“You bitch!” I almost jump out of my chair. People near us stare as she yells, “You had sex again and didn’t tell me!”

Slinking lower in my seat, I hiss, “Why don’t you say it louder, I don’t think the people on the sidewalk heard you!”

“Fuck-sticks,” she says in a lower voice. “I knew something was going on with you. It’s the God, isn’t it? You’ve been all over the place since you went out with him.” In true Rose-style, she jumps quickly to the hard stuff. “How is he? Does he fuck as good as he looks? Does he have a big cock? Is he into kink? Oh, shit, did you do anal with him? Is that why you are on Jake’s side?”

Wishing the floor would swallow me up, seems to be getting me nowhere. I close my eyes, but when I open them again, she is still sitting there looking like a rabid dog. There is no way she is letting me off the hook until I answer her questions. So, I take them from the top, saying, “Good, yes, oh yes, maybe, and no.” It takes her a moment to match my answers with her questions, and I see the moment she does.

“Oh, yummy, he is hung. You lucky thing. Jake has a big one, too, but it’s not huge. So, like, do you two do normal-couple stuff or just have sex?”

“I’ve known the man less than two weeks, so there is no couple involved. We have gone out to dinner, if that counts.”

Her smile widens as she says, “So, let me get this straight: my mostly-virginal friend is having a fuckionship?”

“A what?” I sputter out.

“A fuckionship. You know, a relationship that is only about fucking. There ain’t no shame in it, babe; I’d roll over and spread my legs for a man like that, too, and I haven’t even seen him in person. Wait…is he one of those guys who is good from far, but far from good? Photographs like Chris Hemsworth, but looks like a troll in person?”

She is so serious, it sends me off in a fit of giggles. “No…” I gasp out. “He is beautiful. His chest, sweet mother, I could lick it for hours. And Rose…he has a tattoo.”

Rose drops her head on the table dramatically. “Now you’re just being mean. Hey, do you think he would be interested in a threesome?”

Shaking my head, I laugh. “Really? You don’t want to do anal with your boyfriend, but you want to have a threesome with someone you’ve never met?”

“Don’t judge me, tramp…Wait, I know, it’s crooked isn’t it? There is no way he is gorgeous, hung and rich. Does it have a wart on it? Hairy?”

Rolling my eyes at her, I say, “Give it up. Other than a scar across his throat, the man is perfect. I have no idea what he sees in me. I’m probably his ‘good from far, but far from good.’”

“A scar? Maybe he cut himself shaving. Jake has come close to bleeding out a few times when he was too cheap to replace his razor.”

I ponder just letting it go, but I want to talk to her about how Lucian reacted when I asked him about the scar. “It’s not something he could have gotten from shaving. It goes almost from ear to ear. It doesn’t look recent, but it must have been a really bad cut. I…asked him about it earlier, and he just froze. It got really tense and then he ended the evening quickly. There is a story there, but I understand enough not to push it. He was really great about my back and about the court papers.”

Rose is in the middle of nodding when her eyes widen. “Whoa, what about court papers; what the hell are you talking about?” Had it really just been hours since I was served papers by my absent mother? I haven’t even had a chance to tell my best friend.

“When I came home to change clothes today, some guy knocked on the door and served me papers. I called Debra in a panic and found out my stepfather beat my mother up, and she is pressing charges against him this time. I would have been impressed with that if she wasn’t dragging me into it. I have to go to court to testify about what a monster he is. I’m not sure how that is possible without admitting she is, as well.”

Rose puts her hand over mine, gently stopping my fingers from digging into my palm. “Honey, I’m so sorry. That fucking blows. I can’t believe that bitch is doing this to you. Even a dog takes care of their puppies better than that wacko took care of you. I’m so going to go to court with you and kick her ass!” This is one of those moments when I realize how lucky I am to have Rose in my life. She is crude and irreverent, but she would defend and protect me until the end. After a lifetime of being loved by no one, it is still hard for me to accept that someone could care for me. I am so used to handling everything on my own.

“Luc said he would have his lawyer find out what was going on. He promised he wouldn’t let anything happen to me.” I wait for Rose to jump on this statement, but she simply smiles.

“Well, Lucian…or Luc sounds okay in my book. When can I meet him?” She holds up her hand as if she is taking the witness stand and says, “I pledge to ogle him discreetly. He will never notice when I stare at his ass and his crotch. This will be a total covert mission. I’m just doing this for you.”

“Yeah, right,” I smirk. “He’s going out of town for a few days, so I’m not sure when he will be back. Besides, it’s not really normal between us. I don’t see him doing a double-date.”

“The man is only twenty-nine, Lia; it’s not like he is a senior citizen or something. He has to have fun sometime.”

I don’t know why I’m surprised that she knows his age, but I have to ask. “How do you know how old he is?”

She raises a brow as if to say ‘come on’. “I googled him, of course. The man is seriously loaded, and there are like a bazillion hits on him. He’s not much for the dog-and-pony show, though. I guess Asheville isn’t exactly the hub of socializing, but you would think there would be more pictures of him in a tux with some stick-figure woman on his arm. But there really aren’t. There is mostly stuff about his charities and what a walking brainiac he is. If he is a man-whore, he does it out of the spotlight.”

Thinking of Lucian with other women makes me want to throw something. Not a good sign when you’re just in a ‘fuckionship’, as Rose calls it. For all I know, he may have rushed me out the door tonight because he had other plans. I know next to nothing about him… well, other than the fact that he fucked Monique. Some part of me understands how she must feel seeing me with him. Wouldn’t I turn into a Class –A bitch if that happened to me? He treats her as if she means less than nothing to him. I have to accept the fact that I could be her in the possibly-near future.