I give him a small smile, but I can’t think of anything to say. Thank you? Is this when I tell him that I’m not the hooker he was expecting? He comes back to lie on the bed beside me. “You can leave when you’re less tired,” he says, already dismissing me, “and don’t forget to leave your number.”
He closes his eyes. I don’t know if he’s sleeping. Briefly, I toy with the idea of leaving my number, but I soon dismiss the foolish thought. He thinks I’m a hooker, which means he’s probably already forgotten about me. I’ve had a beautiful night, filled with great sex, and I can go back to my life and try to work on the things that matter, like getting over Jack.
I wait a while, then I get up and pull on my clothes. Leaving the money on the nightstand, I make my way back to the foyer. Like he said, the elevator doesn’t need a code to leave, and in a few minutes, I’m out on the sidewalk hailing a cab to take me back home.
SOMETHING is tickling my ear, persistently trying to drag me away from the dream where a beautiful man with dark gold hair and beautiful blue eyes is kissing a sweet path from my navel down between my thighs.
The tickling intensifies, and the dream disappears. “Go away,” I mutter sleepily, covering my ear with one hand. The tickling moves to the skin behind my ear. Sighing, I open one eye, and then the other. My room is bright with early morning sun, even though it seems like I just stumbled into bed at 1a.m. a few minutes ago. I still feel a little tired, but my body also feels light and sweet, with a delicious ache between my legs. As the memory of last night fills my head, I can’t prevent the small smile that comes to my lips.
“So?” I turn around. Laurie is sitting on the other side of my bed, still wearing her favorite sleep attire of a thigh length t-shirt. Her instrument of torture, a frilly scarf, is dangling from her hand. At the moment, one perfect eyebrow is raised questioningly, waiting for a reply to… whatever she’s asking me.
“What?” I scowl at her, but she just smiles, ignoring me. At times like these, I start to rethink our decision to get an apartment together after college. At the time, we’d been so excited, refusing our parents’ offers to help as we looked forward to finally striking out on our own. After spending two weeks looking at rat-infested apartments that we couldn’t even afford, my dad had recommended a new agent, who showed us a beautiful apartment on Murray Hill. It was perfect, and we both fell in love with it, only discovering later that the lease had already been paid, by our parents.
We’d sulked and complained, but we’d moved in, because it was close to both our offices and we’d already fallen in love with it.
“You can always pay us back,” Laurie’s mom, Aunt Jacie had said diplomatically, enabling us to call a truce.
Now Laurie rolls her eyes, bringing me back to the present. “Sweetie, don’t you think there’s stuff you need to tell me?”
I shake my head. “No… It’s Saturday, I want to sleep.”
“Come on…” she cajoles, lying down so her head is just inches away from mine on the pillow, “I want to know what happened last night.” She taps the pillow in front of my face. “You can’t just go to a party, come back in the a.m., and have nothing for me.”
“I’ll tell you anything you want after I get some sleep,” I plead, even though I know it’s useless. Laurie is an old hand at bugging a person relentlessly until the victim has no choice but to give in to her.
“You’ve slept enough,” she argues firmly. “Come on… Did you have sex with him?”
I frown, then realize there’s no way she can know about Landon. “Who?”
“Chadwick, of course. Who else?” She peers at me. “I kinda assumed you finally gave in, throwing caution to the wind and all that.”
I shake my head. “No, I didn’t. You know I don’t find him attractive.”
She gives me an exasperated look. “A man with Chadwick Black’s looks is attractive to everyone.”
“I wonder what your boyfriend will think about that statement,?
?? I chide. “Where’s Brett, by the way? I thought he was spending the night.”
“He’s asleep in my bed. He had a very tiring night.” Laurie winks. “So what happened? Why’d you come in so late?”
Even though she’s my cousin and best friend, I find myself hesitating to tell her. There’s something about what happened last night that makes me want to keep it to myself. To treasure every moment in my memories, and bring them out to ponder when I’m alone, selfishly, like a miser over his hoard of gold.
But I know Laurie. And she knows me. There’s no way I’ll get away with lying to her.
I sit up on the bed and rest my back on the headboard. Sensing that there’s a good story coming, Laurie grins and sits up, sliding easily into the lotus position, a commonplace feat I’ve never been able to accomplish. Unlike me, Laurie continued with ballet until she was fifteen. So in addition to being stunningly beautiful, she moves so gracefully that it’s a pleasure just to look at her. She picks up her bowl of cereal from the nightstand, watching me expectantly as she continues her breakfast.
I sigh. “So I went to the party.”
“Yeah... ok. And…?”
“And…” I pause. “Jack was there.”
“No!” Laurie looks as if she’s swallowed something gross. “Please tell me you didn’t sleep with him. Please tell me you didn’t.” She frowns. “Is that why the jerk was here last night? Did something happen?”
“Jack was here?”
She presses her lips together and rolls her eyes. “Yes, around eleven. He buzzed, I didn’t let him in. I told him you were out with Chadwick. I may have insinuated just a little that you were getting it on with the sexy photographer.”