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when?”
    “Last weekend. Do you think this soy sauce is the low sodium kind?”
    Lainie crinkled her nose. “Have you heard from him since your date?”
    I shook my head. “No, but he's like a work-a-holic.” Quite typical for guys in their late twenties.
    “How did you leave things?”
    “He kissed me goodbye and put me in a cab.”
    “What did he say?”
    “I don't know! It was kind of fuzzy. Too much wine. He had to get up early the next day.”
    Lainie snorted. “What? To drive his sister to the airport or something? Ha!”
    “His roommate actually. What's so funny?”
    Lainie stared at me. Waiting for an answer, I stared back. Finally, she said, “He really said he had to take his roommate to the airport?”
    I nodded.
    “And you believed him?”
    “Yes! Why not? You think he was lying?” Please say no.
    “I don't know. What happened on your date?”
    “What do you mean? We had dinner, drank some wine, smooched. Randall wanted me to go home with him but totally understood when I said I wanted to take things slow.”
    Lainie pushed away her plate of sushi, reached across the table and put her hand over mine. Then she shook her head and said, “Sweetie, I don't think Randall will have the pleasure of seeing you in your sexy new underwear.”
    I felt my muscles tighten and swallowed hard. “Why not?”
    Looking at me in disbelief, Lainie raised her voice and said, “Girl, you've been blown off! Randall the Great is really Randall the Rat!” Lowering her voice, she said, “Don't feel bad though. You didn't do anything wrong aside from refusing to do him . I applaud you. He's a slug.”
    I pictured us sitting side by side on the couch at the Gramercy Hotel and how my head fit so neatly in the curve of his arm. Lainie was out of her mind. “No! He was so great about it. He kissed me even after I said I wasn't ready to have sex. He called me ‘sweetheart’! He hailed the cab for me and opened the door too. And he waited for the cab to leave before going back in the…” I looked down at the blonde hairs standing up on my arms. “Oh God.”
    Lainie opened her eyes wide. “What?”
    “Why did he go back in the bar if he needed to go to sleep early?”
    Bursting into laughter, Lainie said, “He seriously went back inside the bar after putting you in the cab?”
    I absently nodded my head at Lainie, who continued to call Randall various derogatory names. But I was no longer listening. And I had lost my appetite for spicy tuna.

C HAPTER 9
    My cases were slow but I didn't want to go home, so I had stayed at work late to study for the LSAT. Lainie was having a male guest over and called dibs on the living room. I didn't understand why, since the date would inevitably end in her bedroom. I hoped she didn't plan on having sex on the couch. It was technically mine.
    I couldn't concentrate. It didn't make sense. None of it made sense. I couldn't believe that Randall would blow me off just because I wouldn't have sex with him on our second date. Especially since we hadn't gotten to the third date yet and, according to Claire, it was the third date rule – not the second. And when I told Randall I wasn't ready, he said we had all the time in the world.
    By my reasoning, Lainie was totally wrong about Randall being a slug.
    But that didn't explain why he hadn't called since our date or why he went back inside the Gramercy Hotel after putting me in the cab when he said he needed to get to bed early.
    I had always told Marissa to wait for the guy to call her, but I needed to talk to Randall and get his side of the story. He deserved the benefit of the doubt. I knew he liked me and so there had to be a reasonable explanation for why he hadn't called. So I ignored my own advice and called him.
    After the first ring, I stopped chewing my pen. A nasty habit and one my mom said would give me an overbite. He wasn't pickingup. Voicemail. “Hi Randall. It's me. Jane. Amber. Ha! Just calling to say ‘Hi.’ Haven't