Following the humiliating debacle with Chet, Dana is determined not to let her experience with him ruin her evening. She accepts an offer from one of her matches on the hook-up app, and enjoys very pleasurable night with him. She also has intimate conversations with Zoe and, surprisingly, June before sharing Randy's bed again.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Pies On The Run was mostly a delivery and take-out joint, but they had a couple of tables, usually unoccupied. Dana occupied one, a second, uneaten slice of pizza and a tumbler of soda providing her justification for taking up the table. She'd left the party without any unseemly haste (she hoped), but leave it she had as swiftly as she could. Nobody had pointed or whispered as she passed, so she counted that as a win.
Probably nobody knew who she was, or cared. She kept telling herself that, but Chet's cruel words kept circulating through her mind. She'd cycled from teary certainty that her reputation was irreversibly ruined to weary resignation to angry defiance several times now, and it was getting old. She chose to take that as a good sign that her emotional reaction was passing.
She checked the time on her phone again, and was again surprised by how relatively early it was. Just after ten p.m. Her humiliating bathroom encounter had happened early in the evening.
She ignored the hook-up app on the home screen, choosing instead to check her email. And her text messages. And scroll through several social media sites. Each time making a point of ignoring the hook-up app.
A few pages of the latest novel she'd bought, and she found herself studying the home screen again.
She wasn't feeling particularly desirable right now. Or trusting. Trying to score anonymous sex online had seemed like a much better idea Before Chet.
On the other hand, letting Chet's behavior influence her own might be letting Chet win. More than he already had. And they did say the best thing to do after getting thrown was to get right back on the horse, right?
Dana stared at the app for what seemed a long time, struggling with the decision. She ate a bite of pizza. Drank some soda. Stared at the app--and then frowned, annoyed by her indecision.
She touched the icon to open the app.
She had a number of messages from her matches. Was that anxiety twisting her belly, or excitement?
She checked them one by one. Most were dully unimaginative.
Hi
or
Hello
and seldom anything more. One read
U R Cute HMU
. It took a moment to parse that as "hit me up."
There were two crude offers of sex without any preliminaries. She unmatched those immediately.
It's getting late. We're running out of time for a date before you tell me tomorrow whether it was your best idea ever.
Dana smiled. Someone who'd actually read her profile. Shocking. His profile identified him as James, a senior. He was Japanese-American, and attractive, with a nice smile. And a body-builder, as two pictures demonstrated. One showed him dressed for the gym, mugging with a friend for the camera in a dorm room. The other was a posed picture showing off his biceps.
And nice biceps they were.
Dana flipped through his pictures twice. He was hot, and there was enough self-awareness in his expression in the strongman pose that she found it charming and not obnoxious. And she liked his response to her words.
She typed a reply and sent it.
It's not that late.
She waited. One minute. Two. Her anticipation faded. He could be doing anything right now. He probably wasn't even looking at the app.
Her phone chimed and a reply appeared.
The depends on how thoroughly we want to test your idea.
Dana hesitated.
What do you have in mind?
That's entirely up to you. We can hang out, watch a movie, swap tall tales, whatever you're comfortable with. No purchase necessary. No obligation. Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back.
Dana smiled. She liked him. Well, she liked how he presented himself. Her smile slipped a bit. Chet had put on a good show, too, at first. What if James talked a good game but turned out to be another asshole?
She stared at the chat log, thinking it over.
If she got any bad vibes from him, she'd bail out immediately. Fear counseled caution, but she knew a lot of that was due to her experience with Chet. What if James didn't turn out to be an asshole? Having a nice time with a friendly guy, even if all they did was hang out and talk, would go a long way toward washing the taste of Chet out of her mouth. So to speak. And if he turned out to be a good guy and sexy, too? So much the better.
That's quite an offer,
she typed
. I'm tempted to say yes.
He didn't respond immediately. Then a picture appeared. A still of Montgomery Burns from The Simpsons, fingertips steepled.
Excellent.
Dana laughed out loud this time, and typed
Where am I going?
James gave her his address, in one of the senior dormitory buildings. She'd seen it but never been inside. It wasn't far away. Dana agreed to meet him there in a few minutes. She glanced at her purse. She didn't often carry one, but it contained a few essentials in case she stayed overnight with someone. It would come in handy now.
She also texted Zoe, letting her know where she was going and who she was meeting. Just in case. Zoe was probably in bed with Bobby and wouldn't see it for quite some time. But she'd see it sooner or later.
The moment Dana sent the text a weight she hadn't even been aware of, brought on by Chet's behavior, melted away. Dana felt giddy with relief, and a familiar tangle of excitement and anxiety about her adventure settled in deep in her belly. She was really going to do this, and she looked forward to it.
