Iris looked at her like she’d lost her mind. “Still waiting for your point, Stevie.”
“You help me with...”
“Showing your tits.”
“Yes. That. And I’ll make it romantic. For you. So you can, you know, have more research for your book. That’s half the point of our partnership, isn’t it?”
Iris narrowed her eyes, but then her brows lifted. “Okay, your point is valid. But let me make sure I’ve got this straight. We’re fake dating in front of your friends.”
“Yes.”
“And I now have a sex lessons kink.”
Stevie grinned. “I mean, call it what you want.”
“And you have a romance lessons kink.”
“Look how symbiotic we are.”
“It’s a beautiful thing,” Iris said dryly, then her tone softened. “Are you sure?”
“I am,” Stevie said, then stood up. Her blood sped through her body, making her fingertips tingle, her heart drum against her ribs. “And I think we should start right now.”
“Right now?”
“Right now.”
She knew herself—if she went home, slept on it, she’d talk herself out of this, and then she’d still be the horny yet terrified wannabe thespian who nuzzled her ex’s neck.
Iris got up too, but then they both simply stood there, unsure of how to move on. Somehow, even though Iris was the expert here, her uncertainty made Stevie’s shoulders relax.
“Okay,” Iris said finally, “if we’re really doing this, I think we should start where things went wrong with us.”
“Yeah,” Stevie said, “makes sense.”
“It was dark,” Iris said. “We had music on.”
Stevie nodded, but as she looked around at Iris’s apartment, the dusky evening light filtering purple into her living room,Serendipitystill frozen on the screen, bits of popcorn dotting the sofa and floor, she felt anything but romantic.
And if this was going to be useful for Iris too, she needed to set the mood.
“We need candles,” Stevie said, looking around.
“What? We did not have candles the other week.”
“No, I know, but we need a little ambience, don’t you think?”
“Ambience?”
“Jesus, you really are bad at this romance stuff,” Stevie said.
Iris groaned and rubbed her forehead. “God, I know. My brain is a fucking blank when it comes to that shit. The last hookup I had—before you, I mean—was in a...”
She trailed off, pursing her mouth and shaking her head.
“Was in a what?” Stevie asked.
“Never mind.”
