Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 77354 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77354 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
“If that’s what I’m doing, I’m an asshole. But I don’t think I am. I think I’m just trying to…” There are so many reasons why lusting after Efa is wrong. The age thing is the biggest.
Before I can finish my sentence, Worth appears. Leo leaves his door unlocked most of the time. I hope he’s more careful about condoms than he is about home security.
“What’s going on?”
“Bennett’s fucking a younger woman and wants to feel better about it,” Leo says.
Worth raises his eyebrows. “How young?”
“How young is too young?” Leo asks. “That’s the question. What do you think, Worth?”
“We’re not talking underage, are we?” Worth asks.
I choke on the mouthful of beer. “No!” I half yelp, half gasp.
Worth nods and bends to take a bottle of wine from the wine fridge—a fraction of Leo’s wine collection, the rest of which is stored off-site. “That’s good. Because that would be…” He shivers. “Out of character and just gross.”
“I agree,” I say. “But very early twenties?”
“Nice,” Leo says.
“Don’t be a dick about this,” I say, my tone even. Because I’m actually serious. I want their opinion and we all have this bantery, jokey relationship, but we’re also there for each other when shit gets real. And I want to discuss this.
Leo sighs like he’s giving up on trying to make jokes. “You’re thirty-four. Early twenties is no big deal. It’s ten years.”
Worth joins us on the sofa with an empty glass, a corkscrew and the bottle of wine—an Argentinian malbec. It’s a favorite of mine and I sent it to all of them at Christmas.
“Twelve and a bit to be exact.”
“Because you did a background check on her,” Leo says.
Of course I did a background check. It’s what I do. It’s who I am. “But in your early twenties… you’re… still figuring stuff out.” What do I care if Efa is figuring stuff out? It’s not like I’m considering dating her. I’m not going to ask her to dinner. Marry her. I just want to maybe, possibly, see her naked again. So why am I so intent on discussing this?
“Do we ever age out of figuring stuff out?” Worth asks, and it catches me by surprise. Worth is one of the most together people I know. Maybe that says more about the people I know than Worth. “We’re human beings. The bar is always being raised. Ten years can be an ocean or it can be a puddle.” He shrugs, scoots forward on the sofa, and sets to work opening the wine.
“A puddle?” I ask.
“Yeah, it depends on who you are and life experience. If you dated a woman who was twenty-one, lived at home with her parents in rural Alabama where she was homeschooled, it’s going to be different to you dating a woman who has more in common with you. Someone who’s done some living, even at a relatively young age.”
“Right,” I say.
“Are you dating her?” Worth asks.
I shake my head.
“Interesting,” Leo says.
“Why is it interesting?” I ask.
“I’ve known you a long time. You’ve never talked about a woman you were actually dating. And here we are, talking about a woman you want to date.”
“I didn’t say I wanted to date her.”
Both Leo and Worth chuckle.
“What? I’ve slept with her. And… I don’t know. I wanted to know if I shouldn’t have because, you know, her age and…”
“And… what?”
“And she wants a job.”
Leo slides his beer bottle onto the table. “A job where?”
“At Fort Inc.?”
Worth slides his drink next to Leo’s like they both need to have their hands free for what’s about to happen.
“She knows you work at Fort?” Leo asks.
I pull in a breath and nod. This is such a can of worms. I’m not sure I should have opened it.
“Fuck,” Worth says.
Leo and I both turn to look at Worth, who looks right at me.
“She knows you’re Ben Fort,” he says.
Leo gasps like he’s just seen a dead body.
“I didn’t tell her,” I say. “She figured it out.”
Leo’s eyebrows crawl up to his hairline and his eyeballs look like they’re about to pop out of his fucking skull. “She figured it out? How the fuck did a twenty-one-year-old figure it out when the world media hasn’t been able to?”
It’s a good question.
“She didn’t know when I fucked her. The first time.”
“And then she figured it out and you fucked her again?” Leo asks. “I’m surprised you didn’t have her arrested and deported to the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. So, what, she knows and it’s no big deal? Did you get her to sign an NDA?”
I let out a hollow laugh. “Actually no.”
“What?” Worth asks, standing up like someone just put a cattle prod up his ass.
“She pointed out that an NDA isn’t going to stop her talking if that’s what she wants to do.”
“It’s stopped all your employees talking.”