Times Square(15)

"I'm going to be too full to have sex after eating all this food." I wave a fork over my spread and shrug. "So I hope Sex Marathon is the name of a show you wanted to watch together."

He drags two of the containers back towards him.

"What do you do anyway?" I ask, glancing around his apartment.

"Finance."

"Ugh, finance guys are the worst. My ex is in finance."

"Lauren, the only ex here is the X-cross in my sex room down the hall."

"Really?" My eyes bug out.

"No, not really." He shakes his head while looking at me like I'm crazy. "There's an office and another bathroom at the end of the hall."

"Holy shit, you have two bathrooms?"

"Should I have led with that when I asked you out?" He gets up and pulls bottled waters out of the oversized stainless refrigerator and hands one to me. "Two bathrooms and Chinese delivery is the way to your heart. Got it."

"Hell, yes, you should have led with that. Two bathrooms in New York City? I share one bathroom with three other girls. The idea of two bathrooms all to myself might make me spontaneously orgasm." I wave a hand over my face. "Is it hot in here?"

"We can fuck in both of the bathrooms if you're into it," he offers.

"Do go on." I stuff a forkful of noodles into my mouth and nod.

"I've got one hell of a walk-in shower in the bathroom upstairs."

"Hmmm."

"Italian Carrera tile." He drops his voice and raises his eyebrows suggestively. "Basketweave mosaic," he adds with a wink.

I laugh. "I already checked your bathroom out. You've got a herringbone tile not a basketweave."

"Do you think I have any idea what I'm saying? I'm just spouting words I think are going to turn you on. Subway tile, Egyptian cotton, rainfall shower head. Is any of this working?"

"Oh, it's working, but it's unnecessary. You had me at two bathrooms, remember?"

"Never hurts to load the bases."





Chapter Seven


 We're almost finished eating when I spot the fortune cookies left scattered by the takeout bag. "Look, they gave us extra fortune cookies!" I squeak, eyeing the pile.

"Well, to be fair, we ordered enough food for half a dozen people so I think they gave us a normal amount," Max comments wryly, but he seems amused by my excitement, his eyes lingering on my face.

"Hush," I tell him as I grab one. I crack it open, eat one corner of the cookie then pull out the fortune and read it aloud. "‘You are capable, competent, creative and careful.’" I nod and place the fortune on the counter. "Now you go," I tell Max.

He pops a piece of broccoli in his mouth as he opens one of the plastic-sealed cookies and cracks it open. "‘You will be invited to a small gathering with spicy conversation,’" he reads with a smirk. "Well, this one has already come true," he comments as he eyes me in his shirt.

"Okay, my turn." I grab another cookie and pop the package.

"You didn't finish the last one." Max points his fork at the abandoned fortune cookie pieces lying on his countertop.

"I know, I just like the fortunes," I tell him, but I eat a piece of the new cookie as I unfurl the paper. "‘Time is the wisest counselor,’" I read off. We both groan and I toss it on the counter. "Boring. Your turn."

Max pops another cookie open and glances at the paper with a grin. "‘The object of your desire comes closer,’" he reads and then suggestively looks me over.

"You keep getting the good ones," I mumble as I grab another, again eating one bite of the new cookie as I flip the paper around so I can read it. "‘You find beauty in ordinary things. Do not lose this ability,’" I read from the paper. "Eh, kinda generic."

"Why do you keep doing that?" Max asks.

"Doing what?"

"Eating part of each cookie. Why don't you just finish one of them?"

"I don't really want the cookie, but I feel like it's bad luck if I don't eat at least part of it before I read the fortune."

"What about my luck? You didn't let me in on this little superstition and now my fortunes are invalid!" He waves at the uneaten cookies in front of him and glares at me.

"Yours aren't!" I insist. "It's my superstition, it doesn't apply to you!"

"But how could you risk it, Lauren?" He looks at me so beseechingly I can't help but laugh. His eyes are so imploring. I think he could get me to do just about anything with those eyes.

"Okay, I'm sorry! I apologize. I was wrong not to tell you about the proper procedure for eating and reading a fortune cookie."