Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 95421 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 477(@200wpm)___ 382(@250wpm)___ 318(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95421 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 477(@200wpm)___ 382(@250wpm)___ 318(@300wpm)
She ran her finger along the top of her glass, circling the brim. “Have you…been with anyone since we met?”
I shook my head. “It seems like we’ve both been busy imagining what it would be like to be together, yet it took us this long to even go on a date. Why is that?”
“I haven’t had the best luck with men, and after everything I’ve been through in the last year, I couldn’t handle any more disappointment.”
“Did every relationship end with disappointment?”
“Pretty much. All except Simon.”
My jaw clenched. “That guy’s name even pisses me off.”
She smiled. “I sort of feel the same way about Emily.”
“Then let’s not talk about them. What happened in the other relationships you had?”
Naomi sighed. “I’ve had three other serious boyfriends. The first was my high school sweetheart. We were together for three years, from eleventh grade until the end of our first year of college. We went to different universities, but weren’t ready to break up, so we did the long-distance thing. My semester ended a week earlier than his, so I went up to surprise him.”
“Uh-oh. This doesn’t sound good.”
“It wasn’t. After driving nine hours, I found him and some girl naked in bed.”
“That sucks.”
She shrugged. “Long distance is hard, and we were so young. So eventually I got over it and gave a relationship a shot again.
“What happened there?”
“Gunner and I—”
I interrupted, raising a hand. “No need to explain. Dude’s name is Gunner. He’s definitely a dick.”
Naomi laughed. “He was. But it took me almost a full year to figure it out.”
“And the last one? He was your ex-fiancé, I guess?”
She nodded. “Brad was older by ten years. He was actually the district attorney. We were together for almost two years. He proposed two months before everything happened.”
“What went wrong?”
“He couldn’t handle my disbarment or the humiliation I put him through.”
“What humiliation?”
“There was a lot of press, and his name was constantly mentioned. The story became more salacious with the DA involved since there was a big conflict of interest. He was supposed to be the one to make the call on how I should be charged criminally, but he had to recuse himself, and his deputy handled it. Brad broke our engagement a month after I caused Mr. Flint to fall down the stairs. That’s when I felt like I needed my fiancé the most, and he abandoned me. He said he’d worked too hard to get where he was to have his career ruined.”
“What a dick.”
Naomi smiled, but I could see it still stung.
“Yeah, so I don’t exactly have the best track record with men,” she continued. “Couple my dating experiences with my dad leaving my mother a week after she was diagnosed with cancer, and I probably have enough baggage to rack up a few hundred-thousand dollars in therapy bills. But of course, I can’t afford therapy since I blew through my savings paying legal fees and can no longer practice law.”
“I’m sorry.”
She shook her head and picked up her drink. “It is what it is. But enough about my depressing dating life. Tell me about yours.”
“There’s not much to tell.”
“Have you ever had a serious girlfriend?”
“No.”
“Oh.”
“Does that set off warning bells for you?”
“I guess that depends on the reason you haven’t had a serious relationship.”
It wasn’t the first time a woman had poked around in my past. Over the years I’d grown adept at responding without too many specifics. “Maybe I just haven’t met the right person.”
“Did you give anyone a chance?”
“I think so.”
“What was the longest you ever dated someone?”
“Probably Emily. About three months.”
“Hmmm…”
“What’s hmmm mean?”
“I’m trying to figure out if three months is an adequate amount of time to get to know someone and decide they aren’t Mrs. Right, or if that’s the amount of time it takes for a woman to grow close to you and then you to push her away because you’re a commitment-phobe?”
“Let me know when you figure it out.”
Naomi went quiet. It seemed like she was debating her assessment of me. “Do you have any women friends at all? I know your silly theory on being friends with women you’re attracted to, but what about the ones you aren’t physically attracted to?”
I shrugged. “I work with a lot of women I’m friendly with.”
“I don’t mean work associates. I mean good friends—women you spend time with outside of work. And your guy friends’ girlfriends and wives, like Lily, don’t count.”
I shook my head.
“Did you ever?”
Bailey wasn’t someone I talked about often, so my first instinct was to lie. It would’ve been easy enough to just shake my head and move on. For some reason, though, I didn’t. I nodded. “My best friend growing up was a girl.”
“Do you still keep in touch with her?”
I hesitated. “Can’t. She died.”
Naomi locked eyes with me. I could see the wheels in her head turning. She was a lawyer, so she wasn’t about to let go now that she’d latched on to something interesting. It would lead to an all-new round of questions. I might’ve answered her question honestly, but that was different than going down a long, ugly road. So I picked up the menu.