Page 44 of Come Take Me Now

“Robby?” I exclaim.

“What?” he asks from the pool.

“Nothing!” Appa replies in her too-sweet voice.

“Now, I know you’re talking about me,” he says.

“Yeah? You’re probably talking about us, Robert,” Appa snaps, and Enzo quietly chuckles.

“Touché, baby.”

Appa rolls her eyes and focuses back on me. “It was Robby. The whole time. I thirsted for years over Rook, not knowing I met him in college…briefly,” Appa adds.

“That’s amazing,” I reply.

“It was fate, and he walked away from Rook for me.”

“But wait, Rook had pierced nips, I thought? Was it a filter?” I ask.

Appa laughs. “No, they were real. He took them out when he deactivated his account. Something about Robby was just so fucking meant to be. Like you finding yourself here and meeting Enzo.”

“I don’t know. I thought it was luck.”

Appa shakes her head. “No, you were meant to find Enzo.” She smiles to herself. “You know, the first time I met Enzo, it became so clear how in love I already was with Robby. I was face to face with E, but I felt nothing.”

I rub my upper arms. “Face to face?”

“Yeah, it was stupid. I slipped in front of him, and he helped me up. Most girls would have swooned at that kind of meet-cute,” she adds.

I let out a sigh. “I hate how much female attention a guy like him can attract.”

“He’s loyal. It doesn’t matter how new you two are. He’d never stray. You’ve gotta feel that in your gut.” I blush because she’s so damn right.

“Like Robby is with you?”

“He’s a charmer for sure, but I think to cheat, he’d have to leave me alone for more than five minutes,” she giggles.

I make eye contact with Enzo, and I get a shiver as more memories from this week flash through my mind. Six piercings. “He’s intense.”

Appa nods. “So was Rook. Robby’s easy, though. Usually.”

“Rook’s like another side of Robby?” I ask.

“Kind of. He doesn’t come out much, but when he does.” She presses her lips together and smirks, but I have to shift my eyes away. “You okay?”

“Yeah, just something weird happened with Enzo last weekend. It’s kind of gross.”

“You can tell me; I know him well.”

I exhale a deep breath. “But it’s something about sex.”

Appa shrugs. “I’m related to him through marriage, and odds are I’ve experienced worse from Rook.”

“I have so many questions about that, by the way.” I laugh nervously, and Appa laughs, too.

“I don’t blame you. It was a…” she cuts herself off. “An interesting phase of my life. So, what about E?”

“Yeah. Um, last weekend, we had sex for the first time, and it was great. But I told him before anything started that I wasn’t on birth control. I told him to pull out, and he didn’t. I figured out that I should have already ovulated for the month, but it was scary that he didn’t, like, care about my boundary like that,” I explain.