Page 74 of Last Fall

“True.” I only said things like that to get a rise outofher.

And sure enough, she slammed my soy dish down in front of me while she was much more careful withEve’s.

Carrie and Eve babbled about the players while we went through the process of ordering, getting our drinks, and then our soup. I barely noticed Carrie’s detailed rundown of a patient since she was speaking in codewithEve.

It wasn’t until I had my first warm spoonful of soup that they turned their conversationmyway.

“So Zoe,” Eve drawled. “I happened to be on my way over to the school this morning when I noticed you leave thehouse.”

Drats.

Double drats. At least it was only Eve. “So? I leave the house occasionally. Look at me now.” I waved at my fabulous hair and makeup. I also wanted to point out that my shoes matched and my shirt was on correctly, but they wouldn’t understand the magnitude ofthatfeat.

“It was just that you weren’t alone and I was fascinated to see your companion leaving your house at that hour of the morning. An hour when I know he is usually still asleep since we have a night gametoday.”

“Mmmm, yes.” I decided if she was going to be dramatic then I could play along. “You’re right I wasn’talone.”

Carrie rolled her eyes. “Oh come on. Give us the dirt already. How is Erik Cassidy inthesack?”

“I don’t know.” I said it as simply and honestly as I could with the hope that they’d understand without too much meddling. “It wasn’tlikethat.”

“Then what led the man who has been head over heels for you to be in your house at that early hour?” Carrie narrowedhereyes.

“I went to the hockey game yesterday to talk to his sister. They invited me to dinner. We had a really good time so I took himdancing.”

“And then?” Carrie waved her hands for me to cough up thedetails.

“And then I asked him to come home with me but we didn’t,you know, we just slept together in thesamebed.”

“That makes no sense at all,” Carriesighed.

Eve shook her head at Carrie. “You’re weird, you know that, right?” Then she looked at me. “This is good news though. Dancing? Spending timetogether?”

I blushed a little thinking about how sweet Erik was this morning when he asked me to spend the night at his place tonight. “Yeah,it’sgood.”

She beamed. “I’m so happy foryouboth.”

“I still don’t get it,” Carriegrumbled.

“Not everyone is as sex-crazed as you and Wes,”Evesaid.

“It’s not that, sheesh. I mean, obviously we have a way about us, but that wasn’t what I meant at all. I get it,” she flicked her gaze my way, “you know how all this works. We have a dozen books that prove that. I’m not in any way questioning your choices when it comes to sexy times. You doyou,Zoe.”

“Well then what is confusing to you?” I knew way too much about her relationship with Wes so it was only natural that she’d be curious about mine. I was willing to accept that total privacy about my life with Erik wasn’t going tohappen.

She fiddled with her napkin. “It’s just after everything I went through, all the ways you pushed me to get real with Wes, I’m surprised you’re not seeing the obvious with Erik. The man is nutsaboutyou.”

“Trust me, after last night I have no more doubts about his sincerity. But that doesn’t make us magically ready to be a couple.” I shot her a verypointedlook.

She put up her hands. “No further explanationneeded.”

Our sushi arrived and as we set about eating, Eve smiled at me. “So, now that we have the questions out of the way. It’s time for details. Whathappened?”

And because I really and truly no longer felt confused, I spent the next half hour giving them a rundown on myevening.

Even the sexyparts.