Victoria nodded. “He does. Even though the kiss was a little startling, I still felt like I was in control.”

“If you say no to his proposition, can you keep working with him?” Regina asked. “Will it be weird?”

Victoria had thought about that. “Sure, it might be weird, but I have a choice. If I don’t want to engage, I’ll let him know and we’ll just set boundaries. Simple as that.”

Her friends exchanged a covert glance at one another.

“What?”

Regina cleared her throat. “To hear you describe how magical the ‘History Section Kiss’ was, I feel like simple as that might not be the case.”

“Right...” Victoria replied. She had also thought of the alternative. “If I do want to engage, I need to be careful.”

“Careful is your middle name,” Paula pointed out.

“I thought your full name was Victoria Reserved Reese,” Regina added. “Your flirting skills are kinda dusty.”

Victoria scoffed. “Who’s dusty? I’m the one who made out in the History section.”

The three fell out with laughter. “I’ve seen you work those hips, so I know you’ve got it in you,” Paula said over Regina’s giggles. “But sometimes, you do this thing when you get nervous.”

“What thing?”

Regina stepped in. “What Paula’s trying to say is sometimes you get kinda snappish at men who have taken an interest in you. I’m surprised you let this one get far enough for a kiss.”

Victoria sat back and thought about it. She remembered what John said about her being thorny. “You don’t get to where I am by being nice.”

Paula nodded. “Girl, I know that’s right. But if you intend to say yes to a sordid affair, maybe you can employ some of that DuBois Duality and balance out the salty and sweet. Your resting bitch face is impressive, but do you have another expression?”

Victoria plastered a crazed grin on her face. “This better?” she asked through clenched teeth. Her girls collapsed in tipsy laughter. “What? Don’t I look happy?”

“It’s a start,” Regina said through her giggles.

Once Paula and Regina had sobered up, Victoria got them out of her house and took her remaining bottle of white wine upstairs to her office. There, she set out to make a plan for the sordid affair decision. She started off using the tried and true method of listing pros and cons. On the whiteboard she had installed over the summer, she drew a large T and began scrawling two lists.