Page 36 of Forbidden Puck
A wave of righteousness flooded right through my chest and filled my heart. That was the best goddamn news I'd ever heard in my life. That scum-bag lawyer didn't deserve her, and I wasgladhe'd wasted his time trying.
“How long were you together?” I asked gleefully.
“Four months.”
“Four months …” I repeated, imagining the lawyer's four-month anguish—and savoring every last second of it. “Good.”
“Why is that good?”
“You made him work for it, and he didn't get it, and I'm glad,” I snarled. “Fuck that guy.”
She looked at me like she didn't quite know what to make of my jealous outburst. Part of her was surprised. Another part of her, a part she tried to hide, looked deeply pleased.
“Well then!” she snickered at last, speechless.
Our waitress returned and delivered our dinner. I needed to change the topic, because that lawyer guy got my blood boiling, and I wasn't going to have him ruin my steak.
“So, Ella,” I asked I sawed off a hunk of meat, “tell me about your job.”
She gave me a run-down on the interior design business she ran. Apparently, she was growing quite a reputation in the city for quality work and had already had some famous names among her clients—a couple actors, a few NY athletes and local celebrities. She even had a waiting list. She'd really made a name for herself, by the sounds of it.
“Makes sense,” I said.
“What does?”
“That you'd be in your business for yourself. I can tell you're really … independent. You know. Strong. Capable. Whatever.”
“Thanks,” she said quietly. “Unfortunately, a lot of guys are intimidated by that.”
“Intimidated? There's that word again. Why are guys so intimidated by you?”
She chuckled, but she looked a little uncomfortable, and she didn't give an answer.
“Seriously, I don't get it. Is it just because you run your own business? Or that you expect guys to be honest with you? I mean, I get that it'd be hard … but jeez. Self-employed and honest. Those aren't exactly qualities that I'd think were deal-breakers.”
“Well … it's something else.”
“What?” I asked, doubting it could be anything serious. “You've got your life together and you want guys to prove they're worth your time.”
“Actually. It's a little more complicated than that.”
“Well, what is it?”
She inched forward and lowered her voice. “I'm still a virgin.”
I smiled at her, huge, ready to laugh with her … but she looked completely serious.
“Wait, you're—you're serious?”
“Yeah.”
I rubbed my chin. “Oh.Oh, damn. Huh. Are you, uh, religious?”
She laughed. “Not really. We moved around so much when I was in high school for Lance's career. As soon as I had a boyfriend at school, it was time to move somewhere else. And I told you that I shared a bedroom with Lance all those years, right? Can you imagine bringing a boy back home tothatpig sty? I don't think so. Then I was in college, and you don't exactly meet a whole lot of boys in the interior design program at FIT. And then I graduated and started my business, which exceeded beyond my wildest expectations and ate up all my free time, and voila. Here I am, the 22 year old virgin.”
“I'll be damned,” I muttered.
“Look, I don't want make a big deal out of it, okay? And don't tell Lance because he doesn't know and I don't want him to know. I never wanted to make a big deal out of it, that's the thing, it just never …happened. So what? And it's not like I was trying to stay a virgin all this time, either. I just thought, since I waited this long, I might as well wait until I knew the time was right. You know? I guess the time has never been right.”
