Phone clutched in her hand, Ruth sat on the couch and waited for Nick’s call. It had been three days since he’d left for Rio, and she was missing him something fierce.

He called her twice a day every day, once in the morning before leaving his hotel room, and once at night when he returned. The problem was that unless he stayed up late to call her, they couldn’t talk long because of the four-hour difference between Rio and Los Angeles. Ruth’s workday ended at seven in the evening, and she usually got home half an hour later, which meant that Nick had to wait until twelve-thirty at night Rio time to call her at home.

It was seven forty-two.

Did something happen to make him late? Or had he simply fallen asleep?

Should she call him instead of waiting for his call?

Before leaving, Nick had told her that while working he left his personal phone at the hotel. In case Ruth needed to get in touch with him urgently, she was to call Eva. He wasn’t allowed to give out his work number to anyone other than his team members, but his boss could reach him in case of an emergency.

Ruth glanced at the phone for the hundredth time, then shook her head and put it down on the coffee table. She was being silly, getting all worked up over a twelve-minute delay.

Instead of acting like the mature partner in their relationship, she was turning into a lovesick teenager who couldn’t live without her boyfriend for more than a day.

Was it Nick’s influence? Was his youth rubbing off on her?

Ruth smiled.

In some ways, Nick acted even younger than his twenty-two years, and in some ways, he acted way older.

She loved the polarity.

His youthful exuberance was contagious. Ruth couldn’t remember ever being as happy as she was with Nick. Not only was he sharing with her his innocence and the discovery of all the wonders of intimacy, but he was also giving her a second chance at a complete do-over of her own messed-up youth.

Despite Nick being just as socially inept as her, he didn’t feel awkward around people or shy away from them. His attitude was basically; so what?

And how liberating was that?

He’d shown her that it was possible to have a full life, despite what she considered a disability.

Ruth wasn’t there yet, but she was working on adopting Nick’s attitude. She was finding out that it was okay to be around people and not say much, or anything at all. Most people were forgiving and accepting of her and her limitations.

And those who weren’t?

Screw them, as Nick loved to say. Judgmental assholes weren’t worth an iota of her mental energy.

In Ruth’s opinion, that attitude of ‘so what’ was very grown up. In fact, most humans didn’t achieve that wisdom until old age. On top of that, Nick’s maturity was evident in how hard-working and responsible he was.

He was also highly intelligent.

Unlike many others of his generation, Nick wasn’t a follower. He formed his opinions after researching the facts instead of parroting meaningless slogans. Just because everyone else around him accepted something one idiot or another had spewed as immutable truths, didn’t mean that they were.

Maybe it was the flip side of social ineptitude. Followers weren’t contrary, they didn’t voice opposing views, they said amen, and by doing so became part of the herd instead of looking on from the sidelines.

If this was indeed so, Ruth was grateful for her nonconformity. She’d rather be true to herself and retain her independent thinking than sacrifice it in order to belong. Not that this was the only way one could do that. She knew enough people who could combine independent thinking with easy socializing, but that required skills neither she nor Nick had.

When her phone finally rang, it was seven fifty-five.

“Hi, Nick. Did you fall asleep?”

“No, I was reading on the crapper and lost track of time.”

Ruth laughed. “T.M.I., I could’ve done without that mental image. What were you reading?”

“A book about the plasticity of the mind. Did you know that the number of connections in our brains can double in just one hour of repeated stimulation?”

“No, I didn’t. What does it mean?”

“It means that the brain rewires itself according to its activity in real time. What you think about the most is what it creates more neural pathways for, and therefore what it becomes better at. So if you spend your entire day solving math problems, your brain becomes more adept at math, and if you spend the entire day thinking about me, you become horny.”

That was Nick to a tee. Perhaps other women would have found his comment crass, or immature, but Ruth found it not only funny but also true.

“I was thinking about you the entire day, and I have to admit that I was somewhat perturbed.”

“Perturbed? That doesn't sound sexy.”

Smirking, Ruth switched the phone to her other ear. “How about hot and bothered?”

“That’s better. Where are you now?”

“On the couch in the living room.”

“Are you comfortable getting naked there?”

“I’ve done it before.”

“True, but that was while Mr. Big Schlong and I were distracting you.

Ruth laughed. “Would you stop calling him that?”

“What do you want me to call him?”

“The Professor.”

“Fine. But I don’t want to talk about him. I want to talk about you in the nude.”

“Oh, yeah? And what exactly should I be doing in the nude?”

“Get naked, and I’ll tell you.”

This should be interesting. But he was right about her not being comfortable doing so in the middle of her living room. It wouldn’t feel private even if she closed all the drapes and locked the door.

“Give me a moment, I’m going to my bedroom.”

Ruth regretted the choice of words as soon as she’d said them. It should have been their bedroom, not hers. But there was one huge obstacle to her asking Nick to move in with her.

He was a human, and she was an immortal.

Ever since she started working at the café, Ruth had become quite adept at hiding her immortal tells, and she was confident in her ability to hide them from Nick. But what happened if he wasn’t a Dormant? How the hell was she going to erase herself from his memories?

What if he were an immune?

She would have to disappear, which meant giving up her house, moving into the village, and managing the café over there.

But none of that would be as difficult as trying to forget Nick. How would she go on without him?

Oh, dear merciful Fates!

This was it. This was the certainty she’d been looking for.

Nick was her one.

If she had doubts before they were all gone now.

“Ruthie? Are you there?”

“Yeah, I’m here. I zoned out for a moment. Give me another minute.”

“No problem. Just so you know, I'm naked in bed, and my schlong is pointing at the ceiling just from imagining you getting undressed. Can you narrate while you do it?”

It might be a bit embarrassing, but describing her striptease might divert her thoughts from her newfound revelations and put her in the right mood for their nightly naughty phone time.

“I’m putting you on speaker.”

“Are you sure about that? What if anyone overhears us?”

Ruth smiled. “So what?”

“That’s my girl.”