Page 14 of Winter Glam in Amsterdam

"Of all the things I’ve wanted after sex, I can’t say churros were on that list," I reply dryly nodding to the shop on the other side of the street. Orgasmswerevery much on that list, though. Lily suddenly stops in her tracks.

"First—you have a list? Second—On there or not," she says, grabbing my arm and pulling me across the street after looking left and right. "Churros with chocolate sauce sound perfect right now."

We continue walking, sharing a serving and trying to not get any chocolate sauce on our clothes. Considering my scarf covers half of my face, it’s pretty difficult, but I manage to only spill one drop on it, which I quickly hide and all things considering, I’m taking as a win.

Hanging out with Lily comes easier than I thought. I mean, I’ve known her for a while now. We’ve chatted and hung out during birthday celebrations or when I hung out with my brother and he insisted on visiting his fiancée at work, but I’d never really gotten to spend one-on-one time with her.

She’s so refreshing to hang out with though. Level-headed yet receptive, truly the kind of person that you feel you can go to with all your problems and they’ll actually hear you, who has the perfect solution ready, be it a shoulder to cry on or taking charge to tackle your problem.

I hope when I grow up more, I get to be like her.

"So, how did you meet Adam?" I ask curiously, right as a group of students passes by us, clearly intoxicated and having a fun time as they shout for each other over the whole street in a language I don’t understand.

"Oh, you know…" Her whole face softens, and I feel something tug at my heart. "When Kayla and Millie hired me as CEO for their company, he was one of the first people they introduced me to. As CEO of our direct competition, I had to keep an eye on him and Crony, but he onlyreallyappeared on my radar once we started competing for the same talent and he snatchedthem right from our grasp, sometimes even minutes before they were due to sign with us." She sighs and rolls her eyes, but the corners of her mouth twitching betray her. "And then we were at a conference in Tokyo, and suddenly we just clicked." She shrugs and a dreamy expression washes over her face. "I didn’t see him coming at all, but he’s the best thing that ever happened to me."

She glances at me and takes another sip of her beer before she continues. "That’s the Walker brothers for you. They take you by surprise, and once you’ve let them in, you don’t ever want to let go again. I’m sure Jackson’s mysterious girlfriend would agree."

"Mysterious girlfriend?" I wonder with a chuckle and pull my scarf down to drink some more of my spiked hot chocolate. "That sounds sinister."

"He hasn’t introduced her yet." She shoots me a grin. "And I’m sure it will be a while longer until he will. The curiosity is eating his brothers up from the inside.” She comes to a sudden standstill, and so do I, as she pulls at my arm. “Oh, look, now we definitely made it."

She pulled me to a stop right in front of a sex shop, a selection of whips and handcuffs in their shop window, along with barely-clothed mannequins and several dildos on the ground around them.

"Why, that's a little shape I haven’t seen before," I say with a giggle, tilting my head and trying to make sense of it. “How does that go…where?”

"I’ve seen them before and trust me, you don’t want to know." She chuckles and pulls me inside.

“You have?”

"One of Adam’s and my first ‘dates,’" she lifts her hands in air quotes, "was at a sex shop in Japan."

"A what?" I start giggling—at her story but also because I am way overwhelmed with this store. It’s crowded and dingy and the selection on their shelves is making me blush. “Are you for real?”

"You heard me." Lily grins and takes an interested look around. "Ten out of ten, would recommend."

"Well, I’ll keep that in mind." I shake my head, eyeing a dildo that looks like a closed fist, sneaking after Lily like we’re trudging through a dark forest where a monster could jump out of the dark any moment. Although looking at the shapes of toys they have laying around here, that comparison might not be too far off.

"What the fuck?" Lily suddenly whispers as she stops and points to our right. I follow her eyes and my mouth drops open.

"Is that a tentacle dildo?" I whisper back, like I’d spook it if I spoke up.

"But… it’s almost as tall as we are," she adds just as softly.

"How?" I ask, confused, stepping closer to inspect it better, like that will reveal its secrets. "I kind of want to touch it, but at the same time, I really,reallydon’t."

From the corner of my eyes, I see her nodding along. "Where is that going?"

The two of us stand in front of it with our heads tilted, but no matter how hard I try, I can’t imaginethatgoing inside… anywhere.

“This is going to bug the hell out of me,” she admits as we continue on. “Not enough to, you know,researchbut holy hell.”

And I’m right there with her. Curiosity keeps gnawing at me as we walk through each aisle, finding more sex toys and gimmicks and Lily even purchases something.

I’m definitely eyeing some little penis keychains—not sure who I’d buy them for, but sooner or later, they’d probably make a great gag gift. Then again, I imagine myself explaining to TSA why I have a little dick with my keys, and I grimace before quickly putting it back.

Relief washes over me once we step outside—I didn’t realize how stuff the air was in there, but the cool evening breeze makes it obvious—startling when someone approaches us from behind.

"Well, fancy meeting you here," a familiar voice suddenly says from our left, and we both whirl around, startled, then sighing in relief when we see who it is.

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