He lost his own virginity at thirteen, but not in Thailand. He was in New York and came home to find his brother back from college, throwing a party while their mother was at Canyon Ranch. Their mother always spent two months at a spa after she got divorced. Kiril told him their mother was like a snake and needed to shed her old married skin to reveal pretty, new scales that she’d use to trap her next husband. Kiril and their mother fought often, always posturing and trying to prove who was toughest. This type of aggression was never Alexia’s way, mainly because their mother always babied him, which he much preferred over her yelling at him.

His brother wouldn’t let him hang out with his friends, so Alexia went to go to bed. When he arrived in his bedroom he found a pile of coats covering the bed. In a rage, he started throwing all the coats of his brother’s guests on the floor, but soon realized someone was asleep underneath the pile. She was a beautiful redhead with a smattering of freckles on her nose and cheeks, who more than likely was too tipsy to figure out which of the teddy bear coats belonged to her and gave up. Alexia grabbed a blanket and a pillow and fell asleep on the floor. Sometime before dawn, he woke up and the girl was on top of him kissing his neck and telling him he was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen, as she slid off her thong and dropped it playfully on the carpet.

After that night his fate was sealed. He decided he was a guy who would never settle down. He loved the way beautiful girls made him feel, and he loved making them feel incredible, too. He loved the flirting, the dancing, the kissing, the cuddling, and was even happy to sleep over after sex, which he knew most other guys detested. To him, women were so much better than men. They smelled better, they dressed better, and they were so soft to the touch.

It was for this very reason that he was so desperately unhappy to be sent off to an all-boys boarding school in Maryland for high school (his father and brother had both graduated from the esteemed school). He missed the company of women. He missed fancy rich girls, the ones who shopped and gossiped. The ones who loved tea parties and Broadway shows. The ones who had little dogs they dressed up in sparkling crystal collars. The ones who spent hours and hours—and hundreds of dollars—in salons debating their hair and nail colors.