When I caught up to Becca, she'd already changed into her robe and was lying with cucumbers on her eyes in the relaxation room.

"Is that you Kinsley?" she asked when the door closed behind me.

172/890

"Yep," I murmured, all of a sudden scared that she'd ask me about the gift certificate. I didn't want to tell her it was from Liam because I wasn’t sure what his motives were yet.

"These cucumbers burn. Isn't that weird? It's like they're so cold that they're freezing my eyes off."

Leave it up to Becca to make me crack up in the "relaxation room" of a spa.

"Take them off then, dufus."

She smiled but didn't move to sit up.

"No. I want my money's worth."

I reclined next to her just as a spa attendant came in and offered us warm towels and jasmine-infused water. To our credit, we acted as civilized as possible until the attendant left the room. The second she was gone, I 173/890

leaned over and ate one of Becca's cucumbers.

"Ew! That's sick. That had my eye cooties on it."

"Tasted minty," I joked and waggled my eyebrows.

“Hey – have you thought at all about what you’re going to major in?” she asked.

I groaned. She’d just asked the dreaded question. “Oh god, do we have to talk about this at the spa? I have no clue. I just want to play soccer.”

“Yeah, same.”

“We register for classes in a few weeks, right?”

“Yup,” she nodded, taking a sip of her water. “We have like three months left to enjoy sweet freedom.”

174/890

“You mean three months to go to as many parties as possible.”

“Exactly. We won’t have time once the semester starts.”

Just then, the door clicked open and a pretty, petite woman stepped in quietly. "Ms.

Bryant, if you're ready, I'll be taking you to your waxing room."

What?! I’d had no time to relax my chakra. If anything, my chakra felt even more panicked. What kind of spa was this?

"Can she come with me?!" I begged, pointing to Becca.

Becca groaned. “I don’t need a full-front-all view of your no-no zone.”

"Not like on that side of the table,” I clarified, “I just I don't want to go in by myself."

175/890

The petite woman smiled and nodded.

"If you'd like your friend to hold your hand that's perfectly fine, but I promise it won't be too bad. I'm very good at what I do."

She sounded extremely confident, which was good considering she was about to be working with hot wax around a very important part of my body. Would it be rude to ask to see her degree? She better have graduated from Harvard Cosmetology. Yale Cosmetology just wasn’t what it used to be.

I reluctantly followed her toward the waxing room while Becca giggled next to me.

She was enjoying my misery way too much.

Once we were inside the room, the petite woman walked me through what to expect and I tried not to break Becca's hand off in the process.

176/890

"You have to ease up. She's not even starting yet and my hand went numb about two minutes ago."

"Okay, sorry, sorry. Just tell me when she’s about to go," I apologized, staring up at the ceiling and feeling like I was sweating out of every pore on my body. "Why did I agree to this? I've never had any complaints in that area before. I mean, I'm not like a wilde-beest, but I groom myself... I swear. Oh god, do I look like an Amazon compared to the other women that come in here?" At that point I was just rambling to keep myself preoccupied. I could hear the petite woman shuffling around and I automatically imagined the worst. Like what you do at the dentist's office when your eyes are closed and they start up the drill.

177/890

I jumped when the woman's hand touched my leg and then a loud crunching sound almost forced me to bolt from the room. "Ah! That didn't sound good."

"Sweetie, that was just me opening the sterile wax strips. We're going to get started, okay? I'm going to go fast—" I could feel her starting to smear on the wax. It was warm, but not too hot. "You won't even feel a thing and it'll be over befo—"

"AHHHHHHHH!

SON

OF

A,"

I

screamed as she pulled the first strip. The crazy lady didn't even pause. She kept going until I was yelling expletives even sailors would balk at. I was practically in tears while Becca, of course, was laughing her ass off.

She could hardly contain her joy and I 178/890

wanted to put hot wax on her face just to see how much she liked it.

"It's seriously not that bad, Kinsley!"

Becca laughed as the woman started smear-ing on some cooling cream.

"You probably don't even remember!

You’ve probably done it so many times that you’ve ripped off all of your nerve endings!” Once it was all said and done, I’ll admit… it wasn’t that bad. The woman finished and cleaned up quickly, and then I swapped rooms to get my massage. The massage room was larger and the lights were low so that it felt soothing and calm. Finally, I’d get to actually relax.

Yeah, right.

The hour-long massage felt amazing, but I couldn't stop thinking about Liam and the 179/890

fact that he was giving me the massage. Kind of. Well, okay, he knew I would use the gift certificate; maybe he was picturing me on the table.

Every time the masseuse worked out a new part of body, I imagined it was Liam's hands instead of the woman’s... I just prayed Liam’s weren’t quite as delicate and soft. But, whatever, I wouldn’t judge him for it.

Needless to say, when Becca and I finally left the spa, I was turned on and walking bow legged. Not a pretty combo.

"You can't keep walking like that or people are going to think your massage had a happy ending. Does it still hurt?" Becca asked.

180/890

"No, it just feels so... weird, like something should be there. I feel like those smooth lanes at bowling alleys."

Becca shot me a disgusted face. “Oh my god, that’s sick. Stop picturing your vagina as a dirty bowling alley.”

I threw my head back laughing.

"I wonder if Liam would like it," Becca added so casually that I swear she was trying to get a genuine reaction out of me.

"Who cares," I muttered, putting the car in reverse and trying to push him out of my mind. It worked for half of the way home and then my brain turned into a broken record player, repeating questions over and over.

Did he get me the gift certificate because he wants to be friends?

181/890

Did he want me to use it and think of him?

Was I supposed to act like nothing was different between us?

How long will it take for me to get used to this no-hair situation down there?

Does he like hair down there? Do they make hair extensions for that sort of thing…

just in case he does?

Was I willing to glue on a vijay toupee for him?

Chapter Seven

Earlier in the week Coach Davis had warned us to keep Saturday morning free for our team bonding activity. I had no clue what she had in store for us, and to be honest, I would have preferred to go relax on the beach, but maybe team bonding would do us some good. Tara and I sure as hell needed it.

When Emily, Becca, and I pulled up to the soccer fields, there was an old yellow school bus parked near the entrance and a few of our teammates were already lingering outside talking with Coach Davis and... Liam.

"What the hell is he doing here?" I asked with furrowed brows.

Emily swiveled to see what I was talking about. "Oh, Liam? I'd imagine all of the 183/890