Page 3

Rebecca

M itch gulped for air like a fish out of water. Maybe she shouldn’t have said a word. Through all her internal dialogue, it had seemed like a good idea, but now she was feeling like maybe this was a bad idea.

Mitch was her friend, and she cared about him deeply, but also, she knew he’d be careful with her and make this experience as pleasurable as possible.

She’d heard him talking to Alex when they didn’t know she was listening, and those two seemed to have been around the block a time or two when it came to women.

“Rebecca, you can’t mean that. You cannot be serious. I’m about to leave the country. It isn’t something you just do. You want your first time to be special.”

“I’ve thought a lot about this, so hear me out,” she said.

“Do you know what your brother, hell, your father would do to me?” Mitch asked. “I think your mother might kill me too. She looks like she could be ruthless. She might like me now, but that would change if she ever found out. I’d be dead.”

He didn’t say no.

“They will never find out. Look, you are about to move to another country and exit my life. I want something to share with you that I haven’t shared with anyone else. I want it to be special with you.”

“You are special to me,” he argued as he squeezed her hand. “You are my Bex. I’m honored, really, but I think you are rushing into this.”

“No, listen to me. Sex is this big thing. I know that. No one ends up with the first person they make love with. I want it to be someone I care for, who cares for me. I want it to be special. No strings. Heck, in a few weeks, I know you’ll be on another continent.”

“This conversation is crazy. I’m so uncomfortable,” Mitch said. “I don’t know what to say.”

“Well, deal with it because it is about to get worse. I’ve thought a lot about this.

It is one of the most logical, well thought out things I’ve ever done.

I don’t want to lose my virginity to some random date because I’m in the mood or drunk and want to have sex.

I want to enjoy it with someone I really care about.

I’ve had offers and up until now, I’ve turned them down because I want it to be with someone special. I want it to be you.”

“Me?” he asked. “I?—”

“This is the largest favor I’ve ever asked of anyone.” Rebecca met his eyes and tried to let them plead her case.

“No kidding. And making love with you isn’t really a favor. It is kind of mutually beneficial. What happens afterward?” he asked.

“We have a memory that we share and we’ll never discuss with anyone else.”

“What if you get pregnant?” he asked.

“I’ve been on the pill for two months,” she said. She could see that he was conflicted.

“For this? You’ve been thinking about this for two months?” Mitch asked.

“Yes. I’ve thought this through. I just wasn’t sure how it would come together. And if you are worried, you can wear a condom, but for my first time, I think that could hurt more, so I really wish you wouldn’t. I know that you’ve slept with a few women, so I know you know what you’re doing.”

“Bex, of course, I know what the hell to do…”

“Well, I’ve just been paying attention to your conversations with my brother?—”

“What? Well great! Rebecca, think this through. Think of what you are asking me to do.”

“I’m quite aware. I’m asking you to be my first. You know, some men would consider it an honor. Shit, I could go to a party tonight and sleep with someone to get it over with, but it wouldn’t mean anything to them or me, and it probably would be horrible.”

He looked at the ceiling, then back at her. “Please, please don’t do that. I know what you are asking,” he said. “I’m just…damn it, I don’t know what to do.”

“Then what is holding you back?” she asked.

“If Alex ever?—”

“He won’t know unless you tell him because I certainly won’t. It isn’t like I’ll ever ask anyone else to do this for me. It is you, Mitch. You are the only one.”

“I’m worried. We like each other. If we have sex, that doesn’t go away, it will get more intense. It might hurt you. And I’m leaving in a couple of weeks.”

How was the sandwich at Katz Deli? Rebecca didn’t know. She couldn’t eat and neither, it appeared, could Mitch. It wasn’t like he had turned her down, but there was a new tension between them as they left the restaurant behind and walked aimlessly on the sidewalk into the warm spring air.

“Now what?” he asked as he walked beside her.

Rebecca reached into her pocket and pulled out a key card for the Marriott Marquis at Times Square. “Can we at least go look at the room?”

“Holy shit. You got a room? When did you decide this?” he asked.

“Last Sunday, after Monopoly, Alex told me about your job in London. I called and made a reservation that night.”

“That…that is the catalyst for you losing your virginity? A game of Monopoly and news of my job in London?”

“I think you worry too much. I want to experience this first time with someone I really care about. If I like it, and you aren’t here, there are other males on campus.”

“No, don’t talk like that. I can’t think about it,” he said, looking pained.

“In a couple of weeks, you’ll graduate and fly to London. I don’t have a lot of time. And this was our first opportunity to be alone.”

“Bex—”

“I love it when you call me Bex. Where did you come up with that?”

“You’re not making it easy to do the right thing.”

“Do you want my first time to be with some random beau hunk who then tells everyone about popping my cherry?”

“No, do not do anything stupid. I think I’d have to fly home from London to kill him and ask your brother to help me hide his body.”

“Breath mint?” she asked as she popped an Altoid in her mouth.

He took a mint and looked at her. She smiled, leaned up on her tiptoes, and quickly kissed him. It was better than she thought it would be.

“Aw to hell with it,” he said with a resigned sigh, grabbed her by the forearms and pulled her to him. Then he kissed her in the way she had always dreamed he would.

At the end of the kiss, they looked at each other, and then Mitch held up his arm and hailed a taxi.

He opened the back door, indicated for Rebecca to get in, and then said to the driver, “Marriott Marquis. Times Square.”

His words sent a little thrill through her whole body. How in the world had she pulled this off?

***Mitch***

Mitch held onto Rebecca’s hand as if his life depended on it as they rode through traffic. He had wanted to kiss her for years. Now, she’d put him in a no-win situation. He couldn’t let her do something reckless with a stranger, but what they were doing was reckless on a whole other level.

They rode in silence until he turned to her and said, “Why today?”

“As my father always says, make hay while the sun is shining. It is a beautiful day. Memorable. At least I know I’ll never forget today.”

“For the next few hours, I need you not to mention your family, especially your brother or father, okay?”

“Okay. Thank you,” she said and kissed his cheek. He smiled a little and quickly kissed her on the lips. Damn, she was a good kisser, and he had to be honest, he wanted her. The thought of her curvy body being about to be his to explore was a little too much to think about.

They’d come this far, so he said something that had been on his mind for years. “I love your green eyes. They are more emerald than green grass.”

“I love your dimples,” she said, and he leaned close and kissed her again.

Where they were going and what they were about to do was such a mistake.

Yet he couldn’t stop himself. Rebecca Stark wanted him to make love to her, to be her first lover.

He had a feeling that although she said it had to be him if he didn’t step up, she would find someone else.

Some bumbling freshmen or sophomore wouldn’t appreciate what kind of gift she was bestowing upon him.

It would be some inebriated stupid boy, and it wouldn’t be good for her, for his sweet Rebecca.

Mitch knew he would be gentle. He would make it good for her.

He couldn’t stand the thought of someone else touching her. How would he leave her?

He had to, and when he looked back, he would smile and remember this with sweetness. Or it might be the biggest mistake of his life.

If Alex knew, he’d kill him. He just hoped that afterward, tomorrow, next week, his best friend wouldn’t figure it out. This would be the hardest, darkest secret he would ever keep, but he would do it for Rebecca. Maybe what they were about to do would get her off his mind.

Not bloody likely.

And someday, maybe their paths would cross again. And then it would be game on.