Page 53 of That Time in Venice
“That might have been a littlewhitelie.”
Half a beat later, Ronnie rolled from under the car and their gazes met. “How much of a lie?” She stood and wiped her fingers on a paper towel and then tossed it into a smalltrashcan.
“It’s not too bad. It’s just that when I said that, I was only talking about domestic sex—as in sex in the UnitedStates.”
Ronnie’s eyebrows floated higher. “Um, how many extra penises are we talking about, when you say you were onlycounting—”
“No, no. It’s not what you think. I just had sex with one other guy besidesthosetwo.”
“And you didn’t count him because it wasn’t domestic sex?” Ronnie placed a hand on her hip. “Because international sexisn’treal?”
“Please don’t make funofme.”
“Well then, I need a little bit of an explanation of why you didn’t tell me about the international peen you indulged in. Was he Italian? French? Details!” Ronniegrinned.
“You’re not going to believe this, but I barelyknewhim.”
Ronnie let out anexaggeratedgasp.
Anika glaredather.
“Okay, okay.Continue.”
“He’s American. We worked together in the campus dining hall at GSU but we barely spoke. Most of the time we never even had the same shifts. It’s crazy, but I saw him in Venice seven years ago, the summer before senior year. I was standing outside my hotel, and therehewas.”
“I vaguely remember you telling me about a guy you ran into from school. You said you hung out with him a few times, and the two of you did some sightseeing together, that kind of thing. Is that who you hookedupwith?”
She’d greatly downplayed Reed’s role in her vacation. “That’shim.”
“I’m amazed you had sex with a man you barely knew. Miss My-goodies-are-a-treasure-and-not-for-everybody. My body is a temple. The same person who was appalled that I had sex with Diego on top ofacar?”
“He wasn’t your boyfriend at the time, and do you have to remind me of all thatrightnow?”
“Yes, I do. Miss I-can’t-have-sex-unless-there’s-an-emotional-connection.” Ronnie folded her arms and stared at Anika with anarchedbrow.
“I really can’t have sex with a man unless there’s an emotionalconnection.”
“Are you saying you were emotionally connected to him? A man youbarelyknew?”
It did sound far-fetched, but the heat and passion that brought them together had been real. After spending all that time together, sleeping with him had been completely natural, an organic result of the many hours they spent in each other’scompany.
“I was in a place where I needed”—she swallowed—“reassurance, I guess. That’s around the time Emerson and I broke up, remember? I was at my low point.” He had made her feel sexy and desirable. Her ex had called her broken. Reed had made her feelwhole.
“Oh.” That single word carried a lot of disdain. Ronnie had never liked Emerson, but Anika didn’t completely blame him for his reaction to her confession. She should have told him early on she couldn’t have children. Instead, she’d waited until a year into their relationship, when he was talking marriage, and he’d been brutally honest. He’d accused her of beingdishonest and told her that she should have shared that information upfront.
But she’d been afraid of that very reaction. Despite anticipating it, when he broke up with her, she was crushed. She’d wanted to beg and cry, but she’d foregone the begging and cried in private. Considering how torn apart she’d been by their break up, her strong reaction to Reed only weeks later had come as asurprise.
“I don’t know how to explain it, but every single one of my reservations flew out the window. Being with him was…intense.”
Ronnie’s eyebrow arched higher and a slow smile crossed her features. “You’re blushing. It must’ve beenreallygood.”
Anika placed her hands to her flaming cheeks. “Better than Emerson, and made me think long and hard about what I’d beenmissing.”
“What’shisname?”
“Reed.”
“So how did you two find each otheragain?”
