Page 76 of Sex Positive

She frowns before picking it up.

Charlie

Hello. How was the rest of the party?

Quinn

Stuffy. I want to apologize for last night. I overstepped in the garden, and I’m sorry if I was too pushy or aggressive. I never want you to do anything you aren’t comfortable with, especially in a public place

She stares at the words in stunned silence. She wants to respond,Apologize for what? For burrowing under my skin and making me feel something I’ve never felt before?

Before she can respond, there’s another chime.

Quinn

Also my dad is a fucking asshole

She smiles, glad he’s not there to see her flush.

Charlie

I appreciate you saying that, but I wasn’t uncomfortable. I enjoyed it—or I would have had we not been interrupted

She hesitates before adding,

Also, parents can be assholes, and it’s okay to think that

She abandons her phone for a moment to retrieve her laptop from her bedroom, and when she returns, his reply blinks up at her.

Quinn

That’s great to know ;) For future experiments, obviously

Warmth suffuses her belly, and she sits back down on the barstool.

Charlie

Obviously

Quinn

I never asked, what are you doing for break?

Finals are next week. Charlie feels both prepared and not, but that isn’t unusual for her, a chronic overthinker and overpreparer. She and Wes agreed at the end of their last LSAT prep session to put tutoring on hold until the start of the next semester.

Charlie

Staying here, working at the clinic, planning the expo. You know, desecrating the sanctity of God and all that

Every year, her parents ask about her plans, but she hasn’t gone home for Christmas since she was a sophomore after she told them about her job. They spent the remainder of the week in tense, painful silence after her parents yelled at her for supporting a clinic that goes against the will of God. She’ll call her mother on Christmas, but it’s hard now that her parents treat her like a stranger in her childhood home.

Quinn

Well, I’m proud of you, Rogers

She sighs, the walls she’s built around her heart starting to fracture.

Charlie