Page 6 of Sexting the Pakhan

Or maybe not completely unaware.

That thought hits me hard enough to make my stomach flip.

Hypothetically, Miss Hart.

No. No, absolutely not. I am not doing this to myself.

I look back at Karina. “Why do you look evil?”

“Because,” she says cheerfully, “I just had the best idea of my life.”

2

ZOYA

Karina waitsuntil we’re off the clock, which is how I know whatever she has planned is going to be both stupid and impossible to escape.

By the time we leave the library, the sky is already turning that soft gray-blue it gets right before full dark, and the air has the kind of cool bite that makes me wish I’d brought a thicker cardigan. Karina, of course, is completely unbothered. She walks beside me with her bag slung over one shoulder and the expression of a woman carrying out a mission she has already decided will change my life.

I know that expression. It has never once led to anything normal.

“This is your chance,” she says as we head down the sidewalk.

“For what?”

“To stop being pathetic about men.”

“I am not pathetic about men.”

She cuts me a look. “You nearly had a nervous breakdown because your hot patron asked for a book recommendation.”

“That is a malicious oversimplification.”

“It’s a factual summary.”

I glare at her. “You’re a terrible friend.”

“And yet here I am, trying to help you.”

“That’s what cult leaders say.”

She laughs and hooks her arm through mine. “You’ll thank me later.”

“I already know I won’t.”

We end up at the little wine bar two blocks from my apartment, the one with dim lighting and mismatched chairs and a menu that is somehow both too expensive and too confusing. Karina likes it because she says it makes her feel sophisticated. I like it because the lights are low enough that I can exist in public without feeling especially perceived.

We slide into a corner booth, and before I can even settle properly, she leans across the table and says, “Here’s what we’re going to do.”

I narrow my eyes. “That sentence never leads anywhere good.”

“You need confidence.”

“I need mozzarella sticks.”

“You need practice flirting.”

I stare at her.