“What does he do?”

Ty shook his head, “Don’t know.”

“Okay,” I said, giving up. “What DO you know?”

“He’s great in bed!” he said and gave a cackling laugh.

“Right now, that is good enough for me,” he said.

Then he asked, “So, you and Naked Boss. It’s a thing now, right?”

“It is,” I said, shaking my head. “I mean, I don’t know how it happened…”

“Oh, I know,” Ty said, mimicking the sex act by thrusting his hips forward and making moaning sounds.

“Stop! Stop!” I laughed.

But I also knew that it took more than good sex to keep a relationship going.

Chapter 22

Michael

Saturday morning was cool and overcast.

We met at the entrance to the Golden Gate Park. She looked cute in her running shorts and vest, her hair tied up and hidden behind a cap.

“You almost look like a serious runner,” I said.

“Ha, ha,” she retorted as we did our warm-up stretches.

“Let’s go!” she said, setting off at a stiff pace.

“Hey, I wasn’t ready yet,” I laughed and picked up the pace.

I was the one who introduced her to the park, and she loved it straight away too. All the lush greenery compared to the rest of the city, which was on the dry side. While there were parts that got busy, I loved the quieter back paths.

“So, Marianne thinks I’m a sex addict who pines for her,” I said once I’d caught up with Belle.

“It’s not a fabulous plan,” she admitted. “But I had to get her off your case somehow.”

“I don’t love it,” I said. “But the idea of her contacting the media is even less attractive. So, thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” she said, turning around and sticking her tongue out provocatively at me.

“If you catch me, you can fuck me anywhere in this park,” she said, eyes sparkling as she sprinted off. I couldn’t believe how fast she was going. No way she was going to be able to keep it up. Belle was fit though, and competitive, like me. Since we’d started going out, weekends were fun, little adventures and outings that appealed to us. I was working less, naturally, and people noticed, of course.

First, it was the developers. Saying things like, “Have you had time to look at my app yet?” Or “Did you look at the code?” And when I kept saying that I hadn’t had time yet they’d give me this blank stare, which was to signify that I’d had the whole night to do it, a full fourteen hours or whatever since they’d mailed me or asked me to check it.

I knew these developers.

They lived for their work, for their program. They thought of little else, they forgot to eat, they didn’t call their girlfriends back, if they had them. They usually didn’t have them. What they would have, were unreal fantasies about some girl seen once on a train, or someone they’d barely spoken to in high school.

I knew because I was like them once.

Not quite that obsessional about random girls, though.

I did have the work ethic though. For years, all I cared about was the job. First, it was the dating game. Then after that, I started the agency and then growing it became my passion and only desire. The girlfriends I had in this time invariably had to get used to the fact that I was either at work or thinking about work. Eventually, they gave up on me. Some hung in there a bit longer, but in truth, they’d never offered me a real partnership.