Page 170 of Ewan

“No, no,” she says, proving that she’s more perceptive than I thought she’d be. “Don’t have sex with him,” she adds under her breath before pushing her chair back and pivoting to the counter. “Do you want more cake?”

I can’t pull my lips open to answer, still under the effect of her words.

Don’t have sex? That’s all we have.

“I’m good. Thank you.”

She slides another slice of cake onto her plate and returns to the table.

Mechanically, I watch her slide into her seat.

“Don’t have sex, darling. I know this seems like an outdated view, but it still works.”

“How?”

“How??”

She laughs.

“When sex takes the back seat, people are more concerned with knowing each other. When sex is the main dish, you know there’s nothing else left.”

I hope she’s wrong. For the sake of having a different opinion, I hope I can come back to her one day and tell her she was wrong. Whether Ewan will be a part of my life at that point or not, I want to believe that she’s wrong.

What if she isn’t?

What if there is truth to that?

What if he changed his mind?

He wanted to do all the right things by me, taking his time and all that. Was I so clueless, blindsided, unable to read into his behavior? Am I so shallow? And when did I become a horny little tart?

As she keeps yapping about her theory, I try to figure out where I am with Ewan.

The sex was unbelievable.

We made a deal, didn’t we?

We said we’d have sex and see where it would get us.

Yeah, it sounded promising.

But the more I think about it, the more I realize we probably settled for having a good time because deep down inside, we knew we had no future together.

But even if we had… Huh.

We’ve already screwed it, haven’t we?

We’ve already destroyed that mystique that a story needs to last longer than a few meetups for sex.

Something must’ve shift on my face as she lifts an eyebrow at me.

“You don’t like your tea?”

I pull out of my frozen state.

“My tea is good. Thank you. I need to go now. I have a lot to do this evening.”

A smile tugs at her lips.

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