“Don’t you want to get to know them first? What if you don’t like them?”
“As long as they’re disease-free and know what to do with my clit, I’m fine with it. Not everyone feels the need to pair-bond.”
“I couldn’t be more different,” Shannon said. “I’m in love with Aaron, and he’s in love with me.”
Victoria mentally made a gagging noise. “I’m glad you two are happy.”
“But?”
“I’m not interested in falling in love.” Victoria found herself wanting to tell the truth. “I did once. He ripped my heart out and did a little dance on it, and I’m never doing that again.”
“Never is a long time. What if you meet the right guy?”
“There is no right guy. They’re interchangeable.”
Shannon’s expression turned knowing. “You’re choosing sex because you don’t want to get hurt again. You’re scared.”
“I’ve made a lifestyle choice.”
“You’re in denial.”
“Possibly, and here I’ll stay.”
“Javiar isn’t a sex-only kind of guy. He’s always had a romantic streak.”
Well, that was disappointing to hear. She enjoyed his company and had assumed she would be getting him into bed, but if he was a romantic, then he would have emotional expectations she had no interest in meeting.
“You’re going to hurt him,” Shannon added.
“What? No. I don’t get involved enough to hurt anyone.”
“But maybe he will.”
She sounded concerned, which made Victoria feel the tiniest bit guilty. Then she reminded herself that Javiar was a grown-ass man who could take care of himself.
Conversation shifted to the venue where they’d met. Victoria talked about her mom’s plans for Milton’s sixtieth birthday, while Shannon mentioned Cindy’s upcoming wedding.When they’d finished, Victoria realized they’d spent nearly two hours talking.
“You probably have to get back to your life,” she said. “But this has been fun.”
Shannon smiled. “It has. Thanks for inviting me over. It helped to have someone to share all this with.” She got up from the table. “Let me put all this leftover food away for you.”
“No way. You said you’d take some home. I can’t eat all that myself.”
Shannon hesitated. “But you bought it.”
“That doesn’t matter. Please. I insist.”
“Okay. I’ll take it to Javiar.” She pressed a hand to her stomach. “I’ve had so much good food over the past couple of days. I feel like I need to eat salads for a week.”
Victoria grinned. “Aaron’s been spoiling you?”
“What? No. This dinner and lunch with your mom a couple of days ago. We had a sort of high tea with scones and...” She verbally stumbled to a stop. “Are you okay?”
Victoria knew she was staring—probably with a fairly scary, angry expression. “You had lunch with my mom?” she asked before she could stop herself.
“I thought you knew.” Shannon pressed her lips together as she took a step back. “I’m sorry. I should have said something. It never occurred to me. She, ah, asked me to come over. She wanted to talk about, well, I’m not sure. My life, I guess. And stuff. She showed me a box of things from when my mom was pregnant and—”
“You have a memory box? Of course you do.”
