Page 71 of His Turn

She laughs. And it’s a good laugh. Real too. “I don’t know. Maybe. But I know he’s been pretty preoccupied with me these past few weeks.”

“Training you,” I say. “For me, I think.”

She has a forkful of pancake heading for her mouth when she stops and says, “What?”

“He told me. He brought you to the Club a couple times. We were talking at the bar. You were looking at me that first time. You slapped him both times. And he said you thought yourself a top. And I laughed.”

“It’s funny, huh?”

“You’re just too young, Nadia. To know the difference.”

“I don’t think so.” Her back is straighter now. Like I offended her.

“Anyway, he invited me in that first day. But I said no.”

“Because of… Rochelle and… Quin, right?”

“Yes. We had something good.”

“Obviously,” she concedes. “If it lasted so long. Do you miss them?”

“Sure. All the time.”

“And I’m the replacement?”

I shrug. “Why not? Does it make you feel used?”

“No,” she says. Defiantly. “I’m using you too.”

“For what?”

“Sex.” She shrugs. “What else.”

“But you can get sex from the little boys at that club, right?”

“They’re not little boys. Everyone there is eighteen. And two of those guys were twenty-two.”

“Same difference,” I say. “Boys.”

“And what? You’re a man? I need you, a man, to give me what I don’t know I want?”

“You got it in one, sister.”

“Shit.” She laughs. “You definitely have an ego, that’s for sure.”

“So house hunt tomorrow?”

“I’m working.”

“At the ballet?”

“You know where I work.”

“So you’ll be too tired to go out tomorrow night?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Did you say yes, then?”