Laura caught her lip between her teeth and frowned. ‘But maybe he did have a point. He kept calling me babe, and not once did I tell him not to even though I hated it.’
‘It used to make me wince.’
‘Me, too.’ Laura grimaced. ‘Anyway I’ve had time to think about it and, you know, I have been a bit of a pushover.’
‘Rubbish.’
‘So why do I end up giving the old people in the village lifts left, right and centre?’
‘Because you’re a nice person.’
‘Huh.’ Laura frowned. ‘I have a backbone of rubber. Well, not any more.’
‘So what’s the plan?’
‘I’ve already put it into action.’
‘So I can see.’
‘Not that,’ she said, batting back a blush. ‘The minute I moved to the country I enrolled on an assertiveness course.’
Kate’s eyebrows shot up. ‘Wow.’
‘I know.’ Laura nodded. ‘We learned to Embrace Confrontation, Say No With Confidence and to Go For What You Want.’
‘So you embraced confrontation and went for the afternoon of hot sex that you wanted.’
‘Quite.’ Something kicked in the pit of her stomach.
Kate grinned. ‘I can’t imagine there was a whole lot of saying no, either with confidence or without it.’
‘Not a lot.’ Just rather a lot of breathy yeses.
‘Well, I’m not sure about the rest of it, but that’s one way to get a lousy ex out of your system.’
‘That’s what I thought.’
Kate tilted her head and looked at Laura with something resembling admiration. ‘Reckless. Totally out of character. I like it.’
Laura felt a shiver run down her spine. ‘So did I.’ She nibbled on her lip and frowned. Up until the point she’d panicked and fled. That had been cowardly.
‘I’m so envious.’ Kate sighed. ‘Remind me why you aren’t going to see him again.’
Laura shrugged. ‘It wasn’t like that. The temporariness of it was what was so appealing.’ Well, one of the things. ‘We didn’t exchange numbers.’
‘I’m sure he’d be in the phone book. Have you Googled him?’
‘Of course not.’ She hadn’t given in to the temptation yet and she didn’t intend to.
‘Why not?’
‘I don’t want to see him again.’
‘That’s nuts. Great sex isn’t something to be dismissed lightly.’
‘It hasn’t changed anything,’ said Laura firmly, before she started agreeing with Kate and waving goodbye to all her good intentions. ‘I’m still off men. And I need another relationship like I need a hole in the head.’
‘But you’re always in a relationship.’ Kate frowned.