Madison snorted into her drink, and a refreshingly girly smile set her face aglow. “That’s one way to put it.”
“And you didn’t get a name, not even a first one?” she quizzed, the corporate inquisitor in her coming to life. “No phone number? No contact info or social media?”
“Not a single thing,” I answered, reaching tipsily up to my necklace, “except this.”
I really didn’t even know why I was still wearing it. I’d worn it around my neck to the first day on my new job. Why? It was a valid question, but I really had no answer as I traced my fingers gently over the faded stone as if it was one of the most precious things in the world, as precious as the mind-blowing sex we’d shared.
Madison followed the gesture with casual curiosity, then reached boldly across the table to examine the pendant herself, as if she might find some hidden clue. She squinted with concentration as she turned it over and over in her hands, but when she came up blank, she just leaned back in her chair with a little smile. “Well, Della, I must say that I’m quite proud of you.”
“Proud?” I couldn’t help but laugh as I set my drink down on the table. “You’re proud of me for bedding the first man in London who proposed such a thing? Or are you proud of me for succumbing to sentimentality and wearing his little souvenir?”
“Either...or both,” she said with a giggle, stirring her ice cubes with her straw. “I’ve changed my mind about you.”
“You have? In a good way or bad way?”
“A good way. One way or another, you’re not a square like ol’ Roger was. To me, that’s all that matters.”
“Well, for the record, I don’t have a meth lab or syphilis either,” I said with a grin.
She about spit out her drink as she laughed. “Good to know.”
“To not being a square!” I said, raising my glass again to clink hers.
“I’ll drink to that!” She laughed and took a giant swig. “And to rooftop sex in London!”
“And I’ll definitely drink to that!”
The two of us toasted and clinked, then drained our glasses and set them down.
Madison snapped her fingers for the check, patted unnecessarily at her perfectly immaculate hair, then pulled out her credit card before I could stop her. “Don’t even try,” she warned, holding up a dismissive hand. “This is my treat for your first day, and—” A vibration in her purse interrupted her, and she pulled out her phone, frowning at me. “And on that note, it’s probably best that we get back to the office.”
A drunken hiccup rose in my throat, and I stared at her in sudden terro
r. “The office?” I repeated in a panic. “You said we were done for the day. I would never have had so much to drink if—”
She ignored me completely, tugging me to my feet the second the card came back and she scribbled on a tip. “We were supposed to be, love, but apparently, our new CEO is making a surprise visit, and we’re all required to make a cursory appearance.”
“Shit!”
***
My panic tripled at every word. “The new CEO!” I shrieked, digging in my heels against her relentless perpetual motion as she pulled me down the street. “Madi... I-I can’t meet him like this! I’m fucking wasted!”
Her lips twitched up in a little smile, but she never broke her stride. “I think all this alcohol will make you more interesting.”
“Madison!”
“Seriously. Just shake his hand and smile. And he’ll move on.”
“What if he smells booze on my breath?”
“I’ll tell him we had a very important business meeting and had a few drinks. In our line of work, we’re called on to entertain and schmooze clients over after-work drinks. It’s totally acceptable.”
“Just don’t go to work loaded.”
“You got it!”
My litany of complaints and worries continued all the way back to the office elevator, then all the way up to the sixty-fifth floor. It was only then that I realized just how close to the very top of the building Madison’s office really was.