Chapter 27
27
As I was getting ready, there was a knock on my hotel room door and when I opened it up, Liv and Tessa were there asking if I wanted to hang out. I had pulled on my favourite short, black dress and was holding my hair as I wanted to put it up. ‘Um, well…’ I hedged as they stared at me.
‘Why do you look like you’re dressed up for a date?’ Liv demanded.
I looked down the corridor, relieved it was empty. I certainly didn’t want to become the gossip of the conference. ‘Come in you two,’ I said, stepping aside. They walked in and I shut the door, resuming my seat on the bed in front of the mirror on the wall. Liv flopped down on the other side of the bed, curling her legs up to watch me while Tessa sat down in the chair by the window. I piled my hair up on top of my head and reached for my pot of bobby pins. ‘I suppose it is kind of a date,’ I admitted, avoiding their eyes in the mirror as I carried on doing my hair.
‘God, how did you find a date in this conference? It’s 99 per cent women,’ Tessa joked.
‘You don’t mean…’ Liv said. ‘Freya, are you going out with Jake?’
‘Jake Richards?’ Tessa repeated, looking from Liv back to me. ‘I did not see that coming!’
‘I did,’ Liv said to Tessa. ‘But I hoped I was wrong when I sensed some… chemistry. The way he was looking at Davis Mulberry trying to chat Freya up at the panel earlier, we almost had to break up a fight between them.’
‘I am here guys, just FYI,’ I said, shaking my head.
‘Oh, we know,’ Liv said, turning back to me.
‘We’re just going out for dinner,’ I said, hoping that didn’t count as a lie exactly. I was merely failing to mention our earlier afternoon delight even though I kept getting delicious flashbacks of it.
‘Seriously, Freya, what will Hayley say if she finds out? I thought you were focused on your career,’ Liv continued. ‘You shouldn’t date Hayley’s client when you want her to promote you to become an agent yourself! Especially not at a conference where everyone in publishing could find out and gossip about it! And he’s so much older…’
I spun around. ‘Your boyfriend is older than you!’ I reminded Liv.
She shrugged. ‘Not ten years older. Plus, Jake is like a grown-up.’
‘And I’m not?’ I demanded. Then I sighed. ‘Actually, don’t answer that. I never feel like one, to be honest.’
‘Nor do I,’ Tessa said with sympathy. ‘I don’t think anyone will find out; they are working closely together here, right? And you both have to eat…’
‘Exactly,’ I said, nodding as I turned back to carry on with my hair. ‘It’s just dinner, Liv, don’t worry.’
‘I can’t help it. I know how much you want to be an agent one day; I don’t want this to mess that up. I hope Jake isn’t taking advantage of you. Didn’t Davis Mulberry say he likes to pretend to women he’s romantic like his books, but just uses them for sex then dumps them?’
‘Freya won’t let him do that,’ Tessa said. ‘They’re just going out tonight; it doesn’t have to lead to anything.’
I swallowed hard. ‘We can’t trust anything Davis Mulberry says,’ I mumbled.
‘I know you fancy him; I can see the lust in your eyes but…’ Liv began. Then she leaned a little bit closer. ‘You look flushed. You’re not telling us something, I can tell.’
‘God, are you a detective now?’ I snapped as I slid pins into my hair, wishing that I didn’t have a family member on this trip; Liv knew me far too well.
‘Freya,’ Liv said, giving me a look that told me to cut the BS.
I sighed. ‘Fine, fine. We have slept together,’ I admitted, turning from the mirror now my hair was finished, bracing myself for their disapproval.
There was a moment of shocked silence.
‘How was it?’ Liv and Tessa asked in unison.
I couldn’t help but smile. ‘Bloody brilliant, if I’m honest. What am I going to do?’
‘It depends if this is just a New York thing,’ Tessa said slowly. ‘If it was, would you be okay with that? I don’t want to see you getting hurt.’
Her question echoed my own thoughts and I had no idea how to answer her so I deflected. ‘Your relationship started on holiday, didn’t it?’ I asked, suddenly remembering that Tessa met her boyfriend in Paris when they inadvertently ended up having to share an Airbnb together. Liv told me all about it because it sounded like a plot of romance novel.
‘It did,’ Tessa said with a shy but happy smile.
‘But they didn’t work together,’ Liv pointed out. ‘What happened to you not wanting to date men as they weren’t romantic and just wanted sex? I thought you were looking for more than just a fling.’
‘This could be more than a fling,’ Tessa suggested.
I sighed. ‘I don’t know. I got swept up in it all maybe. But he’s so…’ I trailed off, finding it hard to explain. ‘I suddenly am so attracted to him. God. I don’t know what happened. One minute, we seemed like the least likely pairing ever to being unable to keep our hands off each other.’
‘Freya, you don’t do flings or holiday romances. You don’t want casual sex. You want to fall in love. Just like us,’ Liv said, gesturing to her and Tessa.
‘No need to rub your fairytale romances in my face,’ I grumbled.
‘I’m just worried that you’ve thrown what you are looking for out of the window because this is Jake Richards.’
Liv and I stared at one another. We never fought but I could feel her concern along with a hint of disapproval. She was right, though. I had been waiting for real romance – was I hoping that sleeping with a romance author would make that happen? Jake had shown me the sights of New York and promised me a New York moment, but no more than that. I had slept with him anyway. After three years of not being with a man. The attraction, the desire had been too strong, being away with him had made it seem like not a big deal. But maybe I was just fooling myself about that. Maybe I was setting myself up to get hurt.
I slumped on the bed. ‘I got carried away maybe,’ I admitted.
‘It’s happened to all of us,’ Tessa said. ‘Just because it’s moved quickly, and you’re away, doesn’t mean it can’t turn into something more once you get back home, right?’
Her sentence hung in the room like a crescent moon that we looked up at in silence.
After a few seconds, it seemed like none of us wanted to answer her question.
‘He’s taking me out so we can have a New York moment,’ I said then. I gestured to myself. ‘Hence getting glammed up. Dinner and drinks somewhere.’
‘Sounds romantic,’ Liv said. ‘And you look gorgeous. He will be lucky to have you on his arm. Just be careful. Don’t let anyone from the conference see anything they shouldn’t. Think of yourself, Freya. And don’t give that good heart of yours away to anyone who doesn’t deserve it.’
‘God, Liv.’ I reached up to touch the corner of my eye to stop a tear from destroying the perfect winged eyeliner I had just applied. ‘You are going to ruin my make-up. I won’t settle for anything less than the kind of romance we read, and you two write about, I promise.’
She nodded. ‘Good girl.’
I choked a little bit, trying not to laugh.
‘Are you okay?’ Tessa asked, frowning at me as I tried to compose myself. But after Jake calling me that in bed, I wasn’t sure I could hear those two words outside of the bedroom with a straight face again.
I nodded as I sucked in oxygen and forced ‘good girl’ out of my mind. ‘Sure. I’ll take your advice on board, guys. I am just going to have fun tonight. I’ll be okay, I promise.’
I got up to go into the bathroom to spritz on some perfume but in the mirror, I caught Liv and Tessa exchange a worried look behind me.