Page 23 of Filthy and Dirty with the Bikers

“You’d really want to sell your virginity like that? No joke… like for real?”

“Yeah.”

I drag in another scent of soil and a wave of nausea returns. I swallow it down and try to focus on the conversation.

“From what I’ve read online, it’s going to be disappointing to lose it anyway. I might as well make some money from it.”

I can’t say she’s wrong about it being dissatisfying. I lost my virginity to Tyler, and it was massively disappointing. The whole thing was built up and then over in less than twenty seconds. Maybe it’s society’s fault for amping it up like giving yourself to someone is supposed to be this ceremonious event.

“Anyway,” she huffs, “I say we ditch the ad on the highway and see if there’s a spot on the diner menu for us. Rita is always talking about how much she wants to help local business. If we can get her to agree to give us a good spot, maybe we can run a special or something to drum up interest.”

“That’s really smart. We could give away bright red pots with every order.”

Rosie twists her hair to the side and grins. “Exactly! Or we let everyone know that we’re on the edge of prostitution. This is a small town. People might actually feel sorry for us.”

I laugh. “Yeah, well, you’re the one with the fantasy to sell.”

“Tyler doesn’t count. The second you left him you became a virgin again.”

“Well,” I sigh, “I guess I lost my virginity again last night then.”

Her eyes widen. “What? With Rhett?”

“Yeah,” I whisper as though the room is filled with prying ears. “We were drunk, and it just happened. I’m… I don’t know what I’m doing right now. I have all these feelings bubbling up for him and…” I sigh, stopping myself before I get too deep into the drama. Turns out, I’m not ready to share my crazy with the world yet. “How are things going with Owen?”

“You mean our friendship?” Her forehead wrinkles as she twists the turquoise ring on her index finger. “It’s going well.”

“You’re crashing with him, right? Nothing has happened?”

She shakes her head. “Nope, and it’s not going to either.”

“That’s not what you said last week. Last week, you watched him fix his truck with no shirt on, and you couldn’t stop talking about the things you’d do to him.”

“I was ovulating last week. I wasn’t thinking straight.” She rolls her eyes. “I mean, sure he’s hot, and watching him do manly things is sexy, but he’s my best friend and I don’t know what I’d do without him. So…”

I let the best friend comment slide as I unlock the door and flip the sign to open. “I give it a month. You’ll be ovulating again and I’m sure something else will go wrong with that old truck he’s driving.”

She grins widely. “Here’s hoping. Have things been weird with you and Rhett since the dicking?”

“The dicking?Really?”

“Have they?” Her tone is light and playful.

“I don’t know. We only had this morning together.”

“And was it weird?”

“No, not really. It was… kind of perfect. Normal even, like we’d been this way all along.”

She squeals and reaches out to hug me as though this is the best news she’s had all day. “I’m so happy for you. I’ve always loved Rhett. And you could tell, like forever, when he came into the shop or called to check on you during the day, he was looking out for you. He’s always been looking out for you, Molly.”

My heart does the squishy warm thing again as I think about the words she’s saying. It’s true, Rhett has always been there for me, even in the moments I had to push him away because Tyler hated him so much.

“Well, we’ll see. I don’t want to get ahead of myself. I just broke up with Tyler yesterday and I’m really weird about how little I’ve heard from him. I mean, I’m glad, but you know that feeling you get when you’re watching kids and they get really quiet. It’s almost worse than if they were making a bunch of noise. At least then you know what they’re up to.”

“You think he’s up to something?”

I shrug. “Don’t know. Rhett said he’d been following him for a while and that he knew something, but I haven’t had a chance to talk to him about it yet.”

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