Rom-Com Collection

“Are you kidding?” Ryan said with another fantastic dimpled smile. “I’m halfway in love with you already.”

“Get outta town, you big liar,” Faith said. Yay, Jeremy! She grinned, just happening to catch a glimpse of Levi. He was watching. That’s right! Suck it up, Chief, she thought, finishing her wine. “Your turn, Ryan.”

“Not so fast, there. Jeremy tells me you have a list,” Ryan said. He tore off a hunk of nachos and held it up to her mouth. Huh. Feeding her already? Was that icky, or adorable?

Adorable, Faith, adorable. Still, a bit awkward, since the sour cream was a little drippy. But still. A good sign (she hoped).

“I do have a list,” Faith said, wiping her mouth. “It’s sort of...Machiavellian.”

“Sounds fun.” Ryan gave her a steamy look.

“Really?”

“Mmm-hmm. Give it to me, baby.”

“Oh...yeah, okay, I can do that.” She paused. “Now?”

“Sure.”

“Okay.” She opened her purse and took out the well-worn list. “This is just the big stuff, you know, to make sure I shouldn’t run screaming from the bar.”

Another dimpled smile. “Please don’t, Miss Faith.”

He was so cute. “Okay, so...have you ever been in prison?”

“Not yet.”

“Yay! You have an A so far. Next question: Have you fathered any children, and do you pay child support, if so?”

“No kids. Not yet.”

Another excellent answer. Not yet, implying that he wanted them in the future. He was an A+ now.

“Okay, last major question, and then we can get into things like moonlit walks and old movies—”

“I love old movies. And moonlit walks.”

Well, you couldn’t have everything. “How many women have you slept with?”

Ryan had to think about that one. “Uh...ten?”

Ten? Ten! That seemed like a lot. Then again, if you figured he was thirty-two years old (thank you, Google), and say he’d first had sex around age seventeen (because with those dimples, he wasn’t getting out of high school a virgin), that was fifteen years of single heterosexual male having sex. So—Faith did some quick math in her head—that was 0.667 women per year. Which sounded very weird but maybe wasn’t that many? Even if it sounded like a lot of people?

“I had a pretty serious girlfriend right out of college,” he said in his adorable drawl. “Figured we’d get married, you know? But she left me, broke my heart.” He gave her a puppy dog look. “Since then, I just haven’t been able to find the right person.”

Okay, okay, that was tolerable. Sort of. But still. Ten.

“No diseases, by the way,” he added.

Granted, she’d need medical confirmation. Should she ask for his doctor’s name now, or wait? Maybe waiting would be good.

She glanced over at Levi, who was no longer looking at her. Fine. Let him ignore her. “Thanks for answering my questions, Ryan. You’re very tolerant.”

“You’re quite welcome. Hey. You wanna get our first kiss over with?” He smiled. “I find it makes things more relaxed, without us having to worry about how that’ll go.”

“Um...okay.” Another glance at Levi. You know what? Yes. Let him see her kissing someone else. She leaned over the table, moving the nachos first (wouldn’t do to have guacamole on the boobage) and gave Ryan a quick kiss on the lips, then quickly sat back down.

Was there a tingle? Too fast to tell. A quick glance at Levi, who was lifting his beer glass. Damn it. His arm made her tingle.

“That was very nice,” Ryan said. “A little sting from the jalapenos, but I kinda liked it. Sweet, with a little bite.”

“That’s me,” Faith said.

His expression became rather wolfish. “Really.”

“Well, I don’t actually know, but...it’s sort of me, maybe.” Flustered, she took a bite of nachos. Hannah O’Rourke (or possibly Monica) brought her another glass of wine, bless her.

“So I have a list of my own,” Ryan said.

“You do? That’s great!” Kindred spirits. Made her feel less freakish.

“You ready?”

“Sure.” She sat back and smiled. “Fire away.” She took a bite of the nachos.

Ryan grinned. “Do you like being spanked?”

She sucked a bit of jalapeno into her lung and wheezed. “Excuse me?” She coughed (and coughed, and coughed), then took a sip of her wine. “Um...I can’t really say. I’ve never been...spanked.”

“So you’re a spanking virgin?” He licked his lips.

“I— You know, I think that book everyone was reading last year? That may have given the wrong impression. You know, about women wanting to have violence perpetrated against them. So. That’s off the table.”

“How about handcuffs?”

“Again...uh...not a lot of experience. And not seeking any.” Crap. Was there a way to keep this date from going down the toilet faster than her black wraparound sweater? Her brain groped around for a solution and came up empty.

“Do you like being submissive? Would you have a problem calling me Master?”

“No, and yes. That’s really not my thing, Ryan. Maybe we can shift course here, huh?”

“Hey.” The puppy dog look returned. “I answered your questions. It’s only fair.”

Faith took a slow breath. It’d be so nice to just walk away now. She could. However, she really didn’t feel like seeing the look on Levi’s face if she did. “Fine. Go for it.”

“Great!” Ryan clapped like a little kid. “Would you like it if I locked you in my boudoir for twelve hours and only left you a glass of water?”

“Do men have boudoirs? Because that’s a very girly term to me. And no. I’d get very hungry.”