“You know what?” I slurred. “Let’s do the P for Parker.”
“Uh, I was just joking,” Erika said.
“I’m not!” I said in a state of alcohol-fueled confidence. “I need to be memorable. He probably has a parade of women. I bet none of them have his initials waxed into their pubic hair.”
“I think this is a terrible idea,” Erika muttered.
The beautician shrugged. “It’s just hair. It grows back. Let’s do it, and if she doesn’t like it, we can wax off the rest of it.”
“Wooo!” I shouted. I grabbed the bottle, took another swig, then climbed onto the table. “Wax me!”
All the alcohol I had drunk hadn’t prepared me for the level of pain when the beautician waxed off the first strip.
“Fuck!” I shrieked.
“It gets easier,” Jasmine said, holding my hand.
I couldn’t even concentrate on the fact that a stranger was staring at my cooch. I was in agony. “Stop, stop, I think I’m good,” I begged.
“You can’t walk out of here with half your taint waxed,” Erika scolded. “Woman up! Here, have another drink.”
I took a fortifying swig of whisky.
“All right, do your worst.”
Two more strips later and I was done.
“I feel like I’ve sat on a scalding rocking horse.”
The beautician dabbed a strong-smelling liquid on me then helped me off the table.
“Do you want to see if you’re okay with the P?” she asked in concern. “We can wax the rest off if not.”
“No!” I practically shouted. “No. No thank you. I am sure it’s fine.”
“Put these on,” Jasmine said, hurrying back in with a cooler. “They’re special underwear with an ice pack in them.”
I slipped them on. “Sweet relief.”
“Beauty hurts,” Erika said cheerfully as I hobbled out of the shop. “But it’s all going to be worth it when you have your big moment in the sack with Parker!”
35
Parker
Ididn’t have a good read on Sadie. Sometimes it seemed like she wanted me. Other times, it was as if she just wanted to flee. I didn’t understand. Was she scared? Was it me? Maybe she sensed whatever craziness was in Leif in me. Was I acting like my father? Maybe I shouldn’t have been so insistent about helping her lose her virginity. I jumped up to pace around my office. It was creepy, right? I should have just left her alone, waited until she had some experience. I was going to ruin everything.
It’s just for fun, I told myself, trying to soothe the frantic thoughts.
It wasn’t as if I was going to marry her and spirit her away to my desert compound. We would have drinks and a fun hookup—friends with benefits. That was what normal people our age did. Sadie might be a virgin, but she wasn’t uneducated and naïve. She had a college education, and she was skilled in running nonprofits and large-scale event planning. Fairly soon, I imagined, she would move over to run the Rural Trust full time. Then we wouldn’t even be employer and employee. It would be perfectly fine.
“Is everything okay?”
I snapped my head up to see Kaitlyn standing in the doorway.
“I wanted to see if you wanted to grab a drink.”
“I can’t right now. I’m busy,” I said, turning back to pacing.
