Hard and Fast(26)

Suzanne grinned. "Like he took you to regions on the passion chart  previously uncharted good, or like taking a bubble bath kind of good?  You know, relaxing and satisfying, but not something you're going to  remember a week later."

Clearing her throat, she willed herself not to blush. "The first one."  Now Suzanne laughed. "Yee haw. That's what I'm talking about. So, what  is he like? Is he hung?"

"Suz!" Tamara protested, dropping her fork onto her plate. "I don't think that's any of our business."





"Why not?" Suzanne looked unfazed.

Imogen didn't really want to discuss Ty's penis size with her friends,  but she had to admit, Suzanne's enthusiasm for the event was helpful.  She was feeling a little strange about their night together herself. She  was so glad she had experienced what she had with him, and she had  enjoyed herself immensely, both physically and emotionally. Which was  the crux of her concern.

She liked Ty.

She always had.

Even when she had tried to convince herself she was just physically  attracted to him, she had known all along that she had a bit of a crush  on him.

Now that she had gotten, well, down and dirty with him, that crush had amplified, and that scared her.

Ignoring her enchiladas, Imogen sighed. "It was so, so good. I think that's a bad thing."

"Why, sweetie?" Tamara asked, looking concerned. "I think it would be  bad if the sex sucked, but good sex shouldn't be a bad thing, right?"

"Not in my book," Suzanne said.

Imogen didn't answer right away, and Tamara said, "You like him too much, don't you? This isn't casual for you, is it?"

Yikes. "Of course it is," she protested. "I mean, where would it go?  He's a race car driver who likes being outdoors; he's impulsive,  reckless. I'm methodical, logical, addicted to air-conditioning. It  would never work, and I know that. I just wanted to do it anyway, and I  think that was a miscalculation on my part. Because now I know what sex  with him is like. And it's amazing."

"Why? What's he doing exactly?" Suzanne turned to Tamara. "I bet he's  hung." Tamara smacked Suzanne on the arm. "Whether a man is hung or not  isn't the only thing necessary to have amazing sex with him."

"Are you saying Elec isn't hung?" Suzanne asked.

The expression on horror on Tamara's face actually made Imogen smile.

"Of course he is," Tamara said. Her hands came up to indicate size before she quickly dropped them. "It                       
       
           



       

. . . he keeps me very happy."

Now Suzanne and Imogen were both laughing.

"Anyway," Tamara said, waving her hand around. "This isn't about me and  Elec. This is about you and Ty. I don't think you can assume that future  sex is ruined for you. Just look at this way-if Ty could give that to  you, so can some other man. He opened a sexual door for you, and that's a  positive outcome."

"You going to do it again with him?" Suzanne asked, studying her carefully.

"She just said she isn't," Tamara said.

"No. I didn't. And yes, I actually am." Imogen took another massive sip of her drink.

"I knew it," Suzanne said triumphantly.

"You are?" Tamara asked in disbelief. "Are you sure that's wise?"

"Since when does being wise come into play when you're coming?" Suzanne  asked. "The girl got her freak on and she wants to do it again. No  mystery there."

"Yeah, but if she's worried about getting emotionally involved with him, seeing him again might not be the best thing to do."

Suzanne looked like she could care less about that. "So when are you  seeing him again? Are you just going to his place to do the nasty or  what?"

"He's taking me camping on Monday."

"Camping? That sounds like fun. I like camping."

"I don't," Imogen said. "At least, I don't think I do. I've never been  in a tent in my life, unless it was the catering tent at a garden  party."

"So why are you going, then?" Tamara asked.

"We made a deal. I'll go camping if he reads Much Ado About Nothing ."

"And he agreed to that?" Suzanne asked skeptically. "I'd watch him, if I  were you. He'll haul your ass out into the woods and never pick up that  play and read it. You get play payment up-front."

"He wouldn't do that," Imogen protested. "Would he?"







"I think it sounds kind of, I don't know, romantic," Tamara said. "Like  he's trying really hard to impress you and to find common ground with  you."

Suzanne's opinion of that was clear from the height of her eyebrows. They had disappeared under her side-swept blond bangs.

But Imogen was inclined to agree with Tamara. At least that's what the  soft and foolish pounding mass in her chest wanted to believe. It was  stupid, she knew that. She was, to be highly over-dramatic, which she  never was but for once just needed to be, at risk for having Ty drive  his race car over her heart and grind her into the asphalt.

The knowledge of that didn't seem to be stopping her.

"Aside from all of that, which is confusing enough, I have thoroughly  ruined my thesis," Imogen said. "I was supposed to be following the Six  Steps , or at least attempting the initial steps to see if I could  secure interest from a driver."

"I think you secured interest all right."

That was true. "Yeah, but that wasn't from following the rules. I think I've broken about every single one with Ty."

"And the goal with Ty isn't to marry him," Tamara said.

True, but did she have to point it out so baldly?

"Of course not."

"What are these stupid six steps anyway?" Suzanne asked. "I've been  sweating my ass off at the gym with you and I haven't even heard the  rest of them. If they're cracked, I'm not doing them."

"Okay, well, Step One is getting date ready. Step Two is meeting him.  Step Three is your first date. Four is getting in good with his friends  and maintaining your own life. Five is adding intimacy and becoming  exclusive. Six is letting him know he can't live without you." Tamara  and Suzanne both stared at her. "That's it?" Suzanne asked. "That's  supposed to snag you a husband?"

"That sounds sort of like how every relationship goes to me," Tamara  added. "Those aren't steps you can control either, I might add."

While Imogen agreed that the whole concept of a dating manual securing  any woman eternal bliss in marriage was far-fetched, she did think that  at least the steps were practical. "Of course you can. I think that is  actually the success of the book. These are all normal dating and mating  behavior patterns, but this book gives women control, whether it's an  illusion or not. Before you even meet him, you diet and exercise, check  your wardrobe, etc. You learn about stock car racing, which is both his  passion and his career. You learn about him. So when you do finally have  the chance to meet him, it's allowing you to put your best foot forward  to secure his interest."                       
       
           



       

"You didn't do that with Ty?"

"Not so much," Imogen admitted.

"Yeah, but he's digging you."

"I don't think that's my point," Imogen said, feeling a little  exasperated with her whole thesis in general, men in particular. "My  point is perhaps that the success rate is higher if you go into a  relationship more methodically than impulsively. So I slept with Ty.  That is not going to result in marrying him. If I had done it per these  directives, maybe I would be at some point." Saying that out loud made  her a little hot in weird places, and she instantly regretted those  words coming out of her mouth.





But her friends didn't seem to think it was odd. They both just looked puzzled and unsure.

"I don't know . . ." Tamara said. "I met Elec by accident, when I was  tipsy drunk on a date with another man, frantic because I'd lost my  purse. Not exactly my best foot forward, and yet we had sex that first  night, again not following these rules, and we're doing just fine, thank  you very much."

"And I would argue that Ryder and I followed those rules to the letter and we're divorced, so go figure."

"Which all really means that my thesis just sucks," Imogen said, feeling  torn between wanting to scream and wanting to burst into tears. "It's a  big, complicated mess and I don't know how to fix it." She had never  screwed up a paper or project so badly in her entire academic career,  and to do it now, with the mother of all projects, her thesis, was  inconceivable.







"Well," Tamara said. "I think part of the problem is there is no way to  accumulate enough data to prove or disprove your theory if you're the  only one attempting to follow the rules. I think you need to approach it  from a different angle. You need to become the Myth Buster of Sociology  and question, is this true or not true?"