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Samantha
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ZEV PULLED AWAY from the kiss. “Whoa, where did you go?”
“Sorry. Jamie and I were up way late last night.” Samantha blinked wide and then snuggled in closer to his musky t-shirt. She drew her hand across his thigh, fascinated by the solid thickness of muscle. According to her research, to guarantee sex, chimpanzee males beat all the young females until they submitted. There were no dates, no proms, no walks along the beach. She couldn’t imagine it. Her brother was right, not everything was reducible to chimps versus bonobos. There were too many gaps that needed filling.
“Samster. Take it easy.”
“Please don’t call me that,” she whispered into his ear. “Brace calls me that.”
“Sorry. It’s just that, you’re making me . . . yunno.”
“Shit. I’m so sorry.” She scooted back to the passenger seat though she really wanted to run her hands up under his shirt and feel the cut of his chest and abs.
“Nah. It’s okay.” He peered out the window and down Bluff road. “We shouldn’t be up here anyway.”
No lights were on in the Gainsborough manse.
She’d asked Zev to take her to the Leap mostly so that she could spy on Lucy, make sure she wasn’t headed toward the female parental unit. That same parental unit had come home the night before, armed with angry elevens, and stormed straight up to the bedroom. And frankly Samantha was fine with that. Mom was levelheaded. Well, historically speaking. She would do the right thing. Wouldn’t she?
It wasn’t fair that Samantha would have to choose: Lucy or her grandmother. Why couldn’t adults get along?
Zev started the Ford, turned it around, and inched it down the hill, gravel popping under the slow moving tires. “So, I’m thinking of joining Brace and Maddox at UW.”
She sat up. “What? Really?”
“Yeah, think I’m gonna undergrad there and then do Columbia for my masters.” He shrugged. “Dad says I should be prepared for it all to change once I actually get in. But that’s where I’m at right now.”
She grinned out the window, up at the waning moon, and calmly ventured. “Wow, so maybe we’ll see each other sometimes.”
“That’s what I was hoping too. But—”
“You should totally date other girls,” she said rapidly.
“Huh?” He stamped the brakes, which slowly pushed them forward in their seats.
“Well, I mean, there will be so many at college and it’s not fair to expect—”
“Are you wanting to date other guys?”
“No.”
“Neither am I. Girls, that is.” He chuckled and pushed up his glasses.
Samantha grinned at him, tucked her hand in his. Zev was no chimp, definitely a bonobo. She sighed as they passed over the sparkling St. Croix. It was the hardest thing in the world to dial her feelings for this guy down to a medium setting even when it was the most logical choice.