Page 25 of Flirting Lessons

“Why didn’t you tell us you’d be here?” one of them asked as she pulled Taylor into a hug. Taylor kissed her on the cheek and laughed.

“Because I didn’t know you guys were coming.” She took a step back and gestured to Avery. “Callie, Liz, Rex, this is my friend Avery. Avery, Callie, Liz, Rex.” Taylor pointed to each person as she said their names.

“Nice to meet all of you,” Avery said.

“Likewise,” one of them said, and the other two smiled at her. Shit, she’d already forgotten who was who. That was one of the first things Taylor had told her—to remember names, that people were always flattered by that. She was a flirting school failure already.

“I’m the one who told you about this class, you should have known I was coming,” the person who had hugged Taylor said.

“With everything you know about me, Liz, did you really expect me to remember who told me about these classes?” Taylor asked her. “But I’ve been wanting to come to one of these for a while; I’m glad I finally made it.”

Oh good, so Liz was the white woman with the long dark brown hair and very short bangs. She had on a blue and white sleevelessfloral dress with a full skirt. Not Avery’s style, but she still liked it. And it made her wish more that she wasn’t in her boring athleisure.

Though, did she have anything in her closet that she would have worn if she’d known this was a salsa dancing class? No, and she would have torn her closet apart and been stressed as hell about what to wear if she had known. Okay, this might beonesituation where ignorance was probably better.

“Hey, there’s wine over there,” Taylor said. “I didn’t even see it; I must have been distracted by that queen at the registration table. I’ll go get some. Avery, do you want some?”

“Um, okay,” she said. Wait, did that mean that Taylor was going to walk over to get wine and just…leave her here? With three strangers? Oh God, this was what she’d signed up for when she’d agreed to this, wasn’t it?

“I’ll go with you,” Liz said. Now it was two strangers, but Avery wasn’t sure if that made it better or worse. “Callie, Rex, you want some?”

Both Callie and Rex shook their heads, which was incredibly frustrating. If one of them had wanted wine, and one hadn’t, that would have made her life much easier. Taylor touched her on the arm before she and Liz walked off. That touch felt like Taylor knew what she was thinking, that she was giving Avery a smallyou’ve got this. It made her breathe a little easier.

As soon as Taylor and Liz walked away, Callie and Rex both turned to her. One of them looked Latina, with long, bright pink hair and lipstick to match, and had on a black jumpsuit; the other was of Asian descent, with short dark hair, glasses, and wore a pink floral button-down shirt with long shorts. Black Jumpsuit had a big smile on her face, while Floral Button-Down looked a little more standoffish, but not unfriendly.

Black Jumpsuit leaned closer to her.

“I’m sorry, but I’ll explode if I don’t ask this. Are you and Taylor together, or…?”

“Oh. No.” Avery shook her head. “Just friends.” This question embarrassed her, only because Taylor had never given her the slightest signal that she wanted to be anything more than just friends. Taylor flirted with her, sure, but Taylor flirted with literally everyone; that didn’t mean anything. And yes, she’d told Avery that she was hot, but she hadn’t said it like she was attracted to her or anything, more like she wanted to give Avery a confidence boost. Which she had.

Obviously,shewas attracted to Taylor, how could she not be? How could anyone not be? But that was the whole thing—Taylor could date anyone she wanted to, why would she date someone like Avery, who didn’t even know how to flirt with her, much less do anything else?

Oh God, either Callie or Rex was talking to her, and she wasn’t listening, because she’d been too busy thinking about Taylor. She was here to try to flirt with people, people who weren’t Taylor Cameron.Focus, Avery.

“Makes sense. I probably would have heard the weeping of every lesbian north of San Francisco if Taylor was off the market again that quickly. Though I’m surprised I haven’t heard about her with anyone. I bet people are waiting in line for her. She doesn’t stay with people long, but while she does…”

Avery had no idea how to respond to this, so she went to the Taylor playbook. A question.

“What about you?” Avery asked. “Are either of you with anyone?”

Was that too bold a question, right off the bat?

“Not right now,” Black Jumpsuit said.

“Me neither,” Floral Button-Down said.

Black Jumpsuit threw an arm around Floral Button-Down.

“Proud of you for getting out of that,” Black Jumpsuit said, and then turned to Avery. “They just had a hard breakup, but it was really for the best.”

“Me, too,” Avery said.

Floral Button-Down gave her a warm smile.

“You get it, then,” they said. “That’s why we’re here—to have a little fun, post-breakup.”

Avery smiled at both of them.

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