“Um, I can’t do the 24th to the 31st anymore,” Marisol said. “I’m sorry! I got roped into doing this charity thing.” Marisol was always getting herself into that stuff. She had a hard time saying no to anyone.
“No, that’s fine. We can reschedule,” Sloane said, looking at her phone. We’d already rescheduled four times. When you try to take a trip with four women who have high-pressure jobs or school, things get tricky. We’d been planning on going together to Jamaica for at least a year. The ultimate Girls' Week. But it was proving more difficult to plan than figuring out Donald Trump’s hair.
After our hands and feet were polished and pretty and the women in the shop breathed a sigh of relief, we went to lunch.
“So do you think he’ll be there again tonight?” Chloe said.
“Seriously? Are we back to that?” I thought we were done. I’d relaxed and was enjoying my Lucas Blaine-free time.
“Oh, he’ll be there,” Sloane said, bumping my knee with hers. “He wants you. Bad.”
Yeah, well, it was mutual.
“Are you blushing? Wow, do you really like this guy?” Chloe said, which made me blush even more.
“No, no. I mean, he’s fine to work with and he’s not bad in bed, but that’s it. He may be funny and able to sing and have fabulous hair and a chin dimple . . .” I trailed off.
“Fuck,” I said, before remembering that we were in a café and there were children around. “I like him.”
Sloane and Chloe gave each other the same face.
“I love how you’re the last to realize it,” Sloane said. “For someone who’s so smart, you can be pretty dense sometimes.”
“I mean, I can like him without liking him, liking him.” God, I sounded like I was in junior high again. Maybe I should pass Lucas (Mr. Blaine) one of those notes that was like, Do you like me? Circle one: Yes, No, Maybe.
Sloane and Chloe both laughed at my expense and I slumped in my chair.
“Shut up, both of you.”
~*~*~
As the day wore on, I started to get more and more nervous. It was very similar to the feeling you have before a first date. Not knowing what to expect, worried you’re going to make a fool of yourself. It had been a long, long time since I’d had first date jitters. I hadn’t even had them with Royce.
Sloane was dressing me, and I was being shoved into another one of her lingerie creations. This time it was a beautiful black bustier with sapphire flowers embroidered all over it, and a matching set of panties with little blue bows on the sides. It was nothing I’d ever dare to wear, but Sloane was insistent, so I put it on under a tank top and layered a sheer t-shirt over it so hopefully no one would guess what I was wearing underneath. I paired that with my favorite pair of dark jeans, and high-heeled black boots.
“Fabulous! I really like this real-world testing. Between you and Chlo, I’m gaining valuable insight.”
“That means we get a cut, right? Ten percent?” I said as I turned back and forth to make sure nothing was sticking out.
“Nice try, bitch.”
It was worth a shot.
An hour later we were in the bar, and I was fiddling with my first gin and tonic. Fin had texted that he was running late, but I told him it was no big deal. We’d gotten an extra chair and piled our purses on it, so we could just clear it off when he got here. So far, there had been no Lucas Blaine sightings, but that didn’t mean much.
“Terrible. That girl really should never ever sing again,” Sloane said as a girl exited the stage to a smattering of polite applause. The really mean critics hadn’t gotten here yet. It was good she went on early, or else she would have gotten ripped apart and probably left the stage crying. That happened at least once every time.
“Oh, come on. It wasn’t that bad,” Marisol said. “Okay, maybe it was. Maybe I want to bleach my eardrums so I can clean myself of that experience.”
“Good plan,” I said, finally sipping my drink. Most of the ice was melted, so it was pretty watered down.
“Calm down,” Sloane said in my ear and squeezed my knee. I was pretty good at hiding my nervousness in the boardroom, but this was completely different.
And then it happened. It was like I heard him open the door, even though that was impossible. There was way too much noise, but I knew the second he walked in. It was almost supernatural.
“He’s here,” Sloane said in my ear, but I knew that already. Slowly, I turned my head and there he was, making his way through the crowd, his eyes locked on me. It was a bit like one of those scenes in a movie when all the sounds around me went down in volume and everything slowed and all I could see was this man walking toward me. This gorgeous man who only had eyes for me.
Yeah, I liked him.