4. Chapter Four
It’s so fucking hot.
I peel my eyes open, not recognizing the space I’m in. Panic takes over when I realize there’s a very large arm across my chest. Looking over to my right, I see the man attached to the arm.
Holy shit.
Memories of last night assault me and my thighs squeeze together involuntarily. The memories and sore muscles speak volumes to what this man did to my body.
The sun is barely peeking up, reminding me that it’s almost morning. I need to get out of here. I don’t want anything to ruin the memory of last night.
Peeling this man’s arm off me, I place it gently on the pillow next to me. I gather what clothes I can find, not that I have many pieces to search for.
Heading into the kitchen I begin pulling drawers open to find a notepad and pen. I don’t want to leave him with nothing but an empty bed.
Finding exactly what I need I scrawl a quick note.
Last night was perfect. I want the memories to stay that way. So, let’s not ruin them with reality.
XO, C
I leave both the notepad and pen on the counter in the kitchen for him to see when he wakes up. Then I grab my purse, and practically run to the elevator while pulling up a message to Joy.
Me: Oh. My. God. I’m coming over for coffee. You better wake up to let me in.
How am I supposed to move on after last night? Everything was simply perfect. But I don’t want to ruin the memories when we find out things don’t work in the real world. Keeping him in this blissful bubble is for the best.
Thankfully there is a coffee shop down the street. So I practically run there, hoping that he won’t wake up and look for me. I swing open the door and inhale the heavenly scent of freshly roasted coffee beans.
The barista gives my outfit a once over, finishing with a disapproving look.
Like you’ve never been in this situation, lady .
I reach up to tame my unruly hair, but just find a nest instead. Ugh, probably why she is looking at me the way she is. Instead of trying to fix it I throw it up in a messy bun before walking up to place my order for mine and Joy’s favorites.
While I wait for our order my phone vibrates.
Joy : Oh my god whyyyyyyy? It’s barely five in the morning. I hate you.
Me: Okay, I’ll go home with my coffee that I got down the street from TRNDZ because I just snuck out of that freaking mountain man’s penthouse. I’ll tell Tabby all about our sexcapades. No worries.
I smile as I wait for her response. She always makes fun of me for talking to my cat, Tabby, and thinks I’m crazy.
Joy: The fuck you will. Bring me my coffee. And I want all the dick details.
I giggle to myself as I read her text.
Joy: Don’t forget to send me your Uber info. No kidnappings at five in the morning.
She watches way too much true crime. Honestly, I’m lucky she was distracted last night or she never would have let me leave the club with a man neither of us knows.
Before too long I’m knocking on Joy’s apartment door. We both have an apartment in the same complex in the Museum District. We have been inseparable since Kindergarten, and the furthest we were willing to go from each other was down the hall. Three doors to be exact.
She flings the door open with a scowl on her face and snatches her coffee out of my hand like some unfed gremlin.
“Good morning, Joy. It’s such a beautiful morning. I’m so glad I get to spend it with you.” I joke at her demeanor.
She’s already curled under a blanket on the couch sipping her coffee. She points to the seat next to her. “Sit. Talk. Dick stories.”
“Can I start with saying his dick is perfect? I mean really perfect. It’s fucking huge and he sure as hell knows how to use it. If I’m being honest he didn’t even have to use it and I had multiple orgasms. That man knows his way around a woman’s body.” I fan at my face with my hand remembering the night before.
“Ugh. Jealous. So jealous. When will you see him again?”
“Um. Never? ”
“What the hell do you mean never? You said his dick was perfect!” Her eyes widen as she stares at me, waiting for me to say kidding!
“I left him a note, I told him -”
She cuts me off, “A note! Calliope Miller. Come on. What the hell is wrong with you? Tell me you at least put your number on this note.”
“I can’t. Because I didn’t.” She opens her mouth to yell at me but I stop her. “But, before you yell, it’s my choice. Everything was perfect and I don’t want to ruin all the memories with reality. It was just this one perfect night that I’ll remember forever. No negativity surrounding it, no worries of if he’ll call or not, just perfection. Besides, I just got out of a long term relationship, and look how that ended.”
“Nope. I don’t accept that. What’s his name? I’m looking him up.”
“I don’t have that either. We didn’t exchange names. There wasn’t a lot of talking.” My cheeks blush at the memory.
She throws herself back into her couch. “Ugh! I’m disowning you. Seriously. You’re such a romantic. You should be riding that dick until it doesn’t ride anymore, not saving it for memories . Maybe we can get the guest list from last night. At least the VIP sections.”
She’s rattling off her plans and I’m letting her. There is no way TRNDZ is going to give her personal information of the patrons in the VIP areas. Or any area. They’re known for their anonymity. Hence being invite-only.
After five minutes she’s still rambling and searching social media. “Ok well, while you stalk my date we have no information on, I’m going to go home and sleep.”
She glares at me from across the couch. “You seriously don’t want to find this guy?”
“No. I really don’t. If I do, I know where he lives.”
She throws her hands in the air. “Fine. Go to sleep. But don’t forget family dinner tonight.”
Every Sunday we get together with our parents and have family dinner. Tonight though, our dads are golfing, so it’s just the girls.
“I won’t forget. I’ll shop this afternoon and be ready. Promise.”
She eyes me suspiciously. Probably wondering what happened to the Calliope that was rotting on a couch yesterday. But she’s gone. For good. No more being upset over a guy who couldn’t even give me an orgasm with a goddamn map guiding him step by step, when I now know there are men out there who can get me off in the booth at a bar without so much as standing up.
