“I wish I’d never met her.”

“Come on…” I started to type. “This always helps me know what not to do in my next relationship, so I’ll go first. In me and Scott’s case, I could’ve tried to talk to him about my reservations about intimacy a lot sooner.”

“No, you could’ve tried fucking.”

“And you could’ve tried barking.” I snapped. “Maybe then Emily’s meowing wouldn’t have seemed so weird if you’d given it a chance.”

“Oh?” He laughed. “Did I just touch a nerve? Are you that sexually frustrated?”

“No.” I tossed a gummy bear at his face. “Although, it would be nice to have some amazing sex before I leave for culinary school.”

“Then have some. I can help you with that.”

“What?” I gave him a death stare. “Not with you. Are you out of your mind?”

“I’m definitely not talking about sex with me.” He stole my last bite of waffle and stood up. “You wouldn’t be able to handle me…”

I rolled my eyes. “Please!”

“Seriously though, I don’t have much to do outside of work for the next few months,” he said, “so I’ll help you find a guy—or two or three, just for sex. As a matter of fact, we’ll start the search tonight right after your graduation party.”

“Are you sure you won’t try to convince me to leave that early, too?”

“Not unless you somehow manage to make me fall asleep.” He laughed and pulled me up, leading me out of the store.

As we sped back across the pier with the sun setting behind us in the distance, I realized I was already starting to miss this part of my life.

Later that night…

I stuffed one last piece of a cupcake into my mouth and gave my mom a hug. “Thank you for throwing me this party tonight.”

“Anything for you.” She hugged me back. “Wait a minute. Where is Scott? Is he coming by later?”

“Yeah, um…We didn’t work out.”

“Aw, sorry, hon.” She gave me a look of sympathy. “You’ll find someone better.”

“I can only hope.” I looked outside the window where the rest of my family was busy taking down lights and table settings. “What do you need me to clean up?”

“Absolutely nothing,” she said. “I threw this party for you, so you don’t have to help at all. Go out with your friends and enjoy the rest of your night.”

“Who are you and what have you done with my real mother? The one who has OCD and insists that everything be cleaned within half an hour or less?”

“Hurry up and get out of here before I change my mind.” She laughed and shooed me into the living room, where a few of my classmates were gathering their things and leaving.

On the couch, my former study partner for Logistics, Tina, was running her hand up and down Carter’s arm. Not being subtle at all, she was blushing every other second and smiling the next.

“I’d love to talk to you sometime…” she said to him, biting her cherry red lip.

“I’d love to talk to you, too.” He gave her that stupid, charming grin that apparently had an effect on every woman except me.

I walked around the room and individually thanked all of my classmates for coming, taking a few last selfies with them before they disappeared. I was about to thank Tina, but she suddenly leapt up from the couch and grabbed my hand—pulling me into the guest bathroom.

“Are you in need of a tampon or something?” I asked, confused. “They’re in the bottom left drawer.”

“No.” She smiled. “I wanted to ask you something about your friend.”

“Carter?”

“Yeah.” She lowered her voice as if he was actually in earshot. “Would you be mad if I went out with him?”

“Why would I be mad?”

“Because, I mean…I personally think you two have probably done stuff in the past and there are some hidden emotions on your part, so—”

“There are no hidden emotions on my part.” I cut her off. “And we have never even so much as kissed. We’ve barely even hugged…How long exactly have you thought that about me?”

“That’s not the point.” She waved off the topic. “The point is, I want to go out with him and I want to make sure it isokay with you since we’re friends.”

We were not friends. We were study partners.

“It’s more than okay with me,” I said. “You don’t really need my permission. How about asking him out and not me?”

“I heard he has a huge cock.” She lowered her voice again. “And that he’s into really dirty and intense sex…Is that true?”

“How the hell would I know?”

“Oh, come on...” She gave me a pointed look. “There’s no way you’ve never copped a feel of his dick or given it a second look…”

“I haven’t.”

Trying to catch me in a lie, she tried the example approach. “He doesn’t even go to our school, Arizona. Yet, I see him on our campus all the time.”

“Are you aware that he’s dated quite a few girls from our school before? That’s another very good reason for that…”

“So, just to be one hundred percent sure, you’re telling me that you two have never sampled each other?”

“Did you really just use the word ‘sampled’ in a sexual context?” I couldn’t believe this. “Look, he and I have never had sex, let alone sampled each other, and you can trust me on this. You can also trust me saying that we never, ever will.”

She looked at me for a few moments, as if she were trying to determine if I was going to somehow take everything back, and then she smiled. “You are too cute!” She hugged me—literally wrapped her arms around me and squeezed me so hard I started to cough. “Quick question, though…I figured you would know. What’s his favorite color?”

“Blue, sea blue.”

“Good to know.” She winked at me as she opened the door. “I’ll keep that in mind for what color thong to wear under my dress whenever he takes me out.”’

There wasn’t an eye roll worthy enough to use for that so I simply smiled and followed her back out to the living room, waiting for her to say a few last words to Carter. She gave him her phone number, whispered something that sounded like, “I can’t wait to fuck you…” into his ear, and gave him one last sultry look before leaving.

“Good party,” Carter said, shutting the door behind her. “What part of the house do you have to clean up before you can leave?”

“None. My mom said I didn’t have to help. She said I should just enjoy my night.”

“There’s no way she said that.” He leaned against the wall. “Tell me so I can help you clean whatever it is. If we hurry up and get it done we can start your sex victim search long before last call.”

“I was being serious, Carter!” My mom called from the kitchen. “You both can get out now!”

He didn’t question it any further. “Bar crawl?”