Page 63 of The Moment You Know

He shook his head. “Actually, that’s fallacious.”

At the use of the rather unusual word, she gave him an amused smile. “Fallacious?”

“Not to be confused with ‘fellatio’.”

She sputtered out a laugh. “I wasn’t. I just don’t hear that word very often.”

“It’s from my Word-of-the-Day app. And speaking of which …” he trailed off and quickly glanced at his watch, smiling when he saw that it was one minute to midnight. “I got to use it before the day is officially over. Thanks to you.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Yesterday’s word was ‘intransigent’. That one was a bit of a struggle to use, but I got it out there. One thing I’m not, is a quitter,” Evan said, as one of the waitresses came over with a drink order for him.

She started to rattle off the drinks, but after the first one, he cut her off. “No more Cosmos, Mandy. I’m serious. I’m not making another goddamn Cosmo tonight.”

“Evan—”

“You can either tell people we’re out of Cosmos, or have Lars make them the rest of the night. And if he bitches about it, tell him he’s fired.”

“All right.” Mandy picked up her tray and headed down the bar toward Lars.

“So, what was your wish?” Evan asked Paige again. “That whole ‘can’t tell because it won’t come true’ is fallacious. It was probably made up by someone who just didn’t want to admit they’d wished for something embarrassing.”

“That’s actually me right now.”

“Really? Did you wish for a pony or something?”

“No.”

“Then it’s not that embarrassing, so spill the beans.”

“I wished …” she trailed off to take a deep breath. “I wished to be normal.”

He looked taken aback by that. “What do you mean? You’re more normal than most of the people that come in here.”

“I mean sexually.”

Evan’s expression softened a little bit. “Oh.”

“And when I say ‘normal’, I don’t really know what that means, but after spending almost two years in therapy dealing with my uncle’s abuse, I’m ready to find out.” She paused for a moment, then revealed in a rush, “I haven’t had sexual contact of any kind in over five years.”

“Holy shit,” he blurted out, eyes wide. “I mean, I understand why, but … holy shit.”

“I know. It’s a long time, and that makes me a little nervous.”

“Well, maybe you should just rip the Band-Aid off and have a one-night stand,” he suggested, half-seriously.

“That thought has crossed my mind, but I don’t think I could do it. I’m afraid I’d feel used and I don’t want to ever feel like that again.”

“I think if you went into it willingly, knowing what you wanted from it and could control it, you wouldn’t feel used.”

“Maybe. But I’m not willing to take that chance. I want sex to mean everything that it never has before and I don’t want to settle for anything less.”

“You want the fairy tale,” Evan surmised.

“I want the fairy tale,” she confirmed, then added, “and the happily-ever-after this time around.”

“This time around?”

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