“Okay…” Libby seems confused.
 
 “I’m sorry I just…I have to go.”
 
 With that, I walk out of the bookstore and into the night, wondering if I just made yet another mistake.
 
 Chapter 12
 
 Libby
 
 It’s not the walk of shame if you’re walking out of your own book shop right?
 
 In my defense, we also didn’t have sex. He got me off (like I have never gotten off in my life mind you) but we didn’t actually fuck. Though I am pretty sure it was headed there. On that note, I make a mental note to erase the security camera footage. Maybe after watching it…
 
 The last thing I expected while organizing the travel section books was for Dax to walk in. And thanks to late night hormones and a rail ladder, the travel section isn’t the only thing that got re-organized. There was also a lot of traveling too. Traveling hands, traveling lips, traveling to other subspaces in time while his tongue made me come so hard I’m pretty sure I left the planet.
 
 I wonder if there’s a passport stamp for that.
 
 “So let me get this straight,” Summer says as we rearrange the rom-com table. We have a monthly book club coming in this evening and they’ll be looking for their next spicy book after they discuss the dirty details of the last one and I want to make sure they have good options. Meanwhile, Summer and I arediscussing my dirty details. “You were working overtime, as you do, and he just walked in, unannounced and ravished you?”
 
 In a word? “Pretty much.”
 
 “Damn. You know I have been on seven dates this month. Seven. Four from dating apps, two from the Irish pub down the street and one from board game night at the brewery in Fenway and I’ve gotten no action.”
 
 “None at all?” I ask, focusing on the brightly colored books in front of me. Meanwhile, my cheeks flush. I’ll never see this ladder the same.
 
 “Unless you count Felix trying to kiss me and missing all because he had an allergy attack and started sneezing. He ended up cutting the date short because he left his inhaler in his car and his car was parked in a tow zone. Those are the kinds of men I end up with. Meanwhile, you get railed standing in the same place every day all day. Maybe it’s Mercury. I think it might be in the microwave.”
 
 I arch an eyebrow at, honestly, that entire speech. Tom comes around the corner with another stack of romance books to add to the display.
 
 “She means retrograde,” he says, sniffing hard. “And allergies are real. Romantic or not.”
 
 “Yeah well, Felix’s lack of Claritin basically cock blocked me so…”
 
 “Would you have really slept with him?” Tom asks, handing her the books and pulling a hanky out of his pocket. It doesn’t surprise me one bit that he’s a hanky man. None of this surprises me to be honest. But all of it is beside the point.
 
 “I think we’ve derailed the topic,” I cut in.
 
 “Right. You and the new boss got down and dirty in the bookshop,” Summer mutters like it’s a direct offense that I’m getting action and she’s not. Not that I can understand why. She’s very cute. With her dark hair, choppy bangs, chunkysweaters and never-ending array of striped and polka dotted stockings, she’s a great catch– if you like the nerdy, bookish type.
 
 “Where did the two of you have coitus anyways?” Tom asks, between nose blows. “So, I can avoid the general area until it’s been sanitized.
 
 My blush deepens and I shake my head, focusing my attention on making sure all the books on the table are straight.
 
 “Haveyoubeen on any dates recently?” Summer asks him.
 
 “Not as of late,” he answers, shoving his hanky back in the pocket of his slim cut Dockers.
 
 “Probably because you use words like coitus,” she jabs. He doesn’t smile.
 
 This is what I have to work with.
 
 “It’s not important. Also, we didn’t fuck,” I say, and they both look at me.
 
 Summer crinkles her cute nose. “Really?”
 
 “Nope. I mean, we were going to. But we got interrupted.”
 
 “By whom?” Tom asks. “The store wasn’t open.”