Page 19 of Unrealistic Expectations

Seeing her off-balance made him forget about his own uncharacteristic nervousness. “I just felt like flowers were customary on a first date.”

“According to our backstory, this isn’t our first date.” She seemed very concerned with the particulars here, which left him regretting this failed romantic gesture even more. “This has to be at least our tenth date.” She made an undecipherable gesture. “The flowers make sense if we were waiting an appropriate amount of time to have sex.”

He didn’t know where to start with what she’d just said. There was an appropriate amount of time to wait to have sex? And she thought it was ten dates? He’d never gone on ten dates with someone before having sex—if they weren’t ripping each other’s clothes off by the end of date three or four, there was really no reason to continue dating.

No wonder she and Luke had formed a relationship. If they’d waited for ten dates to have sex, then they were probably best buddies by then. She would have felt bad breaking up with that cold asshole by then. But he didn’t want to say any of that. That was not the note he wanted to hit with this date.

He put on his most charming smile. “I’d bring much nicer flowers if this was a sex date.”

She laughed and rolled her eyes, which delighted him. “I’ll put them in water.”

“Cool. I figured we could photograph them and put them in your stories.” He tried not to beam at her, but he really liked to hear her laugh—even more when he was the one who caused it.

“You really are better at this social media thing than I am. Maybe Kennedy did teach you something?”

She might as well have punched him in the gut. He now knew that it was strange that he’d dated only younger women for the past decade, and he was embarrassed about it. But he’d hoped that Jessica wouldn’t notice or think ill of him because of it. As a therapist, wasn’t she supposed to be nonjudgmental?

He hated disappointing people, and he’d been fighting that fight for most of his life. And part of the reason he’d dated younger women in the past was that they were more easily impressed with the low bar he’d known he could meet. None of them truly expected him to be the One, so he could focus on being Mr. Right Now, instead. He hated his past self for being so shortsighted that he never thought he’d want to be the right guy for anyone, that he’d never thought he could be.

And he didn’t even truly know if he wanted to be the right guy for Jessica. He knew he was intrigued, and he was mad at himself for squandering his chance for her to see him as a real possibility for a real boyfriend.

But he couldn’t do anything about it now.

“Do you really recommend waiting ten dates for sex?” Even though this question wouldn’t make him seem like any less of a cad, his curiosity got the better of him. And moving on to sex as the topic was squarely in his comfort zone.

Jessica bit her lip, and hesitated. That gave him a chance to notice how great she looked. She’d looked great in yoga pants at brunch, but she was a knockout tonight. The black dress she wore emphasized her curves. It had spaghetti straps, and when she turned around to find a vase, he noticed it was backless. The thought that she could not possibly be wearing a bra filled his mind with images that would certainly only be appropriate for a tenth date.

Her hair was up again, and the back of her neck tortured him along with the graceful line of her spine.

She shrugged, and he was mesmerized by the way the muscles in her back moved. “I guess it depends. I actually try not to give advice to my clients when they’re really there to gain understanding of themselves and their patterns so that they can change from a place of empowerment.”

“That’s not what I asked.” He’d stepped closer to her without realizing how close he’d gotten—close enough to smell her. He lusted after her, and there was nothing he could do about it. Not at the moment.

“Yeah, I don’t tell my clients what to do. I want them to make good choices for themselves. And it’s usually not a good choice to sleep with someone you intend to have a meaningful relationship with right off the bat. It makes you ignore things that you shouldn’t and get more attached than circumstances warrant.”

“Bullshit.”

She jumped at the sharp expletive. “I mean—it’s not like you should wait to have sex with someone you don’t see yourself in a long-term relationship with, so I’m not shaming you.”

Even though her words hurt him, he dug that she had spirit and didn’t just agree with him all the time. Maybe that was why he was so attracted to her. She didn’t roll over and just accept whatever he said as the truth.

And she was right. He had avoided long-term relationships for most of his adult life, but he had his reasons. Reasons that she would probably recognize. But he wasn’t going to dump them on her. He wanted her to see him as more than a recalcitrant rake. He wanted a chance to blow Luke’s memory out of her mind, forever.

But he didn’t agree with her that it wasn’t important to make sure the sex worked right away. If he was thinking about a long-term, monogamous commitment, the sex had to work. It was a waste of time to date someone for weeks or months without knowing if that worked.

“Only one of us is qualified to give dating advice, sir.”

He liked when she called him “sir.” He was putting that in his notes for later. After he convinced her that her “no sex before you know their social security number” rule was bad, they could talk about mutual kinks. “Yeah, and only one of us has been in more than one romantic relationship.”

—

“You’re an asshole,” Jessica said. “And that’s my professional diagnosis.”

At least he looked like he regretted saying that. She should kick him out of her apartment. Slap him right across the face. Who the fuck did he think he was to be insulting her relationship history? And they’d spent enough time together over the past few days that he knew that she felt self-conscious about her breakup with Luke. He knew she was questioning every choice she’d ever made. But he couldn’t stop himself from poking at her.

Then, he did the one thing she didn’t expect—he smiled at her. “You really are a pistol, aren’t you?”

“Don’t act like it’s cute.” Him thinking she was cute and acting condescending, it just made her angrier with him. “I’m not cute. I’m pissed off.”

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