“Sure! But I don’t think I’d bring much to the table since you know the material better than anyone else.”
“Actually, you’d be helping me out a lot. It helps solidify things in my brain when I get to explain it to someone else.”
I want to clap my hands and jump up and down. “I’d love to then.”
“How about Saturday morning? At i-heart-boba?”
Boba is another Asian food item that James got me to try. It’s amazing how many Asian tea places there are in the city. At the pace they’re proliferating, they’ll be reaching Starbucks density.
“I might be able to make that work.”
“I’ll text you.”
“Thanks!”
I can’t resist giving him a hug before heading over to Tony, who’s leaning against the car waiting for me. Damn, but he seems to get hotter by the minute. I try not to dwell on that. At least I’ll have some pretty good memories. I imagine how Talia will respond when I tell her I did it, I lost my virginity.
“Who was that?” he asks with a slight edge in his tone.
I open the door and climb into the car. “Oh, that’s James.”
“Your pho guy?”
“Yeah. We take econ together.”
“You do anything else together besides econ and pho?” Tony asks as he buckles.
I look at him in bemusement. Could he possibly be jealous?
“No,” I answer. “I mean, I guess we do boba together, but he’s just a friend.”
For some reason, Tony doesn’t look like he believes me. I’ve never thought of James in a romantic way, but that’s probably because I know he’s gay. If he weren’t...well, maybe. I could tell Tony that James is gay, but mischief prevents me. I kind of like the feeling that Tony might be a little jealous over little ole me.
“Your GPS isn’t back on,” I tell him even though I don’t want to be taken home. I have about ten minutes to either change his mind or wrap up our arrangement.
“Don’t need it,” he replies.
“Thank you for the lunch—and the pho,” I start. I can’t remember having to have a more awkward conversation. I take a breath. “And for the...sex.”
He doesn’t say anything.
Not liking the silence, I continue, “I feel like I kind of badgered you into it, but I had a good time and...I hope it wasn’t all bad for you.”
Still nothing. I want to tell him that I’m glad my first time was with him, but I don’t want to come across too attached. I bet he has enough women smothering him, and I don’t know if he’s the type of guy who suffocates easily from a woman’s attention, the kind of guy that freaks out if he senses a woman wants something ‘more.’
It’s weird, but it almost feels like I should be paying him. I was the one who wanted to lose my virginity. He wasn’t chomping at the bit to take it.
“About the money...I just want to be clear that you don’t have to pay it.”
God Almighty, I’m crazy. I did this whole thing for the money. And it’s not like twenty thousand dollars is going to break his bank. Far from it. But it’s still not right. His wealth shouldn’t devalue twenty thousand. It’s still a lot of money, and he could do better things with that amount than give it to some scrawny chick he banged.
He glances over at me as if I’m two bricks short of a load, which I’m sure I am.
I hug my textbook to my chest. “It’s just—it’s an awful lot of money, and you’ve been really nice about it all.”
He turns his gaze back to the road.
“I just don’t feel like I did much to earn that kind of money,” I say and decide I’ve probably said enough on the matter.