To my dear old high school friends Lori, Kim, Linda, Rick, Ed, Chris … and so many others.

      I’m so thankful for the memories we made so long ago and the new ones we’re creating today.

       Prologue

      “WE’RE ASKING YOU to take an extended leave of absence.”

      Lindsey Smith flinched, even though she had expected the words. She had, in fact, steeled herself for them before she’d taken a seat across from her boss, eminent psychotherapist Walter Ross, of the Ross, Riley and Wilhelm Wellness Center. She had to wonder if the other two partners had drawn the long straws, leaving Ross to take care of “their little problem.”

      “It’s not that serious,” she argued, but in her head she was screaming, This is so serious, your reputation is crap! “It will die down.”

      “So you’ve been saying, Dr. Smith. But that was before you became the subject of a Jeopardy! question.”

      Well, in her opinion, being on Jeopardy! had been kind of awesome, though she wasn’t going to tell her employer that. “But...”

      “And today I was informed you’re the subject of a me-me.”

      “A what-what?”

      Ross pushed a sheet of paper toward her across his desk, using only the tips of his fingers, as if the paper offended him.

      She scanned the sheet. Huh. She was the one who should be offended. Her picture appeared on the page, over and over, each time with a witty—but so not funny—quip. She read, “Had an orgasm while blinking,” and, “Comes when going,” before snapping, “It’s pronounced meem.”

      “However you say the word, it reflects badly on us all.”

      “You read my dissertation before you hired me.”

      He nodded. “I know. It was fine research. Your work with patients with sexual disorders has been outstanding.”

      But not outstanding enough for them to defend her when she caught some unpleasant attention. Oh, sure, at first her bosses had enjoyed the publicity when excerpts of her dissertation on women’s ability to climax merely via mental stimulation had hit the media. But when the Today show got on it, followed by the tabloids, they’d tensed up.

      Things got worse when the internet fell on her head. “Thinkgasm,” the word she’d used to describe mind-initiated climax, had trended on Twitter and she’d become a laughingstock.

      Now, because of a game-show question and a stupid meme, they were abandoning her to deal with it on her own. During her “leave of absence,” they’d undoubtedly be watching like Big Brother to see if she could stay “clean” enough to renew their association with her sometime in the future. All because she took seriously what so many found funny: female orgasms.

      So much for being a champion for women taking control of their lives, their bodies and their sexuality. Her own life was spinning out of control, courtesy of the man in front of her and other men just