Page 70 of Body Shot

Carrie’s eyes widen. “Shut the front door. He was jealous?”

“Well, I don’t think he’d admit to it, but apparently yes. It was okay, because Will was very nice but there wasn’t any . . . chemical reaction, like there is with Beck.” I sigh. “So Beck asked me to go out with him Friday night and he took me night paddleboarding.”

“I’ve heard of that! It sounds really cool.”

“It was amazing.” I describe the experience. “Then just as we were getting back to shore, I fell in. He took me home to get dry clothes and we ended up having a shower.”

“Together?”

I blink and glance at Julia filing my toenail. Julia looks up at me and winks. “Honey, go ahead, I’ve heard everything.”

I give her a weak smile then turn back to Carrie. “Yes. Together. Oh my God, Carrie.”

Carrie’s shoulders lift with excitement. “Awesome! Then what?”

“We did the Netflix and chill thing.”

Carrie frowns. “You don’t have Netflix.”

“It’s an expression. Sort of.” I giggle. Oh my God, Igiggle. “I didn’t know either, but he told me ‘Netflix and chill’ is code for watching a movie and making out.”

Carrie laughs too. “Yeah, I know. Except for me it’s Netflix and Jill.”

I pause. Then I get it and my mouth drops open. “Carrie!”

Carrie shrugs. “Truth, lately. But Hayden—go you!”

“I know! So then . . . he asked me to come to Conquistadors on Saturday night. He was working, but he said I could hang out there. So I did. And it was super fun. I met his buddies. And . . . and . . . we did body shots.” I bite my lip.

“Really?”

“Really.”

“When you say, ‘wedid body shots’ . . . explain, please.”

“Beck drank a shot of tequila off my, er, stomach.”

Carrie laughs. “Holy shit, Hayden.”

“I know! I can’t believe I did that. Jesus, I’m not a teenager on spring break. What if someone from NHI was there and saw me doing that? They’d be seriously questioning whether I deserve that research grant.”

“You can run a research company and have fun on your downtime. It’s none of their business what you do outside of work. Anyway, nobody saw you. Right?”

“Right. At least I don’t think so. There were a lot of people in the bar, but I don’t think anyone I knew was there. I wasn’t even drunk—I’d only had part of a Paloma.”

“What’s that?”

I outline the ingredients. “It was really good. Anyway, after that—”

“There’smore?”

“He invited me to go to his place so we could, uh, continue the tequila tasting.”

Carrie makes a noise as if she’s weeping.

“I almost changed my mind about it. Because I was . . .” I swallow.

“What?”

---