“Lesson number one.”
“Really?” Stevie’s stomach fluttered. “So you’ll do it?”
Iris just lifted a brow and folded her arms.
Stevie blew out a breath, ruffling her bangs. “T-tits.”
“Okay,” Iris said slowly. “Now with gusto.”
“Tits!” Stevie yelled.
Iris laughed. “Now we’re talking. Next word: pus—”
“Oh, Jesus, baby steps, okay?” Stevie said, covering her face with her hands. Iris went silent and Stevie peeked at her from between her fingers. “So?”
Iris sighed and turned so she was facing Stevie, crisscrossing her legs. “Tell me more. What do you actually want me to do?”
Stevie dropped her hands. “I don’t know.”
“Then I can’t do it. You have to know, Stevie. Especially with this sort of thing.”
Stevie felt herself relax a little at Iris’s soft tone. Not only that, but her words too—the gentle way she was taking Stevie seriously,despite her jokes. How it was very clear that Iris, for all her bravado, took sex pretty seriously too.
Which was exactly why she was the perfect person to help Stevie.
“Okay,” Stevie said. “I want to be able to talk to potential romantic partners—”
“Romantic, or sexual?” Iris asked. “Not always the same thing.”
“Both,” Stevie said. “Yeah, both. I want to talk to them without feeling like I need a shot of tequila, which I can’t have anyway. I want to... kiss them asme. Not Stefania. I want to get naked with them without throwing up.”
“That would be preferable for them, yeah.”
Stevie smiled. “And I want to actually sleep with someone I haven’t spent four years pining over. I... well, I want to be more like you, I guess.”
Iris frowned but said nothing. She stared at Kate’s frozen face for a few seconds then turned back to Stevie. “If we do this, you’re in charge. By which I mean, you have to set the boundaries, the rules. I don’t want to accidentally do anything you’re uncomfortable with.”
Stevie nodded. “I mean, you too. I don’t want you to be uncomfortable either.”
Iris smirked. “There’s not a lot about sex that makes me uncomfortable.”
“What about romance?” Stevie asked, another idea popping into her mind. If they really were going to do this, she wanted Iris to get something from it too. The woman was risking getting vomited on again, coaching a hopeless twenty-eight-year-old in the ways of hookups. The least Stevie could do was give her a reason to persevere.
“What about it?” Iris asked.
“Romance makes you uncomfortable, doesn’t it?”
Iris sighed. “Not uncomfortable so much as... currently uninterested.”
“But youneedto be interested, right? For your book?”
“What’s your point?”
“Well, I mean, one day, when I do finally hook up with someone, I still want it to feel... nice.”
“Nice.”
“Romantic. Even if it’s just a one-night stand, I like music and soft lights and, shit, I don’t know. Romance.”
