Iris Kelly Doesn't Date (Bright Falls, #3)(45)

Iris frowned but said nothing. She stared at Kate’s frozen face for a few seconds then turned back to Stevie. “If we do this, you’re in charge. By which I mean, you have to set the boundaries, the rules. I don’t want to accidentally do anything you’re uncomfortable with.”

Stevie nodded. “I mean, you too. I don’t want you to be uncomfortable either.”

Iris smirked. “There’s not a lot about sex that makes me uncomfortable.”

“What about romance?” Stevie asked, another idea popping into her mind. If they really were going to do this, she wanted Iris to get something from it too. The woman was risking getting vomited on again, coaching a hopeless twenty-eight-year-old in the ways of hookups. The least Stevie could do was give her a reason to persevere.

“What about it?” Iris asked.

“Romance makes you uncomfortable, doesn’t it?”

Iris sighed. “Not uncomfortable so much as . . . currently uninterested.”

“But you need to be interested, right? For your book?”

“What’s your point?”

“Well, I mean, one day, when I do finally hook up with someone, I still want it to feel . . . nice.”

“Nice.”

“Romantic. Even if it’s just a one-night stand, I like music and soft lights and, shit, I don’t know. Romance.”

Iris looked at her like she’d lost her mind. “Still waiting for your point, Stevie.”

“You help me with . . .”

“Showing your tits.”

“Yes. That. And I’ll make it romantic. For you. So you can, you know, have more research for your book. That’s half the point of our partnership, isn’t it?”

Iris narrowed her eyes, but then her brows lifted. “Okay, your point is valid. But let me make sure I’ve got this straight. We’re fake dating in front of your friends.”

“Yes.”

“And I now have a sex lessons kink.”

Stevie grinned. “I mean, call it what you want.”

“And you have a romance lessons kink.”

“Look how symbiotic we are.”

“It’s a beautiful thing,” Iris said dryly, then her tone softened. “Are you sure?”

“I am,” Stevie said, then stood up. Her blood sped through her body, making her fingertips tingle, her heart drum against her ribs. “And I think we should start right now.”

“Right now?”

“Right now.”

She knew herself—if she went home, slept on it, she’d talk herself out of this, and then she’d still be the horny yet terrified wannabe thespian who nuzzled her ex’s neck.

Iris got up too, but then they both simply stood there, unsure of how to move on. Somehow, even though Iris was the expert here, her uncertainty made Stevie’s shoulders relax.

“Okay,” Iris said finally, “if we’re really doing this, I think we should start where things went wrong with us.”

“Yeah,” Stevie said, “makes sense.”

“It was dark,” Iris said. “We had music on.”

Stevie nodded, but as she looked around at Iris’s apartment, the dusky evening light filtering purple into her living room, Serendipity still frozen on the screen, bits of popcorn dotting the sofa and floor, she felt anything but romantic.

And if this was going to be useful for Iris too, she needed to set the mood.

“We need candles,” Stevie said, looking around.

“What? We did not have candles the other week.”

“No, I know, but we need a little ambience, don’t you think?”

“Ambience?”

“Jesus, you really are bad at this romance stuff,” Stevie said.

Iris groaned and rubbed her forehead. “God, I know. My brain is a fucking blank when it comes to that shit. The last hookup I had—before you, I mean—was in a . . .”

She trailed off, pursing her mouth and shaking her head.

“Was in a what?” Stevie asked.

“Never mind.”

“You made me tell you my bonkers idea.” She popped her hands on her hips. “Iris.”

“Fine,” Iris said on a sigh. “The last person I slept with, we fucked in a bathroom stall.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“I’m sure a lot of people do that.”

“At Topgolf?”

Stevie nearly choked on a laugh. “Topgolf.”

“I was there with my friends and the bartender was hot, okay?”

Stevie laughed. “I’m sure they were.”

“So, yeah, romance? Not really part of my repertoire lately.”

“Well, luckily, I can barely think of kissing someone without a bubble bath and some moody music. Do you have candles?”

Iris nodded, waving to a few sprinkled around the room. “There are more in my bedroom.”

“Okay, you go get us some dinner,” Stevie said, glancing at the time on her phone. “I’ll set up here.”

“Dinner,” Iris said. “Yeah, I am hungry, actually.”

“Same. I’ll eat whatever.”

“That’s what she said.”

Stevie shook her head, a laugh bubbling into her mouth. “Go.”