I squeeze her tight before leaving. “Love you big time.”
“Love you long time.”
When I walk into my apartment, Tabby is weaving through my legs, threatening to trip me on my way to the couch. She’s probably pissed at me for leaving her last night.
“You can’t blame me girl. If you saw him, you’d understand.” I toss the purple heels over into the corner of my living room.
Showering and leggings are priority number one before sleeping.
I promised Joy I would be ready. I’m not. Shocking but this is how I am. I’m not a person who is on time. I’m not a person who is prepared. Joy on the other hand, has never been late a day in her life.
Rushing around my kitchen, it looks like a tornado came through. There are deli meat and cheese packages all over my counter as I begin building the charcuterie board.
As I’m spinning around to grab the fruit from the refrigerator, my door opens and in walk the three women I’m waiting for.
“What happened in here?” Mom asks me, surveying the room.
“Oh you know, the usual. Running late and just being myself.” I shrug and continue to pull strawberries out of their plastic container .
Joy places the wine on the counter, and her mom, Catherine, puts down some fresh loaves of bread from our favorite bakery. Mom brought her spinach and artichoke dip to go in the sourdough that Catherine brought.
They get to work on making the dip bowl, while Joy helps me.
She grabs a knife from the drawer and slices up the strawberries I’ve placed on the counter.
“I found him,” she says proudly.
“Found who?” Catherine asks.
“Oh just a man that changed Calliope’s world last night.”
“Oh, my girl! I’m so happy for you! It’s about time you stopped moping around about that asshole, Thad! He never deserved you anyway.”
I can always count on my mom for support. “He didn’t change anything. And I told you I didn’t want to know who he was.” I add my final salami rose to the board.
“What do you mean? You don’t know who he is? How do you not know who a man is that has changed your world and made you smile again?” Catherine and Joy both raise an eyebrow at Mom. “Oh. I see. Well Joy, tell us, who is he?”
Joy looks to me for permission to tell them. “I told you I didn’t want to know! Please, keep it to yourself. ”
“Okay, okay, you heard her ladies. I can’t tell you. But the second she changes her mind I’m blasting it out in the group chat.” Joy grabs the wine glasses and follows over to the couch.
“Thank you.” I nod at Joy.
Catherine speaks first, looking at Joy and I. “But we still get the details of last night right? Because you’re young and vibrant, and we aren’t. Plus you went to TRNDZ! I want to know everything about it now that I know my girl helped design it!”
Joy goes off on a tangent telling them all about the design of the building. If there is one thing you can distract her with, it’s architecture.
It’s been such a nice night with my best friend and our moms. But now we’re all in the kitchen cleaning up for them to leave and I am ready for bed. The nap this morning didn’t do much to help me.
“What’s this? You girls are going to a Havoc’s game?” Mom spies the tickets on the side of my refrigerator that I totally forgot about.
I had bought them for Thad for his birthday. The Havocs are playing their biggest rival, the San Francisco Ice Men.
I freeze when she asks the question. How could I have forgotten about the game? I saved forever to afford those seats, the lower bowl, and right at center ice. It was the only gift Thad was ever excited about. I’m honestly shocked he left them. But my guess is he forgot about them just as I did.
“Uh. I bought them for Thad’s birthday.”
“Oh.” Mom goes quiet.
“We’re definitely still going. And we’re going to make it on the jumbotron so Thad has to see you enjoying the game on his TV at home instead of at the game with his smokeshow of a girlfriend.” Joy stands in the kitchen with her hand on her hip.
No. He’ll be at home enjoying it with his new fiancée.
“I think that’s an excellent idea!” Mom claps her hands in excitement.
“Guys, that seems a little petty, no?” I put the last bit of the charcuterie board away.
“Petty? To use tickets to the hottest hockey game of the season, that you paid for, by the way? No. Not petty.” She purses her lips together. “Besides, those men are H.O.T. hot and I’m not passing up a night of watching them get sweaty.”
“Aren’t they in like, a shit ton of gear?”
“Have you seen the warm ups? It doesn’t matter. Besides, it’s well known they all go over to The Penalty Shot after the games. Who says we can’t find one with less clothing?” Joy waggles her eyebrows.
“Okay ladies, I think this is our cue to leave.” Catherine giggles as she and Mom grab their bags.
Once they’re gone, Joy slides herself up on top of the counter in my kitchen as I continue cleaning .
“Were you really even thinking of not going to the game?”
“I honestly forgot about the tickets and hadn’t even given it a second thought. I figured Thad would have taken them when they were here to move all his stuff out. But he must have missed them so I guess they belong to us now.” I smirk at her, because I rarely agree so quickly. “Except you are going to help me dress. And I think another shopping trip is needed. We have a little over a month to get me ready to look hotter than I’ve ever looked on that jumbotron.”
“Yes! Oh my God! I’m so friggin'’ excited! We’re going to book appointments at the dry bar too. And nails, red ones, because we all know what that means.” She waggles her eyebrows at me.
I don’t know what that means, but I can guess from her insinuations, and the fact that she has a one track mind to sex all the time.
“I’m here to be your doll. Do whatever you must.”
She jumps off the counter and grabs a notepad and pen, furiously writing a list of things we need to book and shop for.
“You won’t regret this, C! This is going to be so amazing. I hope he chokes when he sees you on TV.”
“We don’t know that I’ll be on TV.” I roll my eyes at her enthusiasm .
“Oh I have a plan.” A mischievous grin spreads, and I know this is going to end in trouble with a capital T.
And I can only blame myself for letting her take the reins.