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“If the shoe fits…” he grumbled. “FYI, Doug wasn’t an ex. He was an asshole, and one who’d better hope he never runs into me again.”
She reached over and placed a hand on his, giving it a quick squeeze. “Did I say thank you for this morning?”
“You don’t have to thank me.”
“Even so…” She leaned toward him, bumping her shoulder against his. “I do appreciate it.”
“You’re welcome. Now get to the good stuff.” He waved his hand impatiently, aware she was stalling.
“Fine. I lost my virginity to the guy who was probably my first boyfriend. I’m not counting Troy because…well, I don’t want to.”
“I don’t think he counts either.”
“Reed and I lived in the same dorm our freshman and sophomore years of college. He was a…” Erika hesitated, and he realized why when she reluctantly finished, “Nice guy.”
Blake chuckled. “Sounds to me like you have a type.”
She huffed out a breath. “There’s nothing wrong with being nice.”
He didn’t bother to pick at that argument because he didn’t want to distract her from the conversation at hand. “So what happened with Reed?”
“He joined a fraternity toward the end of our sophomore year. Suddenly, it wasn’t fun having study dates in the dorm room with your girlfriend when you could be getting wasted at the frat house. In the end, it turned out our goals for college were too different. He wanted to live the experience, while I wanted to earn a four-point-oh and get into medical school. He started partying all the time, and it ended when he found himself a bottle-blonde sorority girl named Amber, who he decided was more his type.”
“Easy?”
His joke landed, and Erika smacked his arm as she laughed. “Totally.”
“So who was the next boyfriend?” he asked.
“Charles. We met in medical school. We were friends the first couple of years, and then it turned into something more. We dated fairly steadily the last two years.”
Blake was surprised he’d never heard her mention Charles before. “That’s a long time to date someone, and the two of you were in your twenties—adults. You didn’t think he was the one?”
“Actually, I did,” she admitted. “But it turned out, he didn’t. He was from an incredibly wealthy family in Boston. The type who live in legit mansions and spend their summers in Martha’s Vineyard. I met his parents the second Christmas we were dating. It became obvious very quickly that they considered his relationship with me as Charles slumming it, especially when his mom introduced me to their neighbor’s daughter, Sylvia—and I realized exactly who the folks were hoping he’d marry.”
“Slumming? Seriously? You were studying to be a doctor. You’re gorgeous, smart?—”
“And the daughter of two lowly schoolteachers,” she said, though he could tell she was trying to be funny. “Things were strained between us after that holiday. I thought it was because I was struggling to bring up the conversation about how his family didn’t like me. Turns out, the real reason we weren’t getting along was because he’d slept with Sylvia the night after I left Boston. I’d gone home to spend the rest of that holiday with my family.”
“What a dick! Jesus.”
“Yeah. I have to admit, that one hurt for a long time.”
“So who was the third? The oopsie?” Blake asked, curious.
Her mouth twisted, and it was obvious she didn’t want to talk about number three. “Danny. I usually just refer to him as my moment of weakness. We were neighbors, both of us living in the same apartment building—the one I lived in prior to moving here. He was a good-looking guy and…”
“And?”
“I found out through a friend of a friend that Charles and Sylvia had gotten engaged a few months after I’d started my residency here. I was depressed and alone and out of wine, so I headed to a convenience store on the corner. I ran into Danny on the way back home. One thing led to another, and we split the wine and spent the night together.
“You know me and my silly brain. Sex isn’t just a physical thing for me, so I stupidly thought what we’d shared was a genuine connection. The next morning, I was certain that we’d begin dating. Danny did not feel the same. I asked him out a few times before I finally got the message that he wasn’t interested. So basically the seven months after that, until my lease ran out, was scattered with lots of awkward encounters whenever we ran into each other around the building.”
And now Blake understood why Erika had been so dead set against going out with him.
She sighed. “I’m completely color blind, Blake, because I’ve never seen a red flag in my life. Both my long-term boyfriends cheated on me. I tried to make a one-night stand into a relationship, and me thinking that Doug was actually a nice guy just proves that time hasn’t made me any smarter when it comes to romance and dating.”
Blake wanted to tell her that he was the right guy, but then it occurred to him—they’d never been on a date. The second he had the thought, he found himself planning their first. He’d take her to The Capital Grille for a romantic dinner, then they could walk around Fell’s Point and the Inner Harbor, holding hands, stealing kisses. The more he thought about it, the more he couldn’t wait to make it a reality.
