Page 65 of Mr. February

“Huh.” Jenny said back hard on her chair, stunned by Gloria’s insight. “I never thought about it like that.”

“Now it’s time to tell me what else you’re so embarrassed about. Don’t think I forgot. Did Wade eat you out or something?”

“How did you know?”

“Oh my god, he did?” Gloria whooped in delight. “Way to go, Wade! See, that’s a guy who’s good to his friends, and I bet he’s even more generous to his lady.”

“I don’t know how to answer that except to say that it was amazing. I didn’t know I could do that.”

“Aw, our little girl is growing up! Wait, does that mean what I think it means? Did he make you come?”

“Yes,” Jenny whispered and then whipped her phone away from her head as Gloria’s hoots rang in her ears.

“Okay, I’m calm again,” Gloria said a minute later, “but I’m so fucking happy for you, babe. Where were we? Wade made you come from oral sex, and he wouldn’t let you talk him into sex-sex because he didn’t want you to do something in the heat of the moment that you’d regret later. Am I leaving anything out?”

“Um, maybe we did a few other things, too.”

“Nice, Jenny was getting busy,” she sang. “That’s great news, but for some reason you’re still freaked out. What’s going on in your head?”

“How do I know if I can trust this? If I can trust him?”

“Oh, babe, that’s the million-dollar question. You can’t know. All you can do is take a leap of faith and hope it works. But ifyou ask me, Wade is worth taking a chance on. There are no guarantees in life, but he seems like a good guy.”

“Yeah, that’s true.”

“Besides, one of us should be getting laid on Valentine’s Day, and I didn’t put all those condoms in your bag for nothing.”

Chapter 20: I’m All In, and She Isn’t

WADE

“Everything okay, man?” Kyle asked in lieu of a greeting.

“Of course. Everything’s fine. Why wouldn’t it be?” Wade spit out in rapid fire succession as he paced around his hotel room.

The room suddenly seemed too small, and he walked across the room in only six steps. He wasn’t a big guy. Shouldn’t a suite have bigger bedrooms? Surely, he wasn’t the only one who needed to stride while he thought, and there simply wasn’t enough room for him to properly pace in this tiny space.

“Uh, you called me,” Kyle reminded him with a sardonic tone. “As in called instead of texting. Since I’m the one holding down the fort on the work-related stuff, I think you can understand my confusion. Plus, some of us have to work in the morning, and it’s late.”

Kyle refrained from laughing, but the amusement was clear in his voice.

“Okay, fine. I’m freaking out a little bit,” Wade admitted.

“Uh, oh. What did Suzanne do now?”

“What does Suzanne have to do with this? No, that’s all taken care of. She won’t be bothering us anymore.”

“Really? That’s great news.”

“Yeah, today has been a rollercoaster, and I don’t know what to do now.”

Wade ran his hand through his hair in frustration. He sat down on the edge of his bed and then hopped up. Uncertainty kept him from relaxing, and he muttered under his breath as he paced again.

“Oh, no, did your date go that badly?”

“What? No. I mean, yeah, it started off with Suzanne doing Suzanne things, and I need to catch you up on that soon, but the date itself was fun. Great. Better than great.”

“Then what’s the issue? Why do you sound like I need to talk you off a ledge?”

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