Page 2 of After Tonight

“Is he easy to talk to?” Curly asked, scratching at the label on her beer bottle.

Ah, she’s a little nervous, Riley thought. So this one wasn’t quite as into fucking her ex out of her system with a weekend fling, perhaps.

“He’s a huge flirt,” Sephora told her. “You won’t have to worry much about talking. Except the dirty kind,” she said with a grin. “He’s really good at that.”

Riley had to admit that dirty talk was a mark in the pro column for her too. But she wanted to know if the guy didn’t need to talk much because women’s panties just dropped off whenever he was around, or if he didn’t have much to say that was interesting or noteworthy. As in, he mostly read Sports Illustrated, had all the ESPN channels on his cable package, and spent his time hunting and fishing with his buddies where quiet was a must.

And none of that narrowed down who this guy was.

Riley acknowledged that she was being super judgmental. Yes, the guys around here were interested in things she had no interest in. Yes, she had a hard time having an engaging conversation with most of them. But that didn’t mean they weren’t nice guys. They were, by and large. In fact, they were almost too nice. And hey, if the woman only needed Sex God for his magic cock, then it didn’t really matter if he used his computer mostly for porn. Or solitaire, she thought wryly, as she moved the eight of spades to the next column.

“And he’s really cool with just a one-night thing?” the brunette asked. “Like, I can even be up front about that?”

Riley almost snorted again. She didn’t even need to know who he was to know that he was really cool with just a one-night thing.

“For sure,” Sephora said. “This is what he’s best at.”

“One-night stands?”

“For just being all about the short-term fun. It’s like…eating dessert for dinner. Not something you’d want to do all the time, but once in a while it’s fun and makes you realize that you shouldn’t take everything so seriously all the time.” Sephora sighed. “No one should have to eat salad for every meal.”

“Zach was salad?” her friend asked.

Sephora nodded. “Zach was what I thought I should do. We’d been dating since our junior year. I mean, I just assumed we were supposed to get married. He was comfortable and good for me and…the same. No matter what I tried to add to it, it was still just salad.”

Riley thought maybe she should feel at least mildly amused at the analogy. But the truth was, she totally understood Sephora. It was really easy to get caught up in a salad life. It wasn’t bad. In fact, it seemed like a good idea. It was certainly nothing anyone would judge. But at the same time, you could add croutons and Craisins all over the place, it was still just a bunch of lettuce underneath.

But dessert…that was a whole other thing. There were so many different kinds, different flavors, different experiences to be had with a dessert menu.

“But if you eat it for every meal, even chocolate could get old, right?” Curly asked. “So it’s good that this guy is a short-term thing.”

“Maybe,” Sephora said. “But I sure wouldn’t mind trying to get sick of his chocolate, if you know what I mean.”

Curly and Riley both knew what she meant.

Who was this guy? Riley couldn’t wait to see. And to see if she knew him. Because if she did, she had to find out if he knew about this reputation. Either the guy was brilliant and had cultivated this reputation and was, she had to admit, using it for a greater good in helping women get their mojo back. Or he was…brilliant and had marketed a bunch of B.S. that was getting him laid on a regular basis and praised in small town bars across the county.

There simply weren’t enough jilted, or even single, women in Sapphire Falls to keep him this busy.

These women weren’t from here. They were within two years on either side of Riley’s twenty-six, and if they were Sapphire Falls girls she would have known them. Hell, she would have known them no matter how old they were. Or of them at least. Sapphire Falls was tiny and no one got away with being reclusive. Plus, Sephora was not a reclusive kind of girl. That was clear.

Riley focused on her computer screen again, but couldn’t care less about the card game in front of her. Keep going, Sephora. Tell us more.

“He sounds amazing,” Curly said, almost wistfully. “How do you leave the next morning? Don’t you want more?”

Ooh, good question. Did the guy have stalkers all over the tri-county area now? Were women yearning and longing and weeping over no longer having him and his Cock of Wonder?

“Oh, no. It’s pretty easy to leave in the morning,” Sephora said.

“Oh?”

Sephora nodded. “He’ll give you every fantasy that night, but the next day he says goodbye, hands you a cup of coffee and walks you out to your car.” She paused and then added, “He seriously has like fifteen flavors of coffee to choose from and like eight flavors of creamer and syrups. You can have whatever kind you want. But he also has a stash of disposable coffee cups with lids in his kitchen. So, you get the coffee fixed exactly the way you want it, and then you take it with you.”

Riley had to cover her laugh with a cough. Oh my God, who was this guy? Because she was kind of impressed. Maybe a little horrified, but mostly impressed. Because it sounded like the women knew exactly what they were getting into, agreed to it, and had a hell of a good time. And then got coffee.

“So, don’t even think about dating him,” Curly said. “Got it.”

“Yeah, don’t get attached,” Sephora agreed. “Though, really, I don’t think that’s a risk.”

---