Chapter 17

“If your girlfriend wouldn’t mind, would you like to dance with me?” the girl said, looking directly at Sara.

To my complete surprise, Sara kept her composure. “She’s not my girlfriend, we’re just friends,” Sara said, answering her. “But yes, I’ll dance with you.”

Sara turned and looked at me. I gave her a nod, letting her know I was fine, and she stood up and walked towards the dance floor with the girl.

“Would you mind if I joined you?” the man she was with said while looking directly into my eyes. He had the deepest blue-gray eyes I’d ever seen, and I immediately felt like I was going to get lost in them.

“That would be okay,” I said shyly.

He set his drink down on our table and slid into the booth next to me.

“I’m Atticus, and it’s nice to meet you,” he said smoothly.

“I’m Jesse, and it’s nice to meet you too.”

A couple of moments went by and I watched as his eyes quickly scanned my face and then moved up and down my body. At first, I couldn’t figure out what he was doing, then I realized he was trying to figure out my gender.

“Jesse, that’s a very ambiguous name,” he said with a slight smile.

Okay, this is kinda fun. Is it always this much fun being a girl? “Really? What’s so ambiguous about it?”

“I guess what I’m trying to ask you is ... are you a genetic female, or do you just look like you are?”

“Since you obviously can’t figure it out, I’ll just ask you ... what gender would you prefer I be?”

I was pretty sure I already knew the answer to that question. He was here with a very beautiful woman who, judging from the way she had checked out Sara, was obviously into other women.

“What if I told you that I didn’t care one way or another,” he said.

“Now who’s being coy ... I think you have a preference.”

“So that means we both have to lay our cards on the table?”

“Yes, it does,” I said playfully.

He was hanging on my every word and I could tell he was enjoying our little exchange.

“Okay, then, in all honesty, I’ve never been with a woman.”

He looked into my eyes, gauging my reaction to his revelation and waiting for me to come clean about my gender.

“They say it’s a woman’s prerogative to change her mind, right?”

He looked incredibly frustrated as I reneged on our little deal.

“You’re really enjoying this, aren’t you ... messing with me like this?”

Oh wow, he’s really interested in me!

Taking him completely by surprise, I leaned in and kissed him softly. Our tongues gently danced in each other’s mouths for several seconds until I pulled away from him, which broke our very passionate embrace.

“I am definitely enjoying our little dialogue, Atticus,” I said, teasing him again and flashing him another flirty smile. “Unfortunately, I need to use the restroom and we’ll have to put our little deal on hold for a couple of minutes.”