Series: The Laws of Opposite Attract Series by Vi Keeland
Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 98878 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 494(@200wpm)___ 396(@250wpm)___ 330(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98878 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 494(@200wpm)___ 396(@250wpm)___ 330(@300wpm)
I’d always avoided thinking about my mother in the context of Alex. While some had said my attraction to an older woman had something to do with my mother’s abandonment when I was younger, I knew that wasn’t true. It wasn’t like I’d gravitated toward older women my whole life. I was drawn to Alex because of her. Not her age. Fuck, I still didn’t know her actual age because she never told me, nor had I tried to look it up online. Nothing had ever mattered less to me. But age aside, it was true that Alex had made me feel wanted in a way I’d been missing. Perhaps that was the only connection to my mother, that she’d given me back something I’d lost a long time ago.
After my shower, I lay in bed, scrolling on my phone. A while back, Alex’s friend Wells had found me on Instagram and followed me, so I’d followed him back. In retrospect, that was a big mistake, as right now, I wished I was looking at anything other than his post. Staring me in the face was a photo of Alex. Not only did she look hot as hell, but the man next to her had his arm around her. They were sitting next to Wells and his boyfriend. I might’ve tried to convince myself that the guy was one of Wells’s gay friends were it not for the caption:
Double date with these two.
Fuck. Double date?
She’s on a date.
Not that I hadn’t expected her to move on... I swallowed, still staring down at the photo. Alex wore bright red lipstick and a fitted black dress that hugged her beautiful breasts perfectly. She looked absolutely stunning.
Why did I have to see this tonight?
Maybe it was a good thing.
Maybe this was exactly what I needed to move on and accept that date with Lacey on Saturday.
My stomach felt unsettled. I unfollowed Wells. It took me several minutes, though, before I could force myself to move past the post. But once I did, before I could change my mind, I texted Lacey.
Brayden: We’re on for Saturday night.
That should have felt good, but it didn’t. It felt like a desperate act, trying to forget something that would gnaw at me for days to come.
A few minutes later, she responded.
Lacey: Awesome. I can’t wait to see you again.
CHAPTER 22
Brayden
Lacey snort-laughed, then covered her mouth. “Oh my God. You made me snort.”
I smiled and pointed to her cheek. “You also have some ketchup over there.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I was going to, but I got distracted by the hyena that walked in.”
She crumpled her napkin and tossed it across the table at me. “You suck.”
We both laughed. Today was our third date. Things had started out rocky for us, commiserating about our breakups and all, but the more time we spent together, the more I liked her. But we were taking it slow. I hadn’t taken her up on her offer to come over for a no-strings-attached evening. Instead, I’d texted the day before and asked her out to dinner. I was upfront from the start, explaining that I wasn’t sure I was ready for something with anyone, but I liked her. So I thought we should proceed slowly. So slow, in fact, that I didn’t even kiss her goodnight on the first date. After the second date, though, we made out like two teenagers at her door.
“What time do you have to be at the hospital?” I looked at my watch.
“Eight.”
Lacey was a third year OB/GYN resident, so she worked ninety hours a week. Which was why tonight, and on our last date, we could’ve qualified for an early-bird discount.
“What made you pick obstetrics anyway?”
“In my first year of med school, I found out that babies are born with three-hundred bones.”
“I thought we only had something like two hundred.”
She picked up a fry and shook it at me. “We do. Two hundred and six, to be exact. But a baby skeleton has cartilage that becomes bone during ossification, and some bones fuse together. That got me interested, and then I watched a birth. A woman’s body is a walking miracle.”
“I don’t want to get ahead of myself. But I have to admit, it’s a little intimidating to date someone who has more experience with vaginas than I do. You surely know how to handle one better.”
She laughed. “Like the average man doesn’t have more experience with his dick than a woman?”
I leaned forward and bit the French fry from her fingers. “I suppose you have a point.”
Lacey wiped her mouth. “I want to ask you something, but I don’t want an answer today.”
“Okay…”
“My friends have a house share in East Hampton. They invited me out next weekend, and I’m off Saturday and Sunday. Some of them are single, and some have partners, so it wouldn’t be weird if I went alone. But if you’d like to come, I think you’d have a good time. Zero pressure, though. I know we agreed to take it slow.”