Chapter 12

Roxie Porter. Holy hell, Roxie. Here's a woman who knew how to show a girl a good time. She wasn't much of a talker, and while dinner had been slightly awkward and spent primarily in silence, there was something about her that intrigued me. I found myself spending the idle time I had shoveling food in my mouth and taking in her exotic features. I'd been reading a lot online about how to connect with people. I'm not sure it was meant for the dating community, but I was applying the advice just the same, and researchers suggest the finite details-the ones most people miss-are what people value most about themselves. I doubted they were talking about the freckles on her nose or the way she tossed her long, thick, red hair over her shoulder, and I doubted any woman valued her breasts being noted as smaller-but it was sound advice I chose to apply in an unconventional manner.

Couple that with Ronnie's recommendation to have a few drinks to loosen me up, and I was fast becoming a veritabl