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But I can’t think like that. Especially when Julianna asks me if I’ve made it to the end. I nod, flipping the contract shut. I haven’t signed it, although I see her fresh signature at the bottom of the page.

“Compelling stuff, Ms. Marcon.”

“If you have any issues with it, tell me now. I’d like to get it fixed before we move on with our relationship. Particularly by this weekend. I’m taking you to the wedding mixer on Saturday. I want to make sure we fall exactly in line with one another. No surprises.”

“I can agree with that.” I want Julianna fully on my side if she’s taking me to meet her folks – her folks, damnit! Even if it means a bit of a performance on my end. I can do that.

This isn’t about love. It’s about constructing a mutually beneficial relationship between two consenting adults.

“My brother’s wedding mixer is the next biggest event before his bachelor party next month. Then his actual wedding. After that, we can stop caring.”

I would laugh at how effortlessly she says that, but I don’t want to be rude. “I’m fine with going to all of those if you want me to, madam.”

“I do. That said, I’m having Vern arrange for you to be fitted with appropriate clothing. My mother especially would expect any woman I date to only exhibit the most flawless tastes. She is an otherwise insufferable woman, so if we can please her on that, it’s worth the hassle.”

Sounds like a blast.

“First impressions are everything in my family.”

I don’t doubt that’s where she learned it from. The only other thing I know about Julianna’s family dynamics is that she has an older brother named Edwin who runs the Marcon family business. The pictures I briefly Googled spoke of the quintessential male version of Julianna who already has salt and pepper in his facial hair – and he’s not even forty yet. If that’s any indication of what Julianna might look like several years from now as a woman, I may have to stick around…

“Alessa,” my sugar mama says with the slightest inflection. “I want to apologize for earlier today. I suddenly realized that we hadn’t cleared our medical histories and wanted it out of the way so we no longer had to worry.”

I choke on my wine. You know, I had been willing to forget about that for the rest of the evening, for the sake of propriety. “I wasn’t happy, no.”

“I gleaned as much. I didn’t think it would bother you, though.”

“Think of it from my position, Julianna.” This is it. This is one of my rare chances to put some of my rules down and assert myself in front of this woman who already has so much powerover me. “We’ve had sex twice. You never once asked me when I had most recently been tested. To be fair, I didn’t ask that either. But can you imagine my shock when your on-call nurse hauls me into a doctor’s office for a physical? I thought it was for my new insurance, but once I realized what I was there for, I lost it. I haven’t been that angry in a while.”

“You’re right. I apologize. I should have briefed you beforehand, so you were prepared.”

“No, what you should have done was ask me. I’m a big girl. I can make my appointments with doctors I know and trust already. You can’t be cavalier like that and suddenly decide it’s important. Or, if the brain in your head finally does outreason the one in your crotch, you talk to me. Treat me like a human being, for fuck’s sake, not like your personal sex toy.”

“I have no intentions for you to do…”

“That was figurative!” Sheesh, how dense is this woman when it comes topeople? “I know that we have to be formal about a lot of things, but my health is not one of them.”

“Like I said,” Julianna growls through gritted teeth, “I am also willing to share my medical history for your peace of mind.”

“By the way, are you bothered that I’m on birth control? I’m sure that came up in the physical you sniped the results from, too. You’re not going to be weird about it, right? Because I need it for…”

She waves her hand. “I’m confident in your assertion that monogamy is not an issue. I’m also not the kind who gets angry at the mere thought of my young girlfriend being attracted to the opposite sex, so even if you weren’t a virgin, I don’t care why you’re on birth control. It should be covered under your new insurance, anyway. Besides…” She snorts. “I can’t get you pregnant, so itreallyis your business and not mine.”

“I take it to help me stay on the clock, so to speak. My PMS is dreadful without it.”

“You don’t have to explain it to me.”

I cock my head. My, isn’t she a bit flustered about this? “You’re on birth control too, aren’t you?”

She sniffs. “Not the same brand as you.”

Oh, this is fun! Tilting Julianna Marcon off her axis… utterly delightful.

“Unlike you, though, I didn’t know the other benefits I would have until I started taking it many years ago. I was dating a young man my mother set me up with and I… well, I had a lapse of judgment about which way my sexuality drifted. Even after I dumped him, I stayed on birth control because I don’t have time for debilitating periods, and until then, I had no idea that such things were not normal.”

“You don’t strike me as the kind of woman who has dated men before.”

“Why? Because I fuck like one?” She crosses her legs and sips her wine, studying me. “Not that you would know about that.”