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“No shit!” Shock hit Lila. She couldn’t imagine being with someone that long and struggling to talk to them the entire time. What kind of connection Heidi must be missing. “How have you stayed together so long?”

“We love each other, and we both keep trying.”

“You’d have to.” She still could hardly fathom it. “Does she know about what happened to you?”

“She knows it happened. I told her that a few dates in, but she doesn’t know specifics.”

“Huh.”

“Why?”

“Seems like something she ought to know.”

“Why?” Heidi sounded like a broken record.

Shaking her head, Lila relaxed into the couch. “Because it matters to who you are, and how you perceive things, and how you react to things. Like, take me for instance. I do not like people taking pictures of me without express permission. When it comes to naked pictures or sex pictures? Not happening at all. I have never once sent a nude of myself to anyone, and I likely never will.”

“That makes sense.”

“But it has to make sense for you, too. I mean, how is your partner supposed to understand you if she doesn’t know you.”

Heidi grumbled, “She knows me. We’ve been together for years.”

“Yeah, but you said yourself you struggle to talk to each other.”

“Sometimes. Other times, we’re really good at it.”

“When?”

Heidi groaned. “This isn’t what I called to talk about.”

“All right.” Lila curled her hand into a fist and checked the time on her phone to make sure she wasn’t going to be late. “What did you call to talk about, then?”

“I don’t know.” Heidi sounded miserable again.

Lila bit the inside of her cheek. The conversation had been going smoothly up until that point. “Why don’t you tell me what conversations are off limits?”

“Nothing.”

“I’m confused, so can we go back to our previous conversation?”

“I don’t know.”

“Okay.” Lila softened her tone. She didn’t want to push Heidi to talk about anything she didn’t want to, but at the same time, she was so damn curious. It was to her own detriment most days, and today wasn’t going to be one of them. That she vowed. “Let’s talk about how you can woo your woman.”

Heidi chuckled, downright laughed at that. “Sure. Let’s talk about that.”

“Romance her.”

“I’m not even sure what that means.”

“Well, wine and dine her. Do something she loves, make sure she knows you’re doing it for her, make a big production of it, let her know that you love her, and then fuck her.”

Heidi choked. “What?”

“Fuck her.”

“Oh…um…maybe.”