Page 49 of Sleeping with Her Enemy (49th Floor 2)

Right. No one was that stupid. If he hadn’t already decided that he and Amy were a no-go, that would have been one more reason to stay the hell away from her.

“Steve is just fun. Totally not sleeping with him. But I am going to sleep with this guy on Saturday night.”

She’d whipped out her phone and was showing him a picture of a guy who looked like Mason, the Sequel. Or like an ad for Crest Whitestrips. He grabbed it from her and focused on the context surrounding the picture. “Is this Tinder? You are not on Tinder.”

“I am.” She took the phone back. “I told you, I’m looking for casual. I was in a relationship for seven years, and where did that get me? I’m all about fun now.” She led him to a table and plunked her tray down. He followed suit. Apparently, he’d ordered a bowl of minestrone while on autopilot. “Wait,” she paused in the middle of opening a package of crackers. “Are you on Tinder?”

He wasn’t on Tinder. He admired it from a development perspective, though.

“You totally should be.” She’d pulled out the phone again. “Look. It knows where I am, and it pulls up potential matches within the geographic radius I set.” She called up a picture of a smirking, muscle-shirt-wearing dude with a crew cut. “Gross.” She swiped the phone. “See, I swipe left if it’s a no.” She swiped left though a few more shots, though it seemed like she was going too fast to actually even see the guys she was rejecting. Then she stopped at a floppy-haired guy in a suit with his tie loosened. “Then, if I’m interested, I swipe right.” She swiped right. “And if the guy is, too, it sets up a chat.”

“How could you right-swipe that guy? Gross. He looks like a total player. Like he should be in a Versace ad from the 1980s.”

She dropped her phone into her purse and dipped her spoon into her soup. “Unlike you, I suppose? Anyway, I’m surprised you didn’t know about Tinder.”

“I do know about Tinder. The way they mine Facebook profiles is genius. But it’s not really my thing from a user standpoint.”

“But you’re a total womanizer. And this is womanizing—or manizing—stripped down to its essence.”

“I have historically enjoyed female company, that’s true.” He ignored her snort. “But I like to meet women in person.”

“So you can put your magic moves on them?”

She wasn’t wrong, exactly, but there was a better way to put it. “Call me old-fashioned, but I just don’t think a snap judgment based on a photo and maybe one sentence of a bio is going to be reliable. Even if you’re only looking for a hookup, there’s something to be said for chemistry.”

“Ah, I see. You’re a romantic.” She grinned. “Kind of.”

They ate in silence for a minute, him still feeling the urge to defend himself but also feeling that to do so would amount to protesting too much. Because, she was right—he wasn’t a romantic.

“What are you doing this weekend?” Amy asked.

Finally, a subject that wasn’t a minefield. “At the risk of having you mock me mercilessly, I’ll tell you that I’m going to a revival of the Godfather movies at the Royal Cinema.”

“Oh, that sounds great, actually. I love the Godfather—though I’ve only seen the first one.”

“Come with me—it starts Saturday at four.” That was fine, right? They were supposed to be friends. Friends went to the movies together.

“Can’t.” She slurped her soup. “I’m going on the Tinder date.”

“Right.” He slurped right back at her in order to cover a spark of annoyance. “So what’s this guy’s deal?”

“I don’t really know. That’s the beauty of Tinder.” She pulled out her phone. “It doesn’t matter anyway.” She wagged her eyebrows at him. “That’s also the beauty of Tinder.” A few taps and she turned her phone toward him, displaying another picture of the Mason-esque toothpaste ad dude. He looked…

Nice.

Like a nice version of Mason. Which might be exactly what Amy needed. Obviously, there had to have been something real between them for their relationship to last seven years. She thought she wanted casual, but it was clear as day that she was incapable of casual. Which was why he was steering clear. So if she could find someone who had the good qualities of Mason but also didn’t take her for granted…well, that would be her best-case scenario, wouldn’t it?

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