“Don’t thank me yet,” Ruby warned then moved to greet the patron waiting for her.
Chapter Twelve
An hour later Ruby and Red were both speechless and gawking at Tessa.
“Come on, you two. It’s notthatstrange,” she said.
Judging by their expressions, mainly shock and disbelief, it was apparent that neither of them agreed with her.
“You seriously have only been out on four dates? In your entire life?” Red asked, finally knocked out of her silent stupor.
“No. I’ve been out onsixdates… with four different guys.” She’d added the last part reluctantly.
One budding but ill-fated start to a relationship had yielded three dates with the same man before he’d ghosted her.
For the other three guys who’d asked her out after she met them in her classes, it had been Tessa who’d avoided them after a single date each. When you know, you know.
The meet-up with guy number four, the ghost-er, had been her one and only time arranging a date online. After that, she’d deleted the app and never looked back, swearing off dating until her thesis was done and she had a good job…
Well, sworn off datinguntil nowwhen she’d let Susan Sinclair turn her into adate for hire. Tessa refused to think of the other word that taking money to date Dean made her.
“Oh no. I just had a thought.” Ruby grabbed Red’s arm in a death grip as she turned to Tessa. “Please tell me you’re not a…virgin.” She’d whispered the word as if it were too horrible a concept to speak aloud.
Red gasped, her wide-eyed gaze trained on Tessa. “Are you?”
“Jeez. No. I’m twenty-six years old. Of course I’ve had sex before.” She hoped they didn’t ask her forthatnumber.
She had a feeling they wouldn’t like the pitifully low tally of men she’d had sex with any better than they liked the number of men she’d dated.
They didn’t get it. Times had changed. It wasn’t the eighties anymore. Not that Tessa had been alive then to know, but she read plenty. For school and for pleasure.
Even the experts agreed. Studies (and boy did Tessa love a good study) indicated that singles today in America were having less sex than singles in previous generations.
Ruby and Red must be forgetting that Tessa’s school experience had been greatly different than theirs. Irrevocably altered, like so many others her age.
She hadn’t been able to go out, or even have a party, the year she’d turned twenty-one and could finally legally drink in New York State.
That milestone birthday had happened during the pandemic lock-down. She’d been quarantining alone in a tiny apartment in Binghamton while taking her courses online. Her parents had sent birthday deliveries from where they were sheltering in their retirement community in Florida—wine by mail, cheese of the month club, and most importantly, a new laptop. They’d video chatted on that day, and a lot during that time. But it didn’t change the fact she’d been alone.
And definitelynothaving sex with anyone.
Frustrated, Tessa let out a huff. “Do you two have anything constructive to say that will help me tonight or not?”
She was about one minute away from asking the artificial intelligence built into her cell phone browser for dating advice. Whatever the AI provided had to be more helpful than what these two women were giving her, which was nothing but criticism so far.
Red visibly knocked herself out of her stupor. “Okay. You’re right. We’re here to help you. Maybe if you gave us some more information. Like where is he taking you? What are you going to be doing?”
“I don’t know,” Tessa said on an exhale filled with frustration.
“What are you talking about?” Ruby spread her hands wide while shaking her head. “How can you not know? Didn’t you ask?”
“No,” Tessa answered meekly. She’d been too shocked. She was lucky she’d gotten any words out at all.
Looking horrified, Red widened her eyes. “Then how do you know what to wear?”
“I don’t know. I guess I thought we’d figure it out here, together.”
“We.” Ruby snorted and turned to Red. “Meaning you and me.”
