Page 71 of The Art of Taking Second Chances

She raised her brows. “Crass! Since when does Sameer Rehani care about crass?”

I squeezed one eye closed in thought. “Okay, let me think.”

“Oh yes, it’s quite a list. You’ll need more time. Maybe I could come back tomorrow?”

“Hush…I don’t remember her name…”

“You never did.”

“…she had long hair, wore a fruity fragrance…an economics major.”

She whipped out a wicked smile and shook her head. “Tsk, tsk, get ready to wiggle your hips, mister!”

“Wait, you can’t just reject my answer. It’s my life, I know, for the most part.”

“She had short hair, wore a dark lipstick, and had a very artistic eyeliner. A psych major. She was right up your alley.”

My jaw dropped in disbelief. “How do you know that?”

“I have my sources.” She put a finger under my chin to close my gaping mouth.

“No, really. How on earth do you know that?”

“Why?” She frowned.

“Because she had a boyfriend, and no one was supposed to know.”

“Pfft, big deal. It was college, who cares?”

“I promised her, so I care. Seriously, no one knew. Were you, like, obsessed with me and spying on me?”

“Puh-leeze,” she scoffed. “I’m very observant. I spotted the hungry look in your eyes right away. You had been in town for what, two days? You met her when you joined us at the café across the liberal arts campus and chatted her up. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what happened next. She was totally into you, by the way.”

I shook my head. “Wow.”

“So, you just wrote her out of your history?”

I shrugged.

“And she went back to her boyfriend after she shagged you?”

I shrugged again.

“Oh yeah, I forgot, you never slept with anyone more than once.”

“Except you.”

“Shut up.”

“Although in this case, I did sleep with her again.”

Her eyes went wide. “How did that happen?”

I wondered how much to tell her without raking up our past. “Do you remember the weed incident?”

She sat upright. “You got the contact from her? Did you sleep with her for that?”

I nodded. “She got it from her boyfriend, but she set the terms of our…interaction.”

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