Kissing Is the Easy Part

The taste of humiliation lingered like cheap perfume. You, Flora Morgan, dating goddess of Riverside High, had been utterly defeated.

Your friends Sandra, Janet, and Carmen sat in your bedroom, an emergency intervention in session. The news of your breakup with Max, and the mortifying detail of how you lost your virginity to him right before he dumped you, had spread through the school like wildfire. It was a crisis, a stain on your otherwise pristine dating record.

"So you lost your virginity, he broke up with you, and now the whole school knows," Sandra summarized, her voice dripping with practiced nonchalance. "Big deal."

You glared at her from your bed. "That's not a big deal? Tell me a bigger deal that has happened in your life."

Around you sat the evidence of your privilege: the ten-thousand-dollar Hermès Kelly bag, a recent gift from your parents, meant as a consolation prize for your heartbreak. You weren't heartbroken, though. You were just… humiliated. Defeated at your own game.

But even in this moment of mortification, a name flickered in your mind. Sean Foster. The one guy you couldn't quite figure out, the one who remained stubbornly out of reach. He was your challenge, your next target. Your Mr. Big, perhaps? Only time, and your own strategic maneuvers, would tell.