“I date, okay?” Her tone did little to convince me. My face must have given away my disbelief because she folded her arms across her chest. “I do,” she insisted.

I shouldn’t press the subject further. I should drop it. Frankie’s dating history wasn’t any of my business. In fact, I couldn’t care less. And yet… When was the last guy she had kissed before me? Had she kissed anyone since? My gut said that wasn’t likely. I was way more social than she was and I sure hadn’t. Honestly, I had no interest in seeking out other women. I’d been far too busy thinking about the girl I’d met the first night I got here…

“When was the last real date you went on?” The question toppled out of my mouth before I could snatch it back.

Her eyebrows shot up. “We’re talking romantic history now?”

I tried to play it cool. “Dating falls into the category of having fun. And since I’m helping you do that right now…”

She gave a sharp laugh. “Dating? Fun? That’s a good one.”

“You don’t think dating is fun?”

“Not the ones I’ve been on,” she muttered, sighing. “The last guy I dated was nice enough, but our schedules never lined up. Before that, I dated some douche at work. He was cute and hard to get. I think the challenge tricked me into thinking I liked him or something. Anyway, those were both forever ago, and I’ve barely had so much as a second date since then.”

A dating dry spell. Interesting.

“What about you?”

The natural progression of the conversation caught me off guard. I liked finding out more about her. I hated talking about myself.

“Not much to tell. Women are great, but relationships have never been for me.”

“Why’s that?” she pressed.

Because I’ve seen firsthand what being trapped with someone you hate in a loveless marriage looks like.

“Just no interest in it,” I said.

“That’s not a real answer.”

“Moving on.” I clapped my hands together and rubbed them. “Next question.”

She narrowed her eyes.

“Favorite childhood memory?” I asked.

Instead of fighting me on it, she paused to think it over. After a minute, she had a dreamy look about her. “It’s not so much one memory, but a bunch of them. My mom didn’t work for a few years to spend more time with me and Mattie. One summer, when I was like five and Mattie was seven, she’d decided the three of us would drive all around to check out any playgrounds we could find. She told us we were doing a survey to find the best one.” She smiled, reminiscing on it. “It felt like the world was so big when we’d show up at a new one after driving for what felt like forever. When I was older, I realized the furthest we ever went was like an hour. I don’t know, that was just such a fun time. Spending all summer with my sister and mom. It only got harder after that, you know? Mattie and I made different friends. My mom went back to work eventually. But that summer felt magical.” She sighed. “I still love a good playground. There’s one across the street from my condo, and I always think about walking over to use the swing set or something.”