"Are you kidding? In high school? I was a minute-man."
"You admit that?"
"Why not? It's true. I learned. I had a few relationships. I started to enjoy waiting. It was a challenge, to see how long I could go, if I could make it."
"So it is a kink?"
"I don't know. Maybe. Probably."
"I did say I'd try it."
"Yeah, but not tonight."
"No, not tonight," she says.
"Does that mean you're ready?"
"To try doing this? In public?"
I nod.
She passes the matcha shop, a trendy boutique, a hip vegetarian restaurant. "Have you ever done this? Had sex in public?"
"In a car," I say. "In another room at a party. At a bar. Not sex, sex, but someone came. I was drunk though… I don't know if I'd have the nerve sober."
"You're the scared one?"
"You're the brave one," I say. "You're the one who invited me to her place."
"I wasn't brave. I was horny."
"My ego."
"You satisfied."
"That's better." I pull her closer. "We can start with something easy. Kiss in public. Touch under the clothes."
"Now?"
I stop in front of the bar I picked for this. "If you're ready."
She takes my hand and leads me inside.
ChapterSeventeen
IMOGEN
I'm officially crazy.
No, I've been officially crazy for a while now. I'm officially unofficially crazy.
I'm in a bar in the hippest part of the Westside, ready to reveal myself to Patrick.
Sure, I'm not ready to reveal my feelings? But my boobs?
I can show those off in front of strangers.
Thankfully, the place isn't too crowded. There are a dozen patrons, spread over the long bar, the pool table, the booths along the wall.