Page 27

Helena stepped out, dressed in Delia’s favorite bathrobe.

“We have a problem.” Helena’s eyes remained on Delia as she slowly approached the woman eating oatmeal out of a bowl. “Can you guess what it is?”

Delia smashed a blueberry into the bottom of her breakfast. “I didn’t get you pregnant, no matter how many days of health class you missed.”

Helena stood in front of Delia before leaning back against the window. “I can still walk.”

“Not for a lack of trying, honey.” That strap-on went every which way the night before since Delia would not be caught in a lie. If she promised to go all night, damnit, she’d do her best. The race between her and Helena to see who was worn out first was not an easy one to win, though. Especially since she kept turning me on… like, damn. Every time Delia thought this was it, she couldn’t go another round, Helena taunted her in a way that drove Delia crazy. Put my tongue in everything… put my fingers everywhere… that strap-on went everywhere. Delia knew the highlight, though. She thought about it while shoving oatmeal in her mouth and staring at Helena’s prominent clavicle. Her, wrists handcuffed above her head, while I did some riding of my own. It was Delia’s bed, damnit. If she was riding a strap-on, it was cowgirl style.

Been a while since she did that…

“You hungry?”

Helena shook her head. “I don’t usually eat breakfast.”

“That can’t be good for you. Aren’t they still teaching that breakfast is the most important meal of the day?”

“I save it for lunch. Especially now that I don’t have to carbo-load quite so often…”

“You’re telling me that dating me isn’t going to make you need carbo loads? I’m losing my steam, aren’t I?”

Helena cocked her head in curiosity. “We’re dating, are we?”

“I don’t see why not. You’re staying in town a while and down to fuck. I like to have sex. Match made in sexual purgatory.”

“What if I’m not interested.”

“Oh,” Delia said with her mouth full of blueberries and oatmeal, “you’re saying you’re not interested? I’m not even asking for exclusivity.” Her spoon clattered against her bowl. “Just first dibs on your ass.”

“I don’t know, being at your beck and call might require some incentive.”

There it was. “I told you, I’m not looking for a sugar baby. Or a girlfriend.”

“Please, I don’t want anything serious either. I’m just saying, I’m not someone you can easily pin down. I just left a relationship.” Helena lowered her arms to her side. “I’m going to the bathroom. Let me know what you have in mind when I get back.”

Who does she think she is? Delia placed her dirty bowl in her kitchen sink and returned to the bedroom, where the bathroom door was closed, the fan on inside. After stepping on Helena’s bra, Delia bent down and picked up everything that didn’t belong down there. Shoes were delicately propped against her dresser while the dress and underwear draped over the drawers. She noticed that Helena’s bag had fallen over on the nightstand, her wallet and a tampon spilling out. Helena’s phone poked out from beneath Delia’s pillow. I was sleeping on it all night. Lovely.

She tidied up Helena’s things. That was when she noticed the small spiral-bound notepad that had been next to her date’s wallet.

Delia shouldn’t have snooped, but she did. She couldn’t help herself.

What’s this? Shopping lists? Body counts? Bill pays and other reminders? What did a young woman write in her notebook these days?

It was a list spanning several pages. Some of it was perfectly innocent like See the Eiffel Tower and Eat at a Five-Star Michelin Restaurant. Then there were the wild requests like Get in on Gangbang Night and Fuck Someone from My Team. Those tidbits made Delia attempt to decipher some of the things on the list already crossed out. Have a Threesome with a Husband and Wife / Hook Up with Three Different People in a Night / Have Sex in a Moving Car.

Was this some kind of bucket list? The kind only a twenty-year-old would write?

Helena emerged from the bathroom. She froze in place when she realized Delia had gone through her notebook.

“Well, well.” Delia turned it toward the woman whose eyes were wide and whose cheeks were as pale as a porcelain doll. “I can safely say you have the stamina for a gangbang, but trust me, as someone who has dropped in on those things, you don’t behave well enough to hack it.”

“Put that back.”

Ooh, was she serious? Delia liked that bite. It meant Helena did have boundaries. “You’re quite accomplished already. Was the husband and wife also knocking out the sex in the moving car? Because you should count that as both.”

Helena languidly walked around the length of the bed. She stopped short of snatching the notebook out of Delia’s hand. “So what if it did? You have a problem?”

“Not at all. As long as it stayed in the past when you’re with me.”