“It was a sexy threat.”
I blow on my vanilla latte.
“All that hard muscle and sinew suffocating you,” Piper purrs. “I bet losing your virginity to him wouldn’t suck. I bet it would be amazing.” She sighs. “I lost mine to Theodous Thornton. Remember, on the hockey team? Then his mom came in to scream at him for jacking off into the family heirloom blanket and saw me. At least Graham would order you a caviar service and champagne after fucking your brains out.”
“Or he’d just, I don’t know, lock me in a dungeon. His dad is Stuart Richmond.”
“A man who wears ten-thousand-dollar suits is not locking people in a dungeon. Unless it’s a sexy dungeon.”
“It’s just—” I lower my voice because there are always coworkers around. “Kraig thinks he’s dangerous.”
“Duh, yeah, he’s dangerous. He’s a billionaire. He’s six-foot-five. He’s oozing testosterone. But he’s not going to be dangerous to you, because he likes you.”
“What if he is?”
“You know what I think?” Piper moves my plate of egg bites and leans forward. “I think that you’re scared. Don’t argue with me! Your whole identity is about being a virgin. You think that if you lose it, then you lose an important part of yourself. That’s perfectly normal. But we’re going to have to take that part of yourself and bash it with a hammer, because I want you and me to have our kids at the same time so that we can raise them together.”
“I just think maybe I need to go back to his house and tell him I’m taking the money.”
“No. Self-actualization is more important than money.”
“Is it?”
“Yes. You can’t quit now. Now we know that he is attracted to you.”
“Is he?”
“I see the way he looks at you. There’s something there.”
Piper is so sure.
I’m not.
“The Make Graham Jealous plan worked. You need to follow through. Emphasis onneed.” Piper narrows her eyes. “I’m not doing another summer with you where you’re hemming and hawing about your future and ‘I don’t want to go talk to this guy’ and ‘What if that guy who’s inviting us on his yacht wants to have sex with us’ yadda yadda.”
“He did want to have sex with us.”
“And if you’d gone for it, then you would be an experienced sexual goddess right now instead of considering losing your virginity in a bathroom with the security guard versus the rich hot guy with a penthouse and a credit card with no limit.”
She takes a sip of her latte.
“You wanna know what else I think?”
“Not really,” I moan.
“I think that you’re scared that you’ll like it.”
“I won’t like it.” I sigh. “I mean, I don’t know, maybe I will. But it just seems like something I need to really think about. Maybe make a pros and cons list. What if I get an STD?”
“You mean like a baby?” Piper raises an eyebrow.
“That’s not an STD.”
“It’s one that I wish you’d get. You could quit Svensson Investment and live the high life.”
“See, this is why I need to think about these things,” I argue. “Maybe I’m not ready for a baby. I always said I was going to go to therapy first.”
“You’ve been watching therapy on social media. That’s good enough.” Piper grins. “So, baby names?”
