Page 119 of Flirting Lessons

“Oh, I’m the busy one?” She couldn’t help but tease him. “You spend every spare second with Margot, and you begrudge me time with Taylor?”

He smiled that besotted smile that always came over his face when Margot came up, and shook his head.

“You know I don’t begrudge you time with Taylor. You seem so happy with her.”

Avery laughed again.

“How do you know? You’ve barely seen us together.”

He shook his head again.

“I can tell. You’re so comfortable with her, so relaxed, so…you. But that’s not all—you just seem happier in general ever since you started dating her. You laugh a lot more. You have more fun. Your voice even sounds different. It’s really nice.”

She hadn’t expected this from Luke. She wasn’t sure what to make of it. She supposed she did feel different now and had all summer. Was that because of Taylor? Partly, probably. Some of it was because of doing the flirting lessons with Taylor; they’d givenher more confidence in herself, they’d made her feel less stressed about every interaction, they’d made her feel more…herself. Which wasn’t what she’d expected from them. But yeah, some of it was definitely from dating Taylor.

“Speaking of Taylor, I have to tell you what happened at the shower. Wait, give me half of a sandwich.”

He handed her half of the chicken sandwich and opened the top of the sparkling water he’d gotten her.

“I have no idea what could be so exciting that happened at a baby shower, but I’m all ears. Did everyone find out the baby isn’t the father’s? Oh wait, it was a two-mom shower, that wouldn’t work. Did someone cheat at one of the games and then someone else found out about it and there was a whole brawl? Granted, I saw no evidence of a brawl when I got there, but that doesn’t mean anything; you and Taylor are both pretty efficient at cleaning up. Did someone spike the punch? But why would they have to, the shower was at a winery. Okay, I give up.”

Avery took a bite of her sandwich and chewed it slowly before she looked up at Luke.

“Are you done? Do I get to tell my story now?”

Luke thought for a second.

“Yep, done. Please go ahead.” He unwrapped the other sandwich and gestured for her to talk. She rolled her eyes and tried to hide her smile.

“Okay, so Taylor and I left for a few minutes toward the end to help Sam load up the car, but Taylor came back before I did.Well, she overheard the rest of the people there gossiping about the two of us—what they thought of our relationship, what they thought of me, stuff like that.”

“What do they think of you?” Luke asked.

Avery shook her head.

“Taylor only told me good things, though I’m sure she was holding something back. But then, Erica—the guest of honor, pregnant lady, Taylor’s best friend of many years—proposed a bet on how long our relationship would last. Mine and Taylor’s! And then they all bet on if we would last longer than her pregnancy!” Luke didn’t look as amused by this as she’d assumed he would be. “It’s okay, you don’t have to be mad about this on my behalf, I’m not upset about it. Taylor is, though. She’s upset that her friends were gossiping about her—which I get—and she’s pretty hurt that Erica proposed the bet in the first place. I understand all of that, but I also think it’s kind of funny. When Taylor told me about it, I had to be nice and understanding and come up with a solution for her, but I think it’s wild that people are betting about my relationship, you know?”

Luke tore open a bag of potato chips.

“I guess I can see that, but I’m more in Taylor’s camp here. These were her friends, right? Wouldn’t it feel weird to you and make you feel bad if your friends were all betting against you? Or if your friends thought your relationship was something to place bets on and laugh about?”

Avery reached for a chip.

“I get that, but this is Taylor we’re talking about here. She’s always hopping from relationship to relationship—I’m sure her friends have met so many of her girlfriends of the month, you know? Hell, half of them havebeenher girlfriends of the month! I knew that going in. Everyone and their mother flirts with her—sometimes literally! She knows that about herself, though I guess it bothers her that other people like talking about it.”

Luke looked at her with some concern in his eyes.

“Does that mean that this relationship isn’t serious? Because I hoped…”

Avery laughed.

“Taylor doesn’t do serious, come on, I know this. You know this, too! As a matter of fact, we decided that because of the bet, we’re going to stay together until three days after Erica has the baby, and then break up. And Erica isn’t due for seven weeks, which honestly is far longer than I thought we’d stay together.”

Luke crumpled up his sandwich wrapper.

“Oh. Huh, okay. You already have a breakup plan. Was this Taylor’s idea?”

Avery shook her head.

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