Page 7 of Keep My Heart
‘It’s personal, so you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.’
‘What is it?’
‘Did you graduate a virgin? No judgment if you did. I’m only asking because I can’t remember you dating much in high school.’
Matt and I weren’t really friends back then. We didn’t become friends until the summer after we graduated. He got a job at my parents’ apple orchard and we worked together every day in the fields. I’d always assumed we wouldn’t get along since he was ajock and I was more of an academic, but once we got to know each other, we got along great. We’ve been friends ever since.
‘You don’t have to give me an answer,’ he says when I don’t respond.
‘I was kind of a late bloomer. And a nerd, so yeah, I didn’t do it in high school.’
‘You weren’t a nerd,’ he insists. ‘You were just focused on school instead of girls.’
‘It wasn’t just that. I didn’t want to get involved with someone and have people talking about it at school or in town. You know how people around here gossip. That’s one thing I don’t miss about living here. In New York, nobody cares.’
‘So when did you finally do it?’
I smile. ‘First week of college.’
‘Was she older?’ He laughs. ‘Did she teach you stuff?’
‘I didn’t need someone to teach me. I figured it out on my own. And she wasn’t older. She was my age.’
‘Did you guys date?’
‘Only for a few weeks, then we each met someone else.’ I look over at him. ‘I more than made up for what I missed out on in high school.’
Maybe I shouldn’t admit that, but it’s not like Matt would judge me for it. He was with a ton of girls before he finally settled down.
‘Did you get serious with any of these girls?’ he asks.
‘No. You know how I am. I don’t get serious with someone if it’s not going to last. I knew I was going to law school after college and didn’t want a girl thinking she had to go with me.’
‘But aren’t you still doing that?’
‘What?’
‘Keeping things casual. You’ve dated girls in New York but it never goes anywhere.’
‘Because I haven’t met the right girl. You’d think it’d be easy to find someone in a city that big but it’s actually not.’
‘What about that girl you dated last year? The doctor. You were totally into her, talked about her all the time. Why’d you guys end it?’
‘We were both too into our careers. Two workaholics aren’t good in a relationship.’
‘One isn’t either. You can’t work all the time and expect the other person to stick around.’
‘I don’t really have a choice. I’m trying to make partner, and that won’t happen if I don’t work all the time.’
‘So you’re just going to keep dating without it going anywhere?’
‘It’s either that or stop dating until work slows down.’
He shakes his head.
‘What? You don’t agree with this plan?’
‘You can do what you want. I’m just saying, you’re not getting any younger. You’re 33. At this rate, you’ll be in your forties before you settle down, and 50 before you have kids. You know how much energy kids take? I can barely keep up with them in my thirties. There’s no way I could do it in my fifties.’
