Winning Appeal Read Online Free Page B

action. He was just going home alone, like Adam started doing a few months later… and like I had been for the past few weeks. I knew the signs. I was going down. Still, I walked out the door with no regrets. I was kind of tired anyway.
    I looked up and there she was, the beauty who had stolen my heart long ago… a fully restored, silver 1971 Karmann Ghia. I called her Heidi, like Heidi Klum, hot German, get it? In case you were unaware, the Karmann Ghia is the ultimate badass hipster’s ride. They just don’t make them that cool anymore.
    “Hey baby, I need to be inside you right now,” I joked as I deactivated the alarm. Great, I was talking to a car, like freaking Knight Rider. I had officially gone around the bend. It had to be lack of sex. Why wasn’t I back there with the blonde again? Oh right, I was nuts. As I strapped myself in and hit the ignition I wondered briefly where Beth was at the moment and who she was with.
     
    1:00 AM
    Later that night, I lay in bed thinking. I hadn’t hooked up in almost a month. I hadn’t gone that long without getting laid since I was in high school. Sex had always been just a release of tension and a way to feel good. It had never mattered who I was with before, as long as I found her physically attractive, willing, disease-free and not obviously unstable in any way. You had to watch out for the ones who seemed like they might be fun that night, but listening to Madame Butterfly, and boiling your bunny the next day.
    Things had changed, though. I knew that I wasn’t going to be interested in anyone else anytime soon, and I had started talking to a car. I wasn’t going to make it that much longer. So was I planning to make a move? Yeah, I guess I was. Braden had to tell me that bit about her comment to her friend, didn’t he? Picturing her , fantasizing about me officially did me in. There was no going back after that. He said, “Just do it right,” but what did that mean ? Where was the rulebook on this kind of shit?
    Maybe she and I could ease into dating. I could just keep taking her to these fundraisers, like practice dating, with no expectations and no pressure. And in the meanwhile, I could find out what the rules were. There you go, just go slowly. That was a plan. Good thinking Mark. Okay, thinking about Beth again…
     
    Saturda y 12:30 PM
    “ So you went home alone again,” Adam said, squeezing some lemon into his iced tea. We had gone out to grab lunch at a local Italian place.
    “Can you die from sexual frustration?” I poured some dressing on my antipasto and signaled the waitress for more water.
    “You’re not going to die, but you might get carpal tunnel. You can’t go on like this anymore. You won. You were the last man standing. Now, give up and date the woman already.”
    “I’m twenty-eight, not twenty-one. I see how happy you guys are.”
    “So, what’s the problem? You’re not worried she’ll shoot you down, are you? It doesn’t sound like she has really high standards.” He laughed.
    “The problem is that I’m flying blind. Women have all these rules when it comes to that shit and I’ve never had an interest in riding that rollercoaster before.”
    “If you’re that worried about it, just start off quietly until you get used to it.”
    “Oh yeah, just don’t mention it. Because Braden would be so grateful that I spared him any awkwardness by dating his sister behind his back.”
    “It wouldn’t exactly be a shock if he found out. Don’t you remember yesterday’s conversation? He knows. Everybody knows, man. The cleaning lady asked me if the two of you had gotten together yet, and she barely speaks English.”
    “Yeah, I remember. He said, ‘just do it right.’ But what does that mean?”
    “It means date her rather than just fucking her. Women have rules, but they’re subject to interpretation, and half of them don’t even follow them.”
    “What if I forgot myself and accidentally put my hand on her ass at some