Page 55 of Flirting Lessons

As soon as Avery heard Taylor laugh, she relaxed. This was just Taylor. Taylor wasn’t going to care what she did or how she looked at her or how much she touched her. Despite all of her talk about grading her, they both knew that was just a joke; Taylor wouldn’t judge her on how she did—or didn’t—do anything tonight. Taylor probably already knew Avery had a crush on her and didn’t care. This was just for fun.

“Oh, right,” Taylor said. “I helped Margot pack up the wines togo to that event. She didn’t tell me that you’d organized it, though.” Avery couldn’t tell if she’d shifted in her seat or if Taylor had, but now her knee was a lot more than just barely touching Taylor’s; it had moved to the inside of Taylor’s knee. Even in her long dress, and with Taylor in jeans, she could feel the warmth of Taylor’s body through the fabric. Why hadn’t she worn a knee-length dress? If she had, it would have slid up just enough so her bare knee would be touching Taylor’s.

Avery had to laugh at herself. Why was she eroticizing knees, for God’s sake?

“Yeah, Margot was the first person I called when they agreed to my plan to have wineries come to their event,” Avery said. She pushed her hair back behind her right shoulder. She saw Taylor’s eyes linger on her bare shoulder and let herself smile. What had Taylor told her a long time ago? Pay attention to the person you’re flirting with. Avery pushed her hair back behind her left shoulder this time, and she could almost feel Taylor’s attention lock onto her. “The event went really well—I got tons of compliments from the people I worked with, and everyone seemed to enjoy the wine. And the wineries got a bunch of orders, so it was win-win for all of us.”

Taylor picked up her drink and ran her finger along the condensation on the glass. Avery got goose bumps watching the slow, gentle movement of her finger.

“That’s fantastic,” Taylor said. What was fantastic? Avery had forgotten what they were talking about. “I’m sure I’ll hear the details from Margot tomorrow.” Right, the event.

“Yeah, I’m glad I got to organize it,” Avery said. “I got to do one of my favorite things, which is to work together with places I love here in the valley and get business for everyone in the process.” Taylor took a sip of her drink as Avery talked, and one tiny dropletof condensation fell right onto the center of her cleavage. Oh God, Avery couldn’t watch it, she had to look away. As much as she wanted to, she couldn’t watch that little drop slide down…and down…and down. That wouldn’t be flirting, it would just be ogling at that point. Avery picked up her own drink, partly to give herself something else to do, and partly to cool herself down a little. She could feel her cheeks getting hot.

She had to get Taylor talking again. That was the only way not to stare at her cleavage. She looked back up at Taylor, who had a knowing smile. She couldn’t have made that little drop of liquid slide into her cleavage…could she? No, impossible.

“Um, how’s your friend Erica doing?” Avery asked.

Taylor sighed and her smile fell.

“She’s fine, I guess. I don’t know, really. We’ve been friends for so long, but it suddenly feels like…” Taylor looked away. “I don’t know, like there’s a gulf growing between us, you know? I sort of feel like whenever I text her, I’m bothering her or something. To be honest, I’m worried she’s firmly in the married-women-with-babies demographic now and not into the whole single-queer-women scene anymore, and I’m a casualty of that.”

Avery wanted to take Taylor’s hand, put her arm around her, do something to comfort her and drive away that sad look in her eyes. She was just about to, when Taylor suddenly laughed and put her hand on Avery’s. “Oh, but she and I did text when we were at trivia—we bet on who was going to win the race to sit next to you after I got up to go to the bar.”

The pressure of Taylor’s warm hand on hers almost made her not pay attention to what Taylor was saying. Almost, but not quite.

“Wait, really?” Avery sat up straight, moving slightly away from Taylor in the process. She didn’t move her hand fromunderneath Taylor’s, though. “You bet on who was going to try to sit next to me? Erica doesn’t even know me.”

Taylor patted her hand.

“I know, but she knows the rest of that whole crowd. Plus, that’s kind of our thing—Erica and I bet on random stuff all the time.”

“Who won the bet on Tuesday?” Avery asked. “Since it was about me, don’t I get to know?” She turned her hand over halfway, so they were sort of, but not quite, holding hands. She hadn’t even meant to do it, but it just felt natural at this point. When Taylor had first suggested actual flirting tonight, Avery had thought it would feel weird or hard or scary to flirt with her, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. It just felt easy, exciting, even comfortable. She couldn’t believe she’d existed for this long and had spent so much time with Taylor without touching her like this, looking at her like this.

Did Taylor feel the same way?

No, of course not. But that didn’t matter right now. Right now, Avery would pretend that she did.

“I won,” Taylor said with a laugh in her voice. Her thumb caressed the center of Avery’s palm. “Erica said it would be Liz, but I bet on Dani, and I was right. Granted, I’d seen the way Dani had been looking at you earlier, and Erica hadn’t, but she knows both Liz and Dani pretty well, so it seemed like a fair contest.”

Avery desperately wanted to know what the history was between Taylor and Liz…and Taylor and Dani…and Taylor and the rest of that group, for that matter. She swallowed the question, but Taylor gave her that knowing look again.

“Go on,” she said. “Ask me what you were about to ask me.”

Avery tilted her head.

“Are you and Liz…I mean, have you ever…?”

Taylor laughed and picked up her drink with her free hand.

“We’re not now, obviously, but yes, we have. It was a long time ago, and we’ve been friends ever since. And to answer your next question, the same answer goes for Dani, but that was just last year. It was just a quick thing, though; we are clearly not for each other, but I like Dani a lot.” Taylor raised an eyebrow. “Why, are you interested in either of them? Or any of the rest of that crowd?”

Taylor wished she hadn’t askedthat. She’d done it because it was the kind of half-teasing, half-serious question that she would naturally ask Avery, so it just came out. The problem was right now—with Avery sitting here with her knee in between Taylor’s, and her hand in Taylor’s, and with Taylor’s eyes constantly going in between that flash of a red bra strap, Avery’s big soft lips, and her just-out-of-bed curls—she didn’t know what she would do if Avery said yes. All she knew was that she felt a flash of jealousy just thinking about it.

Avery shook her head.

“Not really, though I have to admit, the attention from them on Tuesday night was flattering.”

Taylor hated the rush of relief she felt. This was unlike her. She wasn’t the jealous type, which was something that had seemed to bother at least a few of her past girlfriends. It was probably this stupid bet with Erica making her act weird. This was like how she’d felt at trivia when she’d wanted to claim Avery as hers, to pull her away from her friends, to sit somewhere with her, just the two of them, and no one else.

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