Chapter 10
10
OPHELIA
I hate Wednesdays.
They’re not the start of a new week, but they’re not yet Friday either. The only plus to them is they’re a great excuse to have a glass of wine at the end of the day which is exactly what I plan to do as soon as I get home. The bottle of pinot I special ordered is calling my name. Kind of like Dale is right now on the other side of my desk.
“So the design team is working on next month’s launch campaign for the skincare brand and the copywriters are on track to launch the web campaign for the concert series happening next summer. We did get a lead on a major client based out of New York who wants to work with us for the New Year’s Eve campaign they’re launching in Times Square. I forwarded you that email this morning.”
We’re having our mid-morning check-in like we do every day. He’s sitting with one leg crossed over the other and is swiping through an iPad with an Apple pencil, rambling off the notes he’d taken before our meeting started. Looking smart, he is wearing a green pinstripe suit with a bright fuschia shirt and matching bowtie to finish the look. With his legs crossed, you can see his pink argyle socks poking out from under his brown loafers that compliment the soft pink frames that sit on the bridge of his nose. As they say, on Wednesdays we wear pink.
“I did see that earlier, thank you for passing that on. How are we doing with our long-term clients?”
“I checked in on them yesterday and they’re all happy as can be with the work we’re doing for them. Everyone has high praise for Miss Ophelia Sommers and the team she leads.” He gives me an encouraging smile and tips his head back to his tablet to keep reading. “Now, there is the issue of the graphic design team falling behind with their?—”
“Hold on, Bailey’s calling me,” I cut him off. Feeling my phone buzzing in my blazer pocket, I pull it out to find her name rolling across the top of the screen. A picture of the two of us from her wedding makes me smile before I swipe my thumb across my screen to answer.
“Well if it isn’t my beautiful best friend calling me in the middle of the day, to what do I owe the pleasure?” Dale rolls his eyes at me with a grin as I answer the phone. He knows that Bailey is like the sister I always wanted but never got and that we came as a package deal.
“Hi, Ophie,” her cheerful voice rings out on the other end of the phone and I feel my cheeks start to press into my eyes. Bailey has always been a happy-go-lucky person but ever since meeting Hank it’s like she has the entire sun shoved up her ass. She radiates joy and energy, and I couldn’t be happier for her. “What are you doing for Halloween?”
My eyes glance to the calendar sitting on the corner of my desk and I realize Halloween is next weekend. “Uhh, probably nothing. I might go out, I might stay in. I haven’t decided yet.” Halloween is one of those take it or leave it holidays for me. I could be down for a good time but it isn’t something I look forward to every year.
“Okay, well, now you do because you’re going out with me and the group. There’s a charity thing at Butcher and Block and we’re all dressing up and going. It’ll be so much fun, you have to come too.” Her words are coming out hurried and if I’m not mistaken, her Southern drawl slips out with a few of her vowels like it does when she gets riled up.
“Butcher and Block?” I question, my brows getting closer together on my face as I say it. “As in, the Butcher and Block Malcolm works at?” I hadn’t been back to the bar since the night I met Jason there. I’d seen a few men since but whenever they suggested we go there for drinks, I kindly asked to go somewhere else. I didn’t want to give Malcom any other opportunity to sabotage my dates.
There is a long pause on the other end of the line before she speaks again. “Yes?” Her voice pitches up and I roll my eyes, knowing exactly what my best friend is trying to do.
“Bailey Brown, are you trying to set me up with your husband’s best friend?”
“I don’t have to set you up with him when you’ve already slept with him,” she exclaims on the other end before I hear her start to laugh.
“Exactly, I’ve slept with him. One and done, that’s the rule. Remember?”
“Oh I hate your stupid rules. But whatever, just tell me you’ll come out with me, please ? I’ll come over and get ready with you. And if it’s okay, I’ll bring Magnolia with me. Poor girl is struggling right now and I think she could use the girl time.”
I sigh heavily before relenting. “Fine, I’ll come. And I would love nothing more than for her to come over. I want to get to know her more since she’s now part of the little boys’ club you’ve started.”
“You could be part of that club, too, ya know? Remember how Malcolm asked about you? I think there’s something there.”
“Bailey, darling, there’s nothing there other than one night of fun. He and I are the same and prefer it that way—one and done. No feelings, nothing more.” I try to wrap this up as Dale is now sitting in his chair tapping his watch with one finger. “You and Magnolia come over around seven and we will get ready together. Sound good?”
“Yay! You’re the best Ophie. We will be there!”
“I know I am, have fun at boys’ club tonight,” I quip, knowing she’s going to be with Hank and his friends for their weekly game night. She’s been going for over a year now without fail.
“You know I will. And you know what else I think?”
“What’s that?”
“I think one day soon you’ll be coming to weekly game nights too.” There’s an air to her voice that sends a shiver down my spine. I could say things with Malcolm were one and done all I want but the truth is he’s been seeping into my mind far more than my other one night flings. The way his eyes felt on my body as I sat across from Jason. How the image of his strong arms flashed across my eyes as I played with myself. The sound of his voice as he promised me he’d be the best I ever had. None of my other one night stands had that kind of impact on me before, but he did.
“Don’t be silly, darling, you know that’s not how I roll,” I say into the phone before hanging up and throwing myself back into work.
* * *
I’m sitting at the vanity in my bedroom getting ready when I hear the front door being unlocked followed by the sound of my best friend walking in.
“Honey, I’m home!” she calls out as she enters what used to be our condo. She tried giving me back her key once she had moved out but I refused. This space is just as much hers as it is mine even if she doesn’t live here anymore.
“I’m in here,” I call back, swiping a fluffy makeup brush over my cheek. My makeup is half done and I still need to slip into my costume. Looking at the clock, we have about an hour before we need to leave to head to the bar.
