Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 88212 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88212 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
Shera sets aside the paperwork I filled out before seeing her. “Okay, Miles, is there anything in particular you wanted to discuss today?”
Such a simple question, but it’s all I need to push to my feet and start for the door. “This was a shit idea. I’ll pay you, of course, but I’m outta here.”
“Miles, you can just sit if you want,” she says, stopping me as I’m grabbing the doorknob. “Silence wouldn’t be such a bad thing. Maybe I can sit here while you think about whatever’s on your mind. It’ll help you focus on the problem.”
She’s good. I turn back to her, glaring. “That was smart,” I admit.
“I did go to school for this.” She offers a warm smile, and I force myself back to the sofa but stop before sitting. “I think I’ll stand.”
“That’s fine too. So I’m gonna ask a question, and how about you answer it in your head? If there’s something you want to share with me, you can. If not, maybe at least it’s helped you think it through.”
She’s really fucking smart.
“Okay…” I drag out.
“So what did you come in to talk about today?”
“I don’t know,” I lie before caving too quickly, “I think I might have a boyfriend. Whatever.”
I’ve been avoiding eye contact, but when I check out her expression, I imagine she’s trying to keep a straight face, given away by the way she tilts her head slightly.
“Can I ask why you used the word might?”
“He was weird about it. We’re weird. And that’s part of what I like about him, and fuck, I can’t believe I said I like him.”
And now I’m back on my way to the door, but then I realize I already got that much out, so I stop, turning back to her.
“I do like him, though.” I’m confused about a lot of shit, but not that. I might have been a little oblivious—okay, more than a little—before the auction, but it wasn’t confusing when I was bidding on him. I knew what I wanted. And not just because it feels good to fill up his ass.
“That sounds really nice,” she says. “Does that feel good to you?”
“Sometimes. When it’s just the two of us, and we’re laughing or talking or fucking…or cuddling, definitely when we’re fucking and cuddling. Shit, I shouldn’t say fucking. What do you say here instead of that? When we’re being intimate?”
She smirks. “I’m not censoring however you want to say that, but intimate is fine if that’s something you’re more comfortable saying.”
“I’ll stick with that. I like Dax. Then he said we’re boyfriends, but I didn’t really say that’s what I wanted, even if maybe I did more than I should have. It was like when he said it, I wanted to be like, No, for real, we’re boyfriends now. You’re mine and just mine. But that’s not who we are at all.”
“Who do you think you both are?”
“He’s this cool, easygoing guy who’s deeper than he lets on, and he just fucks—is intimate—with whoever he wants. I’m the same. We don’t do serious. I don’t even know what a date would mean.” I take a breath. “I’ve never been on a date.”
I finally let myself sit back on the sofa. It’s like now that I said it, I can think straight again.
“So this would be the first time you’ll go on a date with someone?”
I laugh, but her expression doesn’t change. “Oh, that was serious. Because that’s like something a normal guy would have done already, right?”
“I don’t use the word normal.”
“I mean, you just did, but whatever.”
“Feels like you might be deflecting.”
Even in that, she’s smiling, and now I’m starting to think that if I’d landed a counselor who got me initially, it might not have been such a shitshow.
“It’s not as strange as you might think to have never been on a date. Some people take their time. Some people aren’t interested in dating at all. Some people are aromantic. It doesn’t really have much to do with anything unless that means something to you.”
Huh. “Good point. Seems obvious when you say it like that. Guess it helps having an outsider’s perspective.”
“That’s what I’m here for.” She grins in this playful, goofy way, and it’s disarming as fuck. “So where do you want to go on a date?”
“No clue. That’s why I’m here, at least partly.”
“You came here to figure out where to go on a date?”
“Well, I can’t ask my friend Tatum because he’s already giving me hell. He knew I was into someone, and now he knows who it is, and I don’t have many other friends… Really, Caleb’s my only other friend, and the whole not having many friends must be a red flag… That’s a red flag, isn’t it?”
“The only thing I’m picking up right now is a lot of judgment of yourself for things that seem pretty benign to me.”