Page 48 of The Angel and the Agent

“And if you had been my tutor, I would know,” he said.

“First kiss,” she said.

“Yes, please,” he said, leaning in.

She put up a hand to halt him. “Who was your first kiss?”

“I want to say it was a girl with a name of some sort, possibly she also had hair and a face.”

“You don’t remember?”

“There were a lot of girls and a lot of kisses. I was ten and the first of my friends to kiss a girl, that much I remember. What about you?”

“I was twelve, and I was feeling left out because I was one of the last of my friends to kiss a boy. But I was kind of iffy on whether I was interested in boys yet or not, so I grabbed a random boy from my class and kissed him. But I wasn’t satisfied with the result. So I kissed him again and then a few more times until I felt I got it right.”

“Well, this marks the first time I’ve ever envied a twelve year old boy.”

“He was a little dazzled, poor kid. He followed me around for two years after that, until his family moved away.”

“Is Bonvoy your first serious relationship?” he asked.

“I dated a boy for two years in high school. I really thought I was going to marry him.”

“What happened?” he asked.

“We were going to go to separate colleges and didn’t want the burden of a long distance relationship. It was very amicable, very friendly. We had a nice, rational conversation, wished each other well, and hugged goodbye. Then I went home, crawled into bed beside my big brother, Johnny, and cried for four solid hours while he consoled me.”

“Aw, you’re giving me the sads. Anyone else?”

She shook her head. “A few months here and there in college, but no one special. What about you? Have you ever dated anyone seriously?”

“If you consider a second date serious, then still no,” he said.

She blinked at him. “You’ve never even had a second date with a woman?”

He blew out a breath. “What do you want me to say here, Amelia? That I’m a player? Fair enough.”

“How about that you’re scared? That you believe if you let a woman get too close to you, she’ll see the real you, beneath the dashing, charming veneer. That maybe she won’t like what she sees and she’ll go away. So you reject her before she rejects you.”

“I thought all that was covered by the player description,” he said.

“Am I the first woman who has tried to get her claws into you?” she asked.

“No, but you’re the only one who’s come close,” he said.

She looked away, off into the distance, watching a couple of monkeys in a treetop groom each other. “Don’t stop playing. Ask me something else, anything,” he prompted.

“When was the first time you lost someone close to you?”

“Before I joined up, no one. After, I don’t have enough fingers and toes to count them. What about you?”

“Maggie was engaged to this guy, Sam. He was like a part of our family, a really great guy. We all adored him. He got into a car accident and died two months before their wedding. It was horrible, heartbreaking, and awful.” She glanced at him sideways. “Why do you look like that?”

“Because I was blessed with good DNA?” he tried.

“No, you have the same expression you used to get when you tried to pretend you went to Canada on business.”

“It’s nothing.”

---