And, I mean, fair. Itisunlike me. I’ve gone twenty-six years without having sex. To want no-strings-attached intercourse is atypical of me. My shoulders slump a bit, and I take another sip of wine. “It’s just …” I start. “I think it’s time. You know?”
Sarah nods slowly, but her gaze is piercing. Her eyebrows furrow. “Did something happen? I mean, you shouldn’t feel pressured or anything. Sex is sex, Delilah—it’s an activity like any other. You’re not weird for not having had it.”
I offer her a soft smile. As brash as Sarah can be at times, she also gives great advice when needed. “So, uh, you know that romance book contract I got last week?”
She nods.
“It’s a high-heat romance,” I say.
She raises an eyebrow. “As in … sex scenes?”
“Yep.”
“And now you feel like you need to have sex so you can write about it.”
Well, when it’s laid out in front of me like that, it sounds a lot worse. “Uh …” I start.
“You know you don’tneedto have sex to write about it,” Sarah says.
“I know,” I concede. “But it’s not just that. I mean, I’m twenty-six. This is something high schoolers do. I just feel like I should … do it.” It’s not a very convincing argument, even to me, but it’s all I’ve got. And despite how it sounds, Idowant to go through with it.
Sarah studies me for a moment before finally giving a quick nod. “Okay. Let’s do it.”
I laugh, raising my eyebrows.
“Let’s get you a man to rock your world,” she adds, grabbing my phone back and assessing my profile again. After a few moments, she makes a dramatic click with her finger and then points the phone around at me. “Let’s see who all is in Cedar Ridge.”
My eyes widen. “You made my profile live?”
“You won’t lose your virginity with a paused profile,” she chides.
I roll my eyes but lean forward anyway. I grimace slightly at the first photo. “Eh …”
Sarah swipes to the left, and someone new appears. Wow, it really is like shopping for jeans online. “He’s cute.”
“Want me to swipe right?”
Suddenly, anxiety grips my chest. “Does that mean he’ll be able to talk to me?” I ask.
“Only if he swipes right too. Which he obviously will—I mean, look at you.”
“What if he’s … weird?”
“Then you block him.”
Huh. Okay. This is barely half of step one, and this is already feeling a bit too real. It suddenly dawns on me how, well, potentially dangerous it is to try to lose your virginity to a stranger. They never talk about that in TV shows. Or books.
“Okay, swipe right,” I say, and Sarah does.
A new man appears on the screen, and Sarah’s mouth drops. “Holyshit,” she mutters.
I lean forward, and my mouth drops too—only for a different reason.
“Right swipe, right?” she asks.
“No!” I practically shriek, and Sarah stiffens in alarm. “I mean, no, that’s—I know him.”
Sarah leans back and levels me with a long look. “You know this practicalGreek godof a man, and he isn’t your first choice to hand away your v-card to?”