“I brought friends.” Hearing Bailey’s voice in my doorway gets me to turn around on the stool I’m perched on and I find not one but two other girls standing behind her. One is Magnolia who I’ve met in passing before and heard about from Bailey. The other girl is new to me.
“Hey, Ophelia, this is my friend, Margaret. I hope it’s okay that she tags along.” Magnolia waves a hand towards her friend who is just as small as she is but has ashy blonde hair. If you didn’t know any better, you would think they were sisters.
“Not at all, the more the merrier.” I smile at everyone and stand from my stool before following them out to the living room that’s just off the kitchen.
“Wine, anyone?” I offer, pulling a bottle of white out of the fridge.
“Me, please,” Bailey answers with a grin. Magnolia and Marget both nod and I pour us all a glass. “What are you dressing up as, Ophie?”
I smile at the nickname and look up at her through freshly mascara-coated lashes and a sly expression. “Catwoman.”
“Ohhh, sexy. I love it. Very you.” She takes a sip of her wine and sets it down on the counter. “Hank and I are going as Danny and Sandy from Grease . He looks so cute, I helped him get ready before coming here. Didn’t really wanna leave once he slipped on the leather jacket, if you know what I mean.” She giggles before taking another sip of her wine. Magnolia and Margaret laugh too.
“Kolbi took very little convincing to dress up tonight but I think he also feels bad for me so he’s willing to do anything to make me happy,” Magnolia confesses with a half smile. Margaret, who is clearly her best friend, leans over and rests her head on her shoulder.
“You okay, sweetie?” Bailey asks, standing next to me on one side of the bar. She and I are facing Margaret and Magnolia who are perched on the stools on the opposite side of the counter.
“Yeah, it’s just hard, you know? My parents, for all their faults, are still my parents and I still love them. I just wish things hadn’t ended like they did.”
“Maybe they’ll come around. It’s still so fresh, you know?” Bailey, always the optimist, tries.
“Yeah, maybe. Probably not though. You don’t know them like I do. When they make up their minds, they commit and I don’t think there’s any talking them out of this one.”
I’d heard how Magnolia’s parents had cut her off after choosing to love Hank’s best friend, Kolbi, over some man they expected her to marry. After Bailey told me about how they cut her off and sold her condo out from under her, I had nothing but respect for her for sticking to her guns. She has a bigger pair of balls than a majority of the men I’d taken home with me over the years. But from the way her face pauses and she blinks hard, I can tell she’s trying not to cry. Hoping to lighten the mood, I clink my glass with hers.
“To new beginnings and fresh starts. And to looking hot as fuck on Halloween and making silly men fall at our feet.”
“Now that’s something I can get behind,” Margaret agrees and we all laugh.
Over the next hour, we all change and put together our costumes. Bailey slips into her leather pants and bodysuit while Magnolia changes into an all black outfit crafted by leather pants, a leather jacket, and pair of heeled Louboutin boots that I would seriously consider celibacy to own. Her and Kolbi are going as Mr. and Mrs. Smith, hence the all black ensemble. Margaret slips into a white bodysuit and skirt, pairing her outfit with a sailors’ hat before tying a navy blue scarf around her neck.
“I’m manifesting my own man in uniform.” She winks and Bailey’s joyful laugh fills the condo like it has so many times before.
As we’re walking out, I grab a small, black leather purse from my closet and start to put my essentials in it.
“What the heck can you even carry in that thing, Ophie? It’s so small.” Bailey slips into a pair of red heels to complete her outfit from the couch and has her eyes casted towards where I am in my bedroom. I toss the last remaining things into the bag and place it in the crook of my arm before meeting the group in the living room.
“It might be small but it carries everything a lady needs,” I explain, talking into the bag as I do. “A tampon, because you never know. A travel sized deodorant, because no one wants to stink. Some cash and a credit card. My keys and lipstick. And, of course, a condom.” I pull out the contraception and hold it out for everyone to see and I have to hold myself back from bursting into a fit of laughter. Magnolia and Margaret look horrified while Bailey doesn’t look surprised in the least.
“You just carry condoms around with you?” Margaret asks in a whisper as if God himself will hear us talking about premarital sex.
“Of course I do. The last thing you wanna carry home from a good time is an STD or worse, the seed of a man you hardly know. I always like to make sure I have my own form of protection just in case he’s an idiot and isn’t prepared.” I wink at my two new friends as Bailey shakes her head at me.
“She’s not a slut, she just likes to have a good time,” she says with a half laugh, coming to my defense even though I don’t need it.
“Oh no, I totally am,” I corrected my friend proudly. “Just not in the archaic, misogynistic way. I like to have fun, sex is one of my favorite past times, and I’ve been with more men than most. So yes, I am a slut. But a modern day slut who isn’t going to let some four letter word shame me for who I am and what I enjoy.” I don’t care if people know I like to have sex. Men can openly talk about their sex lives so why can’t women?
“No, I wasn’t thinking that at all.” Margaret waves a hand in front of herself as if to dispel any assumptions. “I was actually thinking about how badass it is to be so forthcoming. I wish I could be like that.”
I loop my arm into hers and give her a sultry smile. “Stick with me, darling, and I’ll happily show you my ways.” Margaret almost looks afraid but she doesn’t tell me no.
“Alright, are we ready? Kolbi is texting me that the guys are there and wondering where we are.” Magnolia looks up from her phone and we all glance at one another to check to see if we’re all good to leave.
“Let’s go make some men drool over how hot we look, shall we?” I tease and everyone smiles.
As we all walk down the hallway of my building, arms linked, I feel an immense sense of gratitude for the growing group of girls I call my friends.