Page 58 of Meant to Be

“I want to take you to the Hamptons for the weekend. And go onvacations…and I want to meet your friends and family. Especially your mother…Have you told her about me?”

“She’s heard of you,” I said, smiling at him.

He laughed, then said, “You know what I mean…. Have you told her aboutus?”

I shook my head.

“Well, I want to meet her…and I want you to meet my mother, too.”

My stomach turned a somersault as I tried to decide which scenario I dreaded more.

“So what do you think?”

“I don’t know, Joe—”

“Okay, I don’t want to rush you…but can we at least stop hiding? And just tell everyone the truth?”

I lowered my voice and leaned toward him. “You mean that we’ve been fucking for two months?Thattruth?” I said, mostlyjust to throw cold water on my feelings. But I think I was also testing him.

“Jesus, Cate,” Joe said with a laugh. “Do you have to say it that way?”

I shrugged and said, “Well. Isn’t that what we’ve been doing?”

“No,” he said, reaching for my hand. “We’ve been making love.”

I rolled my eyes and pulled my hand away, saying, “Ugh. Please don’t ever use that expression again.”

He laughed, then said, “Okay. Well, regardless of what we call it—I don’t kiss and tell….”

“Bullshit,” I said with a smile.

“I don’t!”

I took a sip of my margarita, then licked some of the salt from the rim of my glass. “So, you’re telling me that younevertalked to your guy friends about what it was like to fuck Phoebe Mills?”

“Ugh! Stop saying that word!”

“Okay, fine. What it was like tohave sexwith Phoebe Mills?”

He blushed and looked away.

“Yep. That’s what I thought.”

“Okay. You got me there,” Joe said. “But that wasn’t a real relationship.”

“What was it, then?”

“It was mostlyjustsex. I mean, we did have fun together, but…”

I gave him a “gotcha” smile.

“Don’t look at me like that,” he said.

“I’m not looking at you like anything,” I said.

“Yes, you are. Do you think less of me?”

“No. Why would I? You think I’ve never had ‘just sex’ before? With no strings attached?” I said.

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