James gave her a once-over as she walked in, and I still couldn't blame him. He winced, however, when she walked right toward him. “James!” she cried out, wrapping her hands around him a big hug. “I was hoping I'd see you again. Are we going out tonight?”
James smiled and wrapped his hands lightly around her back. His eyes flicked to me before he pushed her away a little bit. “Nicole, glad you're alright. I told you last night that I had business today and that I'd be flying out.”
Nicole pouted. “Aw, that's too bad. I was hoping to get a redo of last night.”
I just bet she was, I thought trying very hard not to succumb to jealousy. James laughed. “Maybe some other time,” he said.
It sounded like a blow-off to me, but Nicole apparently didn't pick up on it. “Can I get your number? You know in case I ever find myself in Boston.”
James didn't even miss a beat. “Sure, here's my business card. You'll have to let my secretary know that I know you from New York, but the message will get to me eventually.”
Nicole took the card and quickly read it. “And this is your email address?”
“Yeah. Sometimes that's a better way to get in contact with mffe,” he said.
“Well,” Nicole started, slipping the business card into her back pocket. “I do want to get in contact with you. And I always get what I want,” she said. The implication was clear. It was very hard not to hit her. She thrust out her chest, and touched his arm, dragging her fingertip down to his hand.
James cleared his throat. I had no doubt that he was already getting hard again, thinking about the little hard body in front of him. Still, his eyes flicked to me. “Allie, see you soon?”
“You bet, brother!” I said, exaggerating the brother part.
He smiled one last time at Nicole, then walked out the door. Nicole practically skipped to the TV. She turned it on then jumped into her bed. “Did you see how bad he wanted me?” she asked.
“Yeah, I saw,” I agreed. It wasn't a lie. I did see that he wanted her. I hoped that it didn't become a problem, but then again, Nicole was right. I had never seen her give up when she wanted something, and I had never seen a man resist her when she threw herself at him.
I shook my head, clearing my head of such worries. James was mine. I was sure of that.
Chapter 25
I booked my plane tickets to Boston that same night, but two weeks never passed so slowly.
Sure, I had plenty of classwork to keep me busy. I caught up on everything that I had missed over the last week, then got to work getting ahead so that a weekend away wouldn't kill my grades. I was lucky that this disruption had happened at the beginning of the semester, because I might never have recovered if it happened at the end of it.
I missed James' touches, but I did get emails from him. However, they seemed to be curt replies, as if he always had something better to be doing. A lot of “miss you” and “can't wait to see you again” type emails. It would be frustrating if I didn't know that he had a ton of stuff to do running his own company.
I spent the weekend just vegging out, watching TV and hoping not to think of James. Still, my hand ran to my belly more than I cared to admit. I knew it was too early to go get a pregnancy test, that it was more likely to give me a false negative than to give me a true positive even if I was pregnant. However, that didn't stop me from wanting to know.
Of course, Nicole spent the weekend partying. I figured she'd hook up with another guy and that she'd forget all about James. Still, every time I saw her on her computer, she seemed to be smiling and biting her lip. She occasionally looked over at me like she was doing something naughty. I managed to resist the urge to snoop on her computer, but I really wanted to at least try and steal a glance at what she was doing.
The next week started and it was like I was counting down the seconds until my last class on Friday. Even on Thursday night, I considered changing my flight and just skipping my next day's classes. The only reason I managed to resist was because I knew that James would be busy and that I'd just be cooped up in that apartment, if I was able to see him at all.
Instead, I just played on my computer. At about 8:00 PM, I got an email from my friend from high school, Tessa.
Hey girl, just checking in. Hadn't heard from you for a couple weeks. I was hoping we wouldn't fall out of touch again. Call me or email me whenever you have a chance.
I bit my lip. I didn't want to lose touch with her either. She was my best friend and was stuck in our home town, attending community college to get her core classes out of the way. I had been bad about keeping in contact before, but I didn't want to lose touch either. I emailed her back.
Hey! Nothing new here, just attending classes and loving life. What have you been up to?
Her response came immediately.
Nothing happening here in Podunk. Have you talked to James yet?
I didn't know what to tell her. I had lied to her the other day when I had been in Boston, saying that I had told him a little bit but not telling her the full extent. I didn't want to lie to her again. Still, I knew I couldn't tell her about all the sex we had. I carefully worded my email.
Actually, I'm flying out to Boston tomorrow to see his band play.
Almost immediately, my phone began to ring. Tessa's face popped up on my screen. “Hello?” I answered.