Kate cocked her head and squinted into the sun, smiling. “The Promise by Danielle Steel. It’s really sad.”

“You want to hear about real romance?”

“Like you would know anything about it. You haven’t gone on a date since we got here.”

“You don’t have to go on a date to have sex.”

“Most people do.”

“I’m not most people. You know that.”

“Yeah, right,” Kate said. “Like I’m supposed to believe you got laid.”

Tully grabbed one of the towels that had been left there and stretched out on it. Trying not to smile, she stared up at the blue sky and said, “Three times, to be exact.”

“But you were just going to check on the summer internship . . .” Kate gasped and sat up. “You didn’t.”

“You’re going to say we’re not supposed to have sex with our professors. I think it’s really more of a recommendation. A guideline. Still, you can’t tell anyone.”

“You had sex with Chad Wiley.”

Tully sighed dreamily at the way that sounded. “It was totally cool, Katie. I mean it.”

“Wow. What did you do? What did he do? Did it hurt? Were you scared?”

“I was scared,” Tully said quietly. “At first all I could think about was . . . you know . . . the night with Pat. I thought I was going to get sick, or maybe run, but then he kissed me.”

“And?”

“And . . . I just sort of melted. He had my clothes off before I was even paying attention.”

“Did it hurt?”

“Yeah, but not like before.” It surprised Tully how easy it was suddenly to mention the night she was raped. For the first time it was a more distant memory, something bad that had happened to her as a kid. Chad’s gentleness had shown her that sex didn’t have to hurt, that it could be beautiful. “After a while it felt amazingly good. Now I know what all those Cosmo articles are about.”

“Did he say he loved you?”

Tully laughed, but deep inside, it wasn’t as funny as she wished it were. “No.”

“Well, that’s good.”

“Why? I’m not good enough to fall in love with? That’s for nice Catholic girls like you?”

“He’s your prof, Tully.”

“Oh, that. I don’t care about stuff like that.” She looked at her friend. “I thought you’d go all romance-novel on me and say it was some kind of fairly tale.”

“I need to meet him,” Kate said firmly.

“It’s not like we can double-date.”

“Then I guess I’ll be the third wheel. Hey, he can probably get the senior rate if we go out to dinner.”

Tully laughed. “Bitch.”

“Maybe, but I’m a bitch who wants more details. I want to know everything. Can I take notes?”

Kate got off the bus and stood on the sidewalk, looking down at the directions in her hand.

This was the address.