Page 113 of Firecracker

“That’s not true. You’re the one who’s not interested.” A couple of guys had tried to talk to Mila and asked her dance, and she’d rebuffed them all.

“I’m not good at this.” Mila set her elbow on the bar and rested her head on her hand. “I don’t know how to have meaningless sex. I’ve spent my whole life looking for a boyfriend.”

“You’ll find another boyfriend,” Emma said.

“I don’t want another boyfriend. I’m done with relationships. I give up on that. I’m taking it off my checklist.”

Arden and Emma exchanged glances.

“Okay,” Arden said. “Then you’re going to have to be open to sleeping with guys who approach you.”

“I can’t sleep with just anyone. There has to besomeattraction there.”

Arden swallowed a sigh, because she understood Mila only too well. She wasn’t interested in any of the men who’d flirted with her either. Because she kept thinking of Tyler. And wouldn’t you know it, on a night when she had zero interest in hooking up, she’d been approached by one man after another. “I’m with you,” she said. “No relationships. Just hot sex.”

“Yeah, but you’ve got Tyler for that. I’ve got no one.”

Okay maybe getting Mila drunk hadn’t been such a good idea. She seemed to be sliding into depression, when the whole point of the evening was supposed to be to cheer her up with a little fun and flirting. “We should have gone to a comedy club.”

“The Punch Line’s not far from here,” Emma said.

“Let’s do it. We can still catch a late show.” Mila nodded eagerly.

“Really? That’s what you’d rather do?”

“Actually, I’d rather go home to bed.”

“That’s not happening,” Arden said firmly. “Fine. Let’s go listen to some jokes.”

“I was so ready for sex tonight,” Mila grumbled, out on the sidewalk as they headed down West Hubbard toward LaSalle. “I even took some of that stuff. Honey Pot.”

“What?” Arden and Emma said together, heads whipping around to stare at Mila walking between them. “What is honey pot? Some kind of marijuana?”

“No!” Mila laughed. “Honey Pot. It’s a supplement thatgives your, um, secretions a fruity taste and a nice smell.”

“You have got to be kidding me.” Arden’s jaw slackened.

“Why?” Emma demanded.

Mila shrugged, and to Arden’s horror, a tear trickled out of her eye and tracked down her cheek. “Garth didn’t like going down on me.”

“You think it was because…of how you taste?” Emma asked, her tone laced with disbelief.

“He sort of implied that.” Mila swiped at her face.

“Sweet Jesus in the lap of Mary. Change of plans.” Emma stopped walking.

“What?” Arden and Mila came to a halt too.

“We’re going to Garth’s place, and the three of us are going to beat the ever-loving shit out of that motherfucker.” Emma’s jaw set.

“Much as I love the idea…no.” Arden linked arms with Mila and started walking again.

“I want to,” Emma muttered. “Jesus Christ.”

“I hear you,” Arden said. “Mila, you have to know that washisproblem, not yours.”

“It made me self-conscious,” Mila said in an uncharacteristically small voice.

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