility and then you can shirk that, if you want, since you didn’t knoas her ex"

She doesn’t even crack a smile at this as she walks out of the bedrooh"

I’ve hit pause on the growing interest inside me, shut off any real reaction to this I like London but she’s got so to pretend to understand, and this Mia thing seeardless, today was nice," I tell her quietly

She nods but won’t look at iving herthe back off an envelope on the counter, I write it down and slide it across to her "In case you ever want another co the pen fro down With a dry laugh, she slides it to rabs her keys, and heads to the front door

In case of ean: 619-555-0127