Page 77 of Ink & Ambition

“Yep, went through it this morning.”

“Good,” she says, leaning back in her seat. “Then this should be painless.”Ha.

Once I’m settled in, we both give Nathan a thumbs up as he silently counts us down from three on his fingers. The bright red recording button appears at the top of the wall and we’re off.

“Hello, folks and welcome back to another riveting episode ofAsk Alex. As you already know, clearly, I am Alex, your host and resident question answerer and with me is my darling, lovely, beguiling, cohost, Margot.”

“Oh, please, don’t even try to butter me up, frat boy, we’ve got way too much on our agenda for all that,” Margot says with a smile but her teeth are gritted a little too much to be a pleasurable expression. “And on that note, let’s jump right in!”

Margot pulls up an index card where she wrote out the question. “This question comes from an avid listener named Kelly K. The question is, Alex, are you ready?”

“Yes, I am ready.”

“The question is: At what age is it deemedappropriateto lose your virginity? And then there’s a follow up of: What age didyoulose your virginity, Alex Prescott?”

Margot places the card down on the table and crosses her hands on her lap, looking at me expectantly. I had anticipated this question, having looked at the script, but I didn’t anticipate how talking about sex with Margot would make me feel.

“Kelly, thank you for writing in,” I give Margot a pointed glance before looking back at the camera with my signature wink. “I think it’s important that you, first of all, and the person you’re with are of legal age. That being said, it’s definitely not appropriate to have sex before the age of seventeen. Eighteen in some states, make sure you look up the laws, okay folks?”

Margot rolls her eyes. “Very solid legal advice, counselor.”

I ignore her jab. “As for me personally, well…let’s just say I didn’t follow my own advice.” Raising my eyebrows suggestively at the camera before looking over at Margot.

She’s huffing out a breath before shuffling the deck to find her next question. Before she can pull one out, I place my hand on top of the stack. “Well, hold on, sunshine, I answered the question, now it’s your turn.”

“This isn’t Ask AlexandMargot, is it?”

“Fair is fair,” I shrug. “I’m sure the people want to know,” I continue, pointing toward the camera. I don’t miss the blush that forms on Margot’s cheeks. She’s looking down at her hands, not willing to meet my eyes.

With a huff, she looks up. “I haven’t,” she says simply before shuffling through the deck again. For my own personal sake, I want to dive deeper into that answer but I can tell she’s completely embarrassed by it so I choose to let it go instead. I do, however, pocket the conversation for a time when we aren’t fighting, which will be soon if I have my way about it.

“Next question,” Margot presses on, and I let her, the ice around my heart melting slowly with each minute we pass together. Margot asks me two more questions, one about my fitness regime, which was clearly sent in by a dude, and one about my advice on college majors, which I didn’t have a whole lot of.

“It’s come to that time, folks. Our last question,” I announce and I can already feel Margot start to relax a bit knowing the end of her time in the spotlight is near.

Margot picks up the index card, opens her mouth to speak, but then thinks better of it. Lowering her hand, Margot places the stack on the table and looks over at me instead. I don’t hide the confusion in my eyes.

“The final question, Alex Prescott, is: Who deserves your trust more? Your best friend or your significant other?”

I take in a breath. I know what she’s doing. She’s making the question relatable by using that term but I know she’s talking about what happened last night.

“Well, I think it depends on the situation. It also depends on how long you’ve known each person.”

Margot settles into her chair, content to hear me out.

“If you’ve been bros with your best friend for years and this significant other is a new situation, I’d say trust the best friend…If the roles were reversed, I’d say the opposite.”

As I start to think about it more, my mind starts to shift. “But what reason would your best friend have to lie to you? As shitty as it sounds, your significant other could have motive to make you believe something that’s not necessarily true.”

“Why would you be with someone that has ulterior motives?”

“Now, that’s a good question… but unfortunately, our time is up so we’ll have to leave it at that for now.” I can’t meet her eyes even though I can feel hers boring into the side of my head. “Until next week, ladies…and maybe one gentleman, based onthat fitness question. This has been us.” I give the camera a salute and watch the recording button blink out in my peripheral vision.

Margot is out of her seat before I even have a chance to say anything. She pulls the door open, grabs her jacket, bag and leaves the studio without even a word to Nathan. Since my seat is farther from the door, it takes me a minute to get my long legs out of the small space and reach the door.

By the time I make it out of the building, she’s gone.

Kai is sitting at the kitchen table when I get home, and I take the opportunity to sort this out once and for all.

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