Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
Lorelei
When I arrived home, the first thing on my mind was taking a hot, relaxing bath. My mom and Nick wouldn’t be bringing Hope home for a few more hours, so I had a little time to myself. Walking into the bathroom, I started the water and poured some vanilla-scented bubble bath under the stream. Twisting my hair up, I looked at myself in the mirror. Who did I see staring back at me? A stupid woman full of regret. Before climbing into the tub, my phone rang, and it was Stella.
“Hello.”
“I’ve been waiting all morning with my phone glued to my hand for your call telling me all about last night.”
“I’m sorry. It’s been a crazy morning. I’m just getting into the tub. Come over. I need to talk to you.”
“Are you okay?”
“I don’t know. I slept with Jack.”
“Oh shit! I’m on my way!”
I climbed into the bubbly water and sank down until it reached the top of my neck. It wasn’t long before Stella came over, running into the bathroom and out of breath.
“What did you do? Run here?” I asked.
“Pretty much,” she spoke breathlessly. Setting her purse down on the bathroom counter, she pulled up my stool in the bathroom and sat down next to the tub.
“Tell me everything. I want every last fucking juicy detail.”
I sighed. “One minute, we were at the bar talking, and the next, we were in a private room kissing. Then we returned to his place and had some seriously mind-blowing sex.”
“Eeek! How big was he? Was he extra-large worthy?” She grinned.
“Yes. He is extremely blessed in the goods department. I was really nervous that it wasn’t going to fit.”
She waved her hand in front of her face. “Oh, please. You popped out a kid. Speaking of which, did you tell him about Hope?”
“No. I couldn’t.”
There was a knock on the door, and Stella looked at me. “Are you expecting anyone?”
“No. My mom won’t be bringing Hope home for a few more hours.”
“I’ll go see who it is, and when I get back, I want to hear more about this amazing night.”
She got up from the stool and left the bathroom. Grabbing the loofah from the shelf, I soaked it in the bubbly water and ran it across my arm.
“Look what you got!” She smiled as she walked into the bathroom, holding a beautiful arrangement of red and white roses.
“Who are those from?”
“Hmm. I wonder.” She smiled. “Here’s the card.”
“You open it. My hands are wet.”
You’d think I had just given her a gift by her giddy reaction.
“Lorelei, I’m sorry for what I said. I hope you can forgive me. I don’t want things to be tense between us in the office on Monday. Jack. What the hell did he say? Oh my God, did you leave angry? Did you two have a fight? You just had sex. How could you have a fight?”
Taking in a deep breath, I told her to calm down.
“I told him about Brett and how I hadn’t had sex in seven years.”
“Oy. Why did you tell him about the not having sex part?” She looked at me as she crossed her eyes. She knew I hated when she did that.
“First of all, stop doing that, and second of all, I just told him. He proceeded to tell me how ridiculous that was. So I asked him if he’d ever been in love, and he said no, which I’m not surprised about because I don’t think the man is capable of love. He even admitted he was a little insensitive. I just told him that when he does fall in love with someone in his lifetime, to get back to me about how he would feel if something were to happen to that person. Then I left.”
“Damn. What an asshole. But he did send you flowers and apologized.” She scrunched her face.
“Only because he doesn’t want things to be tense at the office on Monday. He said so himself.”
“True. But he could have just sent you a text message saying that. He took the extra step and sent flowers, and you know his PA didn’t do it for him.” She smiled. “He did it himself.”
“Why are you defending him?”
“I’m not. He’s a total douchebag. You had sex. First time in seven years, may I add, and you said it was mind-blowing. Take it for what it is and move on.”
“Easy for you to say. You don’t have to sit and look at him all day.”
Stella sighed.
“I’ll meet you out there in a minute. I’m going to get out of the tub before I turn into a prune. Can you pour us a glass of wine and get those flowers out of here?”
“Of course.” She placed her hand in the water and flicked a bubble at me.
Jack
She should have received the flowers by now. Why wasn’t she calling me? I threw my phone across my desk. It rang. I grabbed it. It was Garrett.
“What?” I answered.
“Were you expecting someone else?” he asked.
“Sorry, man. What’s up?”
“I’m on my way over to your place with a pizza. We’re going to sit down and talk about why you needed to send Lorelei flowers.”
“Garrett, now isn’t a good time.”
“Sorry. What did you say? I can’t hear you. It seems like we have a bad connection.”
Shaking my head, I set my phone down and sank back into my chair. He was going to kill me. It wasn’t too long after he hung up on me that I heard the elevator doors open. I stepped into the foyer only to catch Garrett glaring at me as he took the pizza to the kitchen.
“I’m going to assume that the flowers you sent Lorelei were a nice gesture for a job well done.” He reached into the cabinet and pulled out two plates.
Reaching into the refrigerator, I took out two bottles of beer and set them on the table.
“A job well done indeed, my friend. But no, they were apology flowers.”
“What the hell did you do now, Jack?”
We took the pizza over to the table and sat down. “I was insensitive and said something I probably shouldn’t have.”
“Doesn’t surprise me. But anyway, go on. What did you say?”
“She told me this morning that she hadn’t had sex in seven years since her boyfriend was killed in a car crash. I might have said that it was ridiculous to go that long without sex.”
Garrett shook his head. “Wait a minute. You said that to her this morning?”
“Yeah.” I bit into my pizza.
“And what was she doing here this morning?”
I shrugged.
“For fuck’s sake, Jack! You had sex with her?”
“Yeah. Then I said that, and she left here all pissed off.”
He set down his pizza and placed his hand on his forehead. “For the love of God. Why can’t you keep your dick in your pants? Just once, Jack. This one time was all I asked.”
“Because I wanted her, and she wanted me. It was completely mutual.”
“You, my friend, have crossed the line. She’s your assistant. You’re her boss.”
“So what? I like Lorelei. I sent her flowers and told her I was sorry.”
“Did she call you?”
“No.”
“Great. I better start placing an ad first thing Monday morning.”
“Stop jumping to conclusions. She’s not going anywhere. And why didn’t you tell me she lived in Harlem? My God, the area she’s in, isn’t safe.”
“It’s not my place to tell you.” He narrowed his eye at me. “Did she tell you anything else?”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. I was just wondering if she told you more about her boyfriend.”
“She just said that she loved him. He was her best friend, and she couldn’t see herself with anyone else.”
“That’s terrible that she suffered such a loss. So, you’re the first man she’s had sex with since him, and you go and open your dumb-ass, rude, insensitive mouth.”
“Yeah. Pretty much. I told her I didn’t want things awkward between us on Monday.”
“You slept with her, so it’s a little too late for that.” He kicked back his beer.