Page 77 of Sex Positive

Thanks, Quinn

Quinn

Try to do something fun. Take an edible and eat an entire tub of ice cream. Really go crazy!

Charlie

Ha ha. Very funny. Make sure you study

Quinn

Shan’t

Charlie

Please?

Quinn

Only because you asked nicely :)

She shakes her head, setting her phone down.

A moment later, Syeda’s bedroom door opens, and she slumps into view. Her dark hair is pulled into a messy ponytail, her eyes red-rimmed and puffy. She’s wearing an oversize pale-blue sweatshirt and matching joggers.

Charlie regards her with concern, and when Sy’s dark eyes meet hers, they fill with tears.

“I think—” She stops, her lip trembling. She tips her head back, blinking rapidly up at the ceiling, and then her face crumples. “I think Bri and I broke up.”

Sy covers her face with her hands, and her shoulders shake. Charlie springs from her chair and wraps her arms around her.

Later, after she’s coaxed Sy to the couch, draped the crocheted blanket over her, and prepared her a cup of coffee just how she likes it—“You’re too good to me, Charlie Rogers”—Sy gives her a watery smile.

“I couldn’t do it,” she admits softly, her hands wrapped around her mug. “I don’t want to hide who I am.”

Charlie tucks a loose lock of hair behind her friend’s ear. “You shouldn’t have to.” She knows how loyal and strong Sy is when she decides she loves someone with her whole heart. “The right person won’t want you to hide who you are. The right one will love you exactly as you are. But you know this isn’t about you, right? Bri just has some things she needs to sort out.”

Sy sniffs, hastily brushing away an escaped tear. “I know that.” She shoots Charlie a shaky smile. “Idoknow that. Deep down. But it stillsucks.”

Charlie nods in understanding. Because she fears this, too. What ifsheis too much, and her heart breaks again because she lets down her guard with the wrong person?

The ghost of Sy’s familiar playful smile returns. “You know what this means, right?”

“You’re going to force me to be your wingman when we go out? You know I’m awful at that.”

Sy shimmies her shoulders. “Well, yes,that, and yeah, you are, but what I mean is that we get to spend the holidays together!” She had planned to go home with Bri because her parents are visiting extended family in England.

Charlie grins. “I’ll take that.”

After Sy finishes her coffee and excuses herself to take a long, hot shower, Charlie sends an email to Carolyn, Diana, and Victoria about meeting Betsy and Senator Masterson last night. She sends a follow-up to the senator before pulling out Betsy’s card. Plans unfold in her head, a to-do list already manifesting—small, bite-size steps toward her goal.

Gathering the courage she found last night, she dials the number.

“Hi, Betsy?” Charlie grins wide enough to be heard through the speaker. “This is Charlie Rogers from the party last night. Is now a good time to chat? I’d love to talk to you about the Great Sexpectations Expo.”

Twenty-One

Someone knocks ather apartment door.