“I think so too,” she said quietly, as they delved into territory she usually only started to explore in a therapy session with a patient, but here they were on the streets of New York having a frank conversation about how they liked to fuck. And yet it was a conversation about more than sex too.

“It means you’re perfect for me. And I can be myself with you,” he said, grasping her hand tighter, as he moved in closer. Heat radiated off of him.

Oh God, her heart thumped hard now. And she couldn’t take it. She couldn’t take all this beating in her chest, this heat, this stretching and expanding inside. “So you can be the dirty guy who likes a good girl on the outside but with a filthy mind?” she countered, arching an eyebrow, and somehow successfully deflecting the deeper meaning of this conversation, even though she wanted to clasp it and hold it close.

He threw his head back and laughed. “Come on. Let’s get that stomach fed, so I can have more of that filthy mind and hot body later.”

“Do you miss her still?”

He crinkled his brow at the question she asked over dinner. “Hmm? What do you mean?”

“Aubrey.”

Oh. Right. The reason he’d gone to see Michelle in the first place. “Honestly?”

She nodded, and laughed once as she lifted her wine glass. “Yes,” she said emphatically. “Of course I’m asking you honestly. We talked about it at Gia’s. It must be hard for you. I mean, that’s why you came to see me. I don’t expect you to be over her in just a few sessions with Kana, and I’m not asking you to tell me about them. I’m just asking if you miss her.”

There was one answer. The truth. He could give her that right now. “No. I don’t miss her. Sorry if that makes me seem callous. But it’s the truth.”

“Hey. The truth is okay. It’s okay not to miss anymore. Or even just not today,” she said, then took a drink and set down the glass.

“And honestly, being with you helps. I like being with you.”

“I like that you’re with me.”

Later, he sent her home in a town car. Her choice. Not his. Someday, someday soon, he wanted her to stay the night. When he returned to his own bed, alone, he missed Michelle more than he’d ever expected to.

13

Sooner or Later

The ball slammed the backboard and wobbled once on the rim before sinking through the net.

“I won!” Nate declared, thrusting his arms high in the air as the sun rose higher in the morning sky.

“Right,” Jack said, shaking his head as he laughed, since the two of them never really kept score. He grabbed the ball and tucked it under his arm as they headed out of the court and onto the street. New York was already bustling. Families were out pushing strollers and grabbing bagels, and twenty-somethings were spilled over small tables at cafes, nursing lattes and wearing sunglasses.