The knot in my stomach got bigger with each photo.
“Well, I think that proves he’s not gay,” said Chastity.
I tossed the photos aside and let the couch swallow me up in its big cushions. “What was I thinking? I should have known better than to go after a billionaire. Especially one who’s in a sex club. He’s so far out of my league.”
“Hold on,” said Liz. “These are all from years ago.” She pointed to the time stamp on the back of one of the pictures.
I sat up. “Really?”
“What does that matter?” asked Madison. “He’s a womanizer. It’s irrelevant if it occurred a year ago or last week.”
“What’s wrong with being a womanizer?” asked Chastity.
“Everything.”
Chastity shook her head. “Imagine you hired a plumber to come unclog your sink. If he came and said that he had zero experience with sinks but that he was super eager to give it a shot, would you be very happy?”
“No.”
“Then why would you want some inexperienced loser poking around your lady pipes?”
Madison had no response.
“Guys,” I said. “Can we focus on the photos? We need to figure out if Tanner has taken any women back to his apartment since the start of April.” It was probably dumb of me to dream, but a little part of me dared to hope that meeting me had made him halt his endless carousel of random hookups.
We flipped all the photos over and started tallying the dates. It went surprisingly quickly with the four of us all working on it.
I held my breath when Chastity was about to reveal the results. “There are 150 photos in total, spanning the past 5 years.”
Damn.
“But none in the past 6 months.”
What?!“Really?” I couldn’t believe it. Not only had he not taken a woman home since we first met…he hadn’t taken a woman home since he first began stalking me.
“Really,” said Chastity. “I dunno what kind of looks you’ve been giving him as you pass him on the sidewalk for the past six months, but you’re gonna have to teach me your ways.”
I couldn’t contain my smile. Not only was Tanner totally smitten with me, butChastitywas complimentingmyseduction abilities. I never thought such a thing was possible.
But then a horrible thought occurred to me.What looks have I been giving him?Did I bite my lip? Open my mouth? Press my tongue against the top of my mouth? I moved my mouth around,but nothing felt right.What if I can never replicate my sexy look? And why does my mouth feel so weird? Am I supposed to be clenching my teeth? Should my tongue be touching my front teeth?
“You okay, Ash?” asked Chastity.
“Uh, yeah. I was just thinking about…”How can I tell them that I forgot how mouths work?“About what Tanner told me before he left. He said that since I wasted my first three wishes, he had granted me a fourth. Then he told me to check my bookshelf.”
“That one?” asked Chastity, pointing at the only bookshelf in my apartment.
“That’s the one.”
“What did he do to it?”
I shrugged. “No idea. That’s why I called for an emergency girls’ night. It’s driving me crazy that I can’t figure it out.”
“It looks normal to me,” said Chastity. “Are you sure he’s not just messing with you?”
“Damn it. Do you really think that’s what’s happening here?” Because that was definitely plausible. It seemed like everything Tanner said was either a lie or something to mess with me.
“Definitely,” said Madison, grabbing the remote off the coffee table. “Let’s just forget about it and watch the Yankees.”
