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“Hel-lo! Earth to Lauren,” Mimi said playfully.
Lauren shook herself out of her reverie. “Sorry,” she muttered. “I was just thinking about—”
“The kiss,” the other three women said in unison. Of course, Lauren had told the girls about The Kiss. Because there was no way she could have kept that a secret.
She felt herself turn red. “Sorry, it just seems that lately everywhere I go I see Nate Miller. Or someone mentions him. Or his sister. Or that YouTube video.”
“It’s called Baader-Meinhof Phenomena,” Pilar said. “It’s where all of sudden you become aware of someone or something, and then you begin to see it everywhere.”
“I think you should kiss him again, just to see if it’s as good the second time around,” Shea said.
“But then, what if it isn’t?” Pilar said. “What if it’s really bad and then all this swooning would have been for nothing?”
“No one here is swooning,” Lauren said firmly. “Well, not much,” she admitted after they all turned to look at her.
Shea fidgeted with the edge of one of the flyers. “Lauren, I don’t mean to pry here, but you’ve been divorced for what? Almost a year-and-a-half? So, how many guys have you actually…you know?”
“Kissed?” Lauren asked.
“Fucked,” Shea said.
Mimi’s eyes widened. “That’s putting it just a bit bluntly, isn’t it?”
Shea stood and refilled her coffee cup. “We’re not high school girls, we’re grown women and we have needs, and if Lauren isn’t getting those needs met, then I say that as true friends we need to help her.”
“Isn’t that illegal?” Mimi asked.
“Not like that. I’m just saying that Lauren needs to loosen up a little. So, c’mon, answer my question, how many?”
Lauren hesitated a moment. “I kissed three boys in high school, and of course I had sex with Tom. Oh, and the kiss with Nate.”
Pilar looked incredulous. “You mean, there hasn’t been anyone since the divorce? You haven’t had sex in a year-and-a-half?”
“Technically, almost two years,” Lauren admitted. “The last few months of our marriage were kind of stressful since I was working up the courage to ask Tom for a divorce.”
“What do you do on Saturday nights?” Pilar asked.
“Watch old movies. And…sometimes I sew.”
They stared at her like she was an alien. And in that moment, she felt like one, but their situations were different. Shea had married her high school sweetheart, Moose, and they had two precious little girls. Pilar was a successful attorney, with an equally successful husband and a young son whom they both doted on. And then of course, there was Mimi, married to Zeke (probably the hottest guy on the planet). They had their problems, sure, but Mimi and Zeke were crazy about one another and their two beautiful children.
But Lauren hadn’t found her place yet. She needed to prove to herself that she could make it on her own. There simply wasn’t time in her life for a man right now. And casual sex just wasn’t her thing. So while she appreciated their concern (she really did) she needed to concentrate on what was important. Henry. Daddy’s illness. Her business.
“I’m a thirty-year-old divorcee with an almost twelve-year-old son. Nate and I had a lovely evening, but we were both a little drunk and we kissed. End of story. I have no interest in finding a man right now, so…let’s get back to talking about the campaign.”
They looked at one another with dubious expressions on their faces.
“I’m serious,” Lauren said. “Let’s not talk about the…kiss anymore.”
“We won’t talk about it if you don’t talk about it,” Pilar said.
“Okay, so what are we going to talk about instead?” Shea demanded.
Mimi must have sensed Lauren’s discomfort. “Why don’t we talk about Kitty’s baby shower?”
There was a reason Mimi was Lauren’s closest friend. “I second that,” Lauren gratefully added, leaving Shea and Pilar no recourse but to reluctantly murmur their agreement.
*~*~*
