Page 28 of Follow Your Bliss

“Wait, wait. Back up. He was harping on you to lose weight? What a dick.”

“To be fair…” Her luscious mouth closed around a spoonful of ice cream. She swallowed it down and licked the spoon clean.

Felt that one in my groin.

“To be fair,” she continued, “I’ve gained some weight in the past few years. More than I’m comfortable with.”

“There’s no ‘to be fair’ about that. You know you’re beautiful, right?” The words fell out of my mouth before I could reel them back down my throat.

Her almost-purple eyes snapped up to me as her face pinkened, and she looked away. “I know,” she said softly.

“I hope I didn’t make you uncomfortable. I just don’t understand how he could be such a jerk.”

“Well. I’m not surprised, really.” She dug vehemently into the carton. “All men do is leave.”

I cocked my head. “That’s not exactly fair, either. My ex left me. Well, technically she cheated on me, and I left her. So, she really left me first.”

Her face clouded over. “I’m sorry. Did that have anything to do with your bad night?”

“No. Kinda. When I met Kasey, I thought she was the one, you know? I didn’t see her red flags for what they were until I was a thousand miles away from home. But she was emotionally abusive. She didn’t respect my faith or my family’s. She pointed out all their weaknesses, and I’m ashamed to say I loved her so much—or maybe I loved the idea of being in love—that she pulled me into her way of thinking. Talked me into moving far away from my family, effectively separating me from my whole support system, all my friends.

“I was with her for almost three years. And I was miserable. I gained, like, forty pounds, was depressed all the time. I thought she might’ve been cheating on me, but I didn’t confront her. She never wanted to talk about marrying me, but she came home one day with an engagement ring from the doctor she’d been cheating on me with while I’d put my life on hold to support her through med school.”

“Acch.” Her hand landed on mine. “Jason, I’m so sorry. I had no idea.”

“Thanks. So after taking every STD test known to man—”

“Because you gotta.”

I nodded. “Because you gotta. And thank God they were all negative. I came back home. My family took me back in. But my mom’s still not over it, not even almost two years later. The meeting I was at tonight…” I pulled the SALT agenda from my pocket and dropped it on the table. “My volunteering group got folded into this awful singles’ group. I’m not getting anything out of it, and…I’m not going back.”

She removed her hand and went back for more ice cream. “Was it as excruciating as it sounds?”

I pushed the sheet toward her. “You tell me. Here’s the outline for the sessions.”

She opened it up. “SALT—Single Adults Living Truth. Oh wait. The acronym’s doing double duty. ‘Say your prayers.’ Okay, I can get behind daily prayer. I do that. ‘Abstinence is God’s way.’” She stopped reading and looked up at me, her lip curled. “Of course, all this is fine if that’s your thing, but it’s definitely not mine.” She went back to it. “‘Lust is a sin. Purify yourself in God’s name. Sex is to be shared only between two people married in the church.’” She broke off reading and looked up at me. “Jesus, is Roosevelt still president?”

“Right? For the record, those aren’t my opinions.”

“Mine either.” Her eyes returned to the paper. “‘And masturbation is an abomination’?” She raised her brows. “Oh shit, seriously?”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, that was pretty much the whole first meeting.”

She snorted. “But that’s not gonna stop you, right?”

I huffed a laugh, looking away and back. Oh—she was really waiting for a response.

She closed her eyes and put her head down. “Oh my God, did I just ask you if you masturbate? Youdon’thave to answer that. I know I overshared myself, but…”

I chuckled. “I’m…trying to abstain for the duration of the class.”

Her head popped back up. “Wait. With other people, or yourself?”

“With myself. I haven’t been with anyone since Kasey.”

She laughed uproariously, then looked at me not laughing along. “Oh shit you’re serious. But why, though?”

I shrugged, digging out another spoonful. “Not because I think it’s an abomination. They talked about other benefits, like having space to focus on self-improvement, improved mood, better focus—”

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