Page 68 of Sex Positive

Now, after his unexpected raw and poignant admission, she realizes she misjudged him. She understands how it feels when someone fails to see you as an individual with your own separate dreams.

“Why did you come here last night?” she asks.

He rubs a finger over his temple. “I was drunk off my ass, Rogers. My subconscious must have known I was supposed to meet you and guided me here.” He frowns. “I’m sorry for disturbing you.”

She shrugs, shoving down the sting of disappointment at his answer. What was she expecting, anyway? “It’s fine. I was awake.”

He sips his coffee, leaning back against the couch with another soft groan.

“What would you do if you could choose anything?” she asks. The question has been on her mind for weeks.

He shoots her a puzzled glance. “What do you mean?”

“You don’t want to be a lawyer,” she states.

He frowns. “How can you tell?”

“Because you’re fucking miserable. You’re not stupid, Quinn—”

“Gee,thanks—”

“—yet you don’t give two fucks about LSAT prep.”

He studies her, smiling softly. “You always were good at reading me.”

She says nothing, watching him.

He sighs. “I want to teach.”

“Oh,” she says. “That’s—unexpected.”

“I’ve thought a lot about it,” he explains. “Sophomore year, I went on a volunteer trip to Costa Rica. We spent a week in a community where we helped build houses and sanitation areas, but there was also a group of kids who wanted to learn English.” He takes another sip of his coffee. “So after we finished for the day, I’d spend a few hours teaching them. I had no idea what I was doing, but I must have done something right because by the end of the week, most of them had a pretty good grasp of the basics. I specifically remember loving the way their faces lit up when they suddenly understood something. It felt like I was finally making a difference, even if it was only for a brief period of time. It was gratifying in a way I’d never experienced in my life.”

His confession leaves her breathless. “That’s…amazing, Quinn.”

An attractive pink colors his cheeks, an uncharacteristic nervousness flickering across his features. “I guess I’m good with kids. You remember Willis, the security guard at my dad’s firm? He needed someone to watch his grandkids last summer when his wife was going through chemo, so I offered. His grandson, Andrew, loved the museums we went to and apparently keeps asking his mom when he gets to see me again.” He smiles.

She feels warm and like she’s melting as an image materializes in her mind of him in a classroom, hair messed up from him raking his fingers through it while trying to make a point. It’s easy to picture him lecturing passionately about a particularly riveting topic, gesticulating, engaging students.

“Why don’t you tell your dad you want to do that?”

He barks out a laugh, followed by a wince. “Fuck no. Are you kidding me? He’s been planning for me to join his firm from the moment I was born. With my mother’s political star on the rise, he sees our entire family as an opportunity to implement change in this country. Image and reputation are the most important thing to him.”

“Why does your mom stay with him?”

The words are out before she can think.

He doesn’t appear angry, though—he’s more resigned than anything.

“I wonder about that all the time,” he says. “I love my mother, but she aspires to a much higher office, and I think that with my father by her side, she can get there. Tale as old as time, right? Money buys power.” He sighs. “Cynical take, I know. I think they love each other, but it’s more about what they can do for each other’s reputations than anything else. A mutually beneficial partnership.”

She doesn’t hide her grimace.

“Bleak, right?” he says.

Charlie takes a slow, deep breath. “My parents hate that I work at The Wild Rue. I—” She hesitates before deciding to go for it. “My mother called me a whore the first time she found me kissing a boy.”

Wes gapes at her, shock followed quickly by anger flashing across his face.