She shrugged. “I’m not totally surprised by that. After all, we only spent about seven minutes together in the four years we knew each other.” Her eyes twinkled a little as she revealed this tidbit.
And then it hit me. Seven minutes. “Holy shit, Carly Stanton.” I smiled broadly at her as the memory of our time together in Brad Holbrook’s basement while we played Seven Minutes in Heaven flowed through me. She had moved onto my street in ninth grade, and though we had seldomly interacted, I had often admired her from afar. Needless to say, the seven minutes we spent together had been one of the highlights of my high school days. Quickly allowing my eyes to skate over her body, I felt my pulse throb a little harder. The years have definitely been good to her. She was only about 5’5”, but her stiletto heels caused her legs to seem endless. Her frame was thin, with average but perky tits and the most mesmerizing blue eyes I had ever seen.
“I thought that may jar your memory,” she giggled.
“It sure did.” What guy didn’t remember awkwardly fumbling boobs in a dark room? The smile on my face was too big, but I couldn’t rein it in. “How have you been?” It was such an unoriginal question, but my brain was only working at half capacity since most of my blood was currently pumping in the opposite direction.
“I’ve been good. I work at an advertising firm in the city, been there about five years now.”
“Five years? What were you doing before then?” Who cares, Adam? Get to the good stuff, like if she wants to suck your dick in the back seat of your car.
“Ugh, I was a teacher. I spent four years teaching high school Math before I finally admitted to myself that it just wasn’t for me. I figured if I was going to be forced to do something I hated, I at least wanted to make good money doing it. So I transitioned to advertising and actually found that I liked it.”
I nodded my head, still smiling, though it was strained now. Why did she have to say she had been a teacher? I hadn’t thought about Lily since I’d arrived, but now I couldn’t think of anything else.
Silence fell between us and I found myself unable to fill it. Thankfully, Carly picked up the slack. “What about you? What have you been up to?”
Get it together. You aren’t dating Lily and, if memory serves, this woman gave you some of the best seven minutes of your life about seventeen years ago. I cleared my throat and gave her the rundown: architect, daughter, single. I may have emphasized single.
We continued to talk for a long time. The remainder of the reunion actually. I found out that she was also single. She had been engaged, but broke it off four months ago because her fiancé didn't seem passionate about her anymore. I paid rapt attention to her, especially her mouth. I was just getting involved in a daydream about those lips on various parts of my anatomy when I heard a throat clear behind me.
“Sorry to interrupt.”
Fucking Frank.
“Adam? Most of us are heading out. You staying or going?”
The old Adam probably would have left, uncomfortable with having a meaningless fling with a woman I hardly knew, especially when I did want my relationship with Lily to progress. But as of that moment, we hadn't put a title on what we even were. Though we both felt something for each other, that something had yet to be defined.
Besides, I wanted this. And as I looked over at Carly, who merely raised an eyebrow and took a sip of her drink, I realized that she wanted this too. It seemed ironic that I had just been thinking in the car on my way there how I didn't want to be that guy to Lily. The guy who had sex with her only for the relationship to go nowhere. But the way Carly was looking at me made it seem like she wanted me to be the type of guy who did exactly that. And it was sexy as hell. I can do this. Tonight's the night to take charge—see how the other half lives. Evidently there's something inherently attractive about assholes. Lily thought so. If I had been one then, maybe I wouldn't have taken the breakup so hard. I turned back to Frank. “I think I’m going to stay for a bit longer.”
“Okay. I’m going to grab a cab back to my car. I’ll catch up with ya later.” Frank was clearly trying to refrain from applauding me openly in front of Carly. He clasped his hand on my shoulder before he headed toward the exit and disappeared out the door.
Carly and I sat quietly for a few minutes, sipping our drinks and trying to figure out how to get back to the easy conversation we’d been having before Frank interrupted our flow. Finally, Carly brought her attention back to me. “You wanna get out of here?”
It took me a minute to register what she had said, but when it finally sunk in, I slammed my drink down on the bar and stood up. “Absolutely.”
I led her to the coat check, helped her put her jacket on, and followed her outside into the freezing night.