Before I could answer, Shane continued, “But then you’d also cheated on the fashion designer with one of her models.”

“Which lasted about a week, she thinks, or about as long as Fashion Week went for, because you showed up at a party in Bette and Tina’s with the …” she turned to Alice with a questioning look.

“The English prof,” I sighed.

Jules doesn’t know the half of it, I thought.

I raised my arms up in surrender. “Okay, okay. I’ll keep it in my pants for as long as I can manage, alright?”

Shane guffawed. “For as long as you can manage? That the best you can do?”

I shook my head resignedly and gave them a small smile, my arms still raised. “Let’s take it a day or a week at a time, ok? I’ll avoid …”

Alice gave me a side hug around my waist from the opposite side, and cut in, “Aerin, honey. We know you need your release from time to time, like everybody does. Okay – you seem to need it more frequently.”

I started to protest but she continued, “Anyway, all the same: while you’re here, we feel like you’re our responsibility, ok? If all you need is to feel close to someone, or you need to talk to someone. Craving for simple human contact – call us, and we’ll be there for you. You don’t need to fuck all these beautiful women who hit on you just to be able to connect, ok?”

I sighed heavily. “Just a simple call, Aerin,” Shane added. “That should be enough.”

Even they seemed to see what was happening to me. What the hell have I been doing for the past year? It was a question I kept pushing away from my mind.

I allowed them to input everyone’s contact details into my phone, and Alice pushed me to promise to try to call one of them before I was tempted to, in her words, “get your jollies.” They kept things light-hearted from that point on, and we continued to chat easily while we waited for Helena. They all dropped me off at the car-rental agency, and made me promise to call about my plans for the evening.

Fifteen minutes later, I found myself half-following the instructions of the GPS, half-musing about what Alice and Shane had said. I tapped on the music selection of the sat radio when I hit the fabled traffic of LA highways. I was less than half a mile from the exit I needed, so I didn’t mind sitting in traffic. I chose “chill music” from the selections that scrolled through after a particularly lengthy pause in the traffic flow.