Page 9 of Galata and Nutmeg
“I’m going to hold you to that… although I’ll skip Courtney’s idea of a dirty shag and stick with my moratorium, thank you very much.”
“Boring!”
“And a moratorium, by definition, temporarily bans an activity that was previously allowed, so no flirting, no blind dates, and definitely nodirtyrock stars.”
Nate returns to the table and hands me my phone. “You won’t have to worry about Stanton again.”
“Why?”
“I sent him a photo of my dick back with the message, ‘Your knob is nowhere as big as mine’.”
We all laugh, and I grab my mobile to see exactly how big Nate’s knob is. “That’ll teach him.”
Brynn leans in to check out Nate’s knob and nods appreciatively before turning back to me. “But a moratorium on men? What about all your nonsense about true love?”
“True love? True love can go fuck itself!” I don’t often drop the F-bomb. ‘Feck’ I throw around all the time, thanks to my mother’s Irish heritage, but to actually use ‘fuck’? Well, let’s just say, things must be getting serious for that to escape my lips. “From this moment forward there’ll be no guys and no falling in love. Instead, I will concentrate on me, and my novel.”
“And land the client!”
“And get that promotion!”
Nate’s playing catch up. “What’s this then?”
“I have a moratorium on men.”
“You didn’t mention sex. Is sex still on the table?”
“Semantics, Nate.” Sex is all he ever thinks about. “Amendment to my moratorium: no sex, and especially not on a table! No penises! No dating. Nodirtyrock stars. No falling in love! Nothing.”
“A penis embargo? It can’t be true!”
“It is true!” I raise my glass of much hated Scotch in a toast. When my friends don’t follow, I rattle the glass so hard that drops of Scotch splash them until they join me in my toast. “I, Margaret Elise Martin, hereby declare a moratorium on guys, and love, and sex… and all penises… until I learn how to love myself properly.”
“And maybe clear out some of that baggage, as well.”
I point at Courtney. “Maybe, and even though you may not agree with me, I still get to believe in true love… but true love is just going to have to work a little harder now.”
Courtney taps her glass to mine. “To true love.”
Brynn nods. “And to Meg landing the BFD!”
I take a deep drink of Scotch. I’m starting to warm up to the taste of it—or I’ve had too much and can’t tell any longer! “And get the promotion!”
“Of course!”
“How will you know when you’re ready to date again?”
“I’ll know. Ginger knew.”
“No, Meggsy, she bloody well didn’t.” Courtney snorts and vigorously shakes her head. “Ginny had no clue what she had with Aydin… until she nearly lost him.”
“I don’t care what you think, Ginny knew Aydin was the one and, speaking of Ginny, can you believe she’s getting married in less than a month!”
“All thanks to me.” Nate tips his damn imaginary hat again. “I really am quite the match-maker.”
“Just think, in a month I’ll be in Istanbul! I can’t wait.”My grin turns into a scowl. “I can’t believe you guys aren’t going to be there.”
Nate shrugs as Courtney replies, “Work. Busy. Life.”