“I plan on lookingveryclosely,” Jennifer replied and kissed her.
CHAPTER 34
Debra
Sharon was young. She was beautiful. There was no way she would want to be with her in any way other than friendship, and Debra knew it. Unfortunately, Becky and Helena had already paired off, and everyone now knew why. Jennifer and Kristina seemed to be happy about having some time alone, and she already knew that Carrie wasn’t the one for her. Gage definitely wasn’t, either. She was even younger than Sharon and looked like the alpha Debra very much used to be. She wondered why Nia had thought that she’d be right for this group and worried that she’d waited this long and had spent money on an event that she would soon be leaving empty-handed, just when Sharon approached her with a wide smile.
“Hi,” Sharon said.
“Hi,” she replied.
“I can get the cards if you want,” Sharon offered.
“Sure,” she said, smiling back at her, searching for pity on Sharon’s face.
“Do you want to stop in there first?” Sharon asked after returning to her side, which surprised Debra, who hadn’t expected her to ask about the den, given the fact that Sharoncouldn’twant to have sex with her.
“Um… No. Maybe later.”
“Okay.” Sharon looked at her, a little confused. “Your room?”
Debra nodded and followed her down the hallway, surprised again when Sharon seemed to know which room was hers. Sharon waited for her at the door, likely respecting the no-admittance-without-invitation rule, and she pushed open the door for her.
“After you,” she said.
“Thank you.”
Sharon smiled at her again, and it was getting to Debra that she still wasn’t finding that pity she’d expected to find in her expressions.
At dinner, she’d been seated across from Sharon, and she’d looked over at her a few times and had noticed Sharon looking back at her. She’d gotten those same smiles and had attributed them to Sharon being polite, but maybe she’d been wrong about that, too.
“So, sit on the bed, do our mandatory thirty minutes?” Sharon asked.
“Oh, right,” she replied and sat down on the bed next to her, watching Sharon look down at the cards without saying anything for a minute.
“Are you okay?” Sharon asked. “Do you not want to be in here with me? I can go if–”
“What?” Debra asked back. “No, that’s not it at all.”
“You’re just really quiet or something; I don’t know. I’m probably reading into it.”
“Reading into what?”
“You didn’t really smile back at me at dinner. I thought there was a good chance we would get paired up tonight, or at least, tomorrow night, with Helena and Becky paired off for good now. I was trying to maybe, I don’t know, get to know you a little at dinner. Smiles and questions.”
“You asked me if I liked winter,” she said.
“People were talking about skiing. I was trying to start a conversation with you.”
“I’m sorry.” Debra turned to her. “Sharon, I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
“Why did you think I asked you that?”
“Because people were talking, and I was a little quiet. I thought you were being polite.”
“I guess I was doing that, too, but you said you liked it and looked away, so I gave up. Then, you didn’t want to look in the den, which is fine – we don’t have to do anything tonight or even use anything from there – but it was like you couldn’t even see–”
“Sharon, no,” Debra interjected. “God, no. I’m sorry. I think you’re misreading things, but it’smyfault.”
