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Take it easy. Start slow.
“Have you ever been to Australia?”
She scoffed. “I’d never be allowed to go that far.”
Xavier frowned. There were so many issues with that sentence, he didn’t know where to begin.
Before he’d had a chance to ask, she said, “Next question.”
“I, um…do you have kids?”
“No.”
“Are you married?”
“You proposing?”
“God, no.”
“Oh, so I’m good enough to have sex with but not good enough to marry?”
“Any man would give his right nut to marry you.”
“This is the worst marriage proposal ever, no wonder Beth saidno.”
“What? No, I mean…” He could see her fighting the smirk wanting to be released from the corners of her mouth. “God dammit, Hope, are you messing with me?”
The smirk broke free. “A little bit.”
He shook his head and smiled.This woman. “When we first met you said you’d escaped. You never elaborated on it. From where I’m sitting, either you’re an escapee from a mental asylum…”
“They do say crazy girl sex is the best sex.”
“…or are escaping something else, like a marriage. I don’t want an angry husband banging on the door while we’re, uh,banging. I know we said no commitments, but it would be helpful to know.”
“We also said no complications.”
“We did.” Xavier’s foot tapped. “You also didn’t answer the question. Hope, are you—”
“No, I’m not married. No kids. I don’t even have a cat or a goldfish, for that matter. I had a pet rock once, called Steve, lost it somewhere in Robyn Mitchel’s backyard when I was ten.”
Xavier wouldn’t be swayed by her flippancy. “The escape thing?”
He felt a nudge underneath the table. A delicate foot was making its way up his upper thigh.
Hope said, “Is for another time. That’s enough, Xavier. Don’t ruin the fantasy. The reality is far more boring.”
“One last one. What do you do for a living? A job, I mean.”
Hope let out a sigh, and her foot dropped to the floor. “I work for a law firm, and no, I’m not a lawyer. I still have my soul. I work for my father, as it turns out. Intensely boring and that’s it. I’m done. Can we drop it now, ‘kay, thanks, bye?”
“Did you always want to work at a law firm? Is it your passion?”
Her voice dropped. “I think you know what gets me passionate.”
Xavier could recall in great detail. He allowed a momentary flashback before continuing. “True, but if working there bores you so much, what do you really want to do, for a living I mean? If you could do anything?”
Hope blinked at him as if he was the first person to ask the question, yet she still somehow managed to look pained. “If I answer this, then can we get back to arranging for the sex-fest to start?”
