Page 28 of Just One of the Groomsmen
“Actually,” Addie said, “I’m different with you. With pretty much everyone except them.”
With the guys, she never had to censor who she was, and she loved having a safe place to completely be herself.
“Don’t worry,” she added. “I’m used to being an edited version of myself around other people.”
“Good, good,” Alexandria said, again not one for sugarcoating. “Okay, I know you’re gonna want to reject this idea before I even finish, but please, Addie, just once in your life, listen to me. I know quite a bit about dating and landing a man.”
“Maybe I don’t want to land one.”
Even before her sister met Eli, she’d always had steady boyfriends, the kind who adored her. Addie didn’t want to feel like she had to “land” a man and do whatever it took to make him stay, but she could get on board with a little adoration.
“You wanna die alone?”
“Oh, for sure.” Addie set her laptop aside, since it was getting too warm and she clearly wasn’t going to get back to her job search anytime soon.
Alexandria sighed again. “I want you to go and buy some sexy lingerie. Wear it underneath your clothes on your date.”
“I’m not sleeping with him on date two.”
She didn’t think.
Depended how well it went.
No, it was too soon.
Shoot, she didn’t know.
Like her sister pointed out, it’d been a while since she’d gone on a second date. Still, she usually dated for a while before she was ready to add sex to the mix, and she needed to be sure before she crossed that line.
“It doesn’t matter whether you sleep with him at the end of the date or not. It’ll makeyoufeel sexy. You’re all about not impressing anyone, right?”
In spite of it feeling like a trap, Addie said, “Sure.”
“Do it for you, then. When you feel sexy, it’ll show through. You’ll automatically be sexier, to yourself and to him.”
Addie spun the idea over in her head.
It’d been a long time since she’d felt sexy.
Honestly, she wasn’t sure she’d ever felt truly sexy. Comfy always seemed to take precedence, and while she was confident in a lot of areas, the bedroom wasn’t one of them.
While there was a general attraction to the dentist she hoped would grow stronger in time, part of her thought maybe she just didn’t feel sparks anymore. Like, maybe she’d grown immune to them.
But then…
Nope.
She wasn’t going to think about the way she’d gotten that fresh-from-the-roller-coaster feeling when Tucker caught her wrist earlier today. That was…well, there was a logical explanation, and she’d figure it out later.
If anything, it was more reason to focus on the dentist—on David. She was so sexually deprived, she was imagining things.
“Promise me,” Alexandria said. “I’ll just call you every few hours until you agree. You know I will.”
With Eli working so many late nights lately, Alexandria had way too much free time to worry about Addie’s social life. She had a feeling her sister would even load her kids in the car and drive down this weekend if she thought Addie needed a push.
“Fine.” It wasn’t a totally horrible idea, she supposed.
And she didn’t want to die alone, although there were like one hundred levels between landing a guy and that. Right now, she’d settle for not feeling the loneliness her empty house occasionally echoed back at her.
