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“Okay, so tell me if I got this right. They don’t know that they know,” Brad murmurs, looking at my TV with a perplexed expression.

I chuckle under my breath, loving that he was actually paying attention.

“Yes, they didn’t know that they knew, but now they know, so they don’t know that they know, you know?” I say to him.

“No,” he says flatly, rubbing his forehead as if a headache were forming.

I cover my face with a cushion to hide my amusement. The credits roll and he shuffles around on the couch next to me. “We need to talk about the other night,” he says firmly, and I drop the cushion to look at him.

“Do we though? I’m good with pretending it never happened.” I laugh awkwardly and I want to slap myself.

“Yes, Gabriella, we do and to do this, I’m going to need you to look at me.” His tone is firm.

I try to look at him, but I can’t. My body won’t move. He rises from where he sits and kneels in front of me, taking the water bottle I’m fiddling with and places it on the coffee table.

He reaches for my face and tilts my chin with his forefinger and thumb. “You have nothing to be ashamed or embarrassed about. I am here to help you if you still want.” His words sink in, and his calm and collected demeanor helps all my fears and anxiety over this whole situation dissipate. I know Brad. If he doesn’t want to do something, he simply won’t do it. His being here solidifies that he meant what he said.

“Okay,” I whisper. A mixture of anxiety and excitement swirls inside me. I’m really going to do this with him?

He releases my chin and sinks back into the couch next to me. “So, let’s talk about it. What do you need from me?” He says it so calmly as if he were asking me for my takeout order.

My eyes widen to saucers.Well, that’s a loaded question.

“I don’t really know. I’ve never done anything like this. I don’t know what you want me to say.”

“Just say what’s on your mind.”

“I’ll need a drink for that,” I joke. As soon as the words leave my lips, he’s up off the couch and heading towards the kitchen.

“What are you doing?” I ask, a slight tremor in my voice. He opens the fridge and pulls out a bottle of rosé wine. He opens a couple of drawers until he finds a bottle opener.

“Loosening you up,” he states as he pulls the cork out.

“Where are your glasses?” he asks, and I point to the cupboard behind him.

He fills a glass halfway and brings it back over to me.

“Are you not having one?” I ask, confusion in my tone.

He shakes his head.

I bring the glass to my lips and swallow down the sweet crisp wine. I’m not a big wine drinker, but right now I could drain the bottle.

“Woah, easy, you’re just taking the edge off here, not drinking yourself into oblivion. I need you coherent for what I have planned for you.” His words have me choking. He rubs circles on my back as I catch my breath.

“What you have planned for me?” I splutter.

“We’ll call it lesson one,” he says with a slight smirk.

“And what’s that?” I ask, not sure I really want to know, but wanting to know all at the same time.

“If this is going to work, I need to know what your limits are, what you are willing and not willing to do. What you want to do. What you like and what you don’t like.”

He reels off his words and I have a wave of bravery because I freely say, “Well, I’m up for anything because I have very little experience. You might as well call me Veronica the virgin, haha.”Oh God, Gabby, shut up.

The smirk never leaves his face as he says. “But you’ve had sex, right?”

“Yeah, well, if you can count lying there while your boyfriend lies on top of you like a stiff board and keeps his socks on and only gets himself off, then yeah, sure, I’ve had loads of sex.”