Reeling in Love (Boston Romance #3)

Chapter 1

Nora: #WomenAreFromVenus

S itting in my tiny cabin, I ponder over the eternal question—are men and women different? I don’t mean anatomically. Duh! But in their thought process, their way of communication, their very essence. Some might say we’re as distinct as day and night, or perhaps more accurately, as different as Venus and Mars.

If I think more deeply about it, I can see some truth to that. Venus is quite the fierce mistress. It has an atmospheric pressure that’s ninety-two times of Earth. It has scorching temperatures, and it rains sulphuric acid on the planet. Talk about crushing hardships! So yeah, given this scenario, perhaps we could say we women have what it takes. Unfortunately, that’s not the scenario the statement usually refers to.

It’s so annoying when people think a woman’s statement has a different meaning than if a man said it. That somehow their thought process is different. Say, for example, if I invite a colleague over for ‘a coffee at my place’ after work, he’ll interpret it quite differently than if, say, Ryan invited him over.

And my boyfriend, Rick, takes this thinking to a whole new level. He seems to think that if I politely decline something with a smile, I’m secretly saying ‘yes.’ It’s like he’s reading a different playbook altogether! Jesus! I’ve told him a hundred times that it’s my default expression. It always looks as if I’m smiling. But the dude doesn’t get it.

“Men are from Mars and women are from Venus. We’re different, Sugar. And that’s what’s fun,” he says every time, as if it’s the gospel truth.

Guess what! If he says it even one more time, it’s not going to be fun. Not for him, anyway. It might be for me, though. I chuckle at the thought of banging his head against the wall in a ferocious warrior-from-Venus style.

“Hey,” Eva says, peeping inside my room, almost making me jump at her sudden appearance. “What’s with these feminist and anti-male posts that you’ve been doling out since morning? And why are you in a digital-world fight with that what’s-his-name?”

Eva came to MooreGames as a consultant, but is now a core part of our company. Of course, her being the founder, Ryan Moore’s wife, helps. But she’s great at her work and has become a good friend.

I place my phone on the table. “His name is TruthSeekerBob. And I’m not fighting with him or anything.”

“It sure looks like that given the way you two have been commenting on each other’s posts and comments.”

“Since when have you started being so active on social media? Don’t you have anything better to do? Like eating healthy stuff for the baby you’re about to have?”

She chuckles. “It’s a slippery slope, these websites. I had to find out a little information about someone and before I knew it, an hour had passed and I hadn’t even searched for that person yet. As for eating healthy, Ryan takes care of that. If this is how he pampers me, I think I might decide to have many many more babies, simply for the pampering. But honestly, keeping that food down is a bigger challenge. Morning sickness is real, girl. Doc says it’ll go down after the first trimester. But coming back to you, what really happened?”

“Nothing. Just Rick. I’m not myself today. And when I saw TruthSeekerBob’s post on Men Are From Mars and Women Are From Venus, it reminded me even more of Rick and I took it all out on him. My bad.”

I move the small camera and mic that I usually use to record reels and other videos to the side of my table as she takes a seat opposite me. “Yeah, your comments on his post are more popular than his original post. No wonder he’s upset. But about Rick. What happened? How was last night?” She winks for good measure, as if her tone wasn’t enough to convey what she wants to ask.

Last night was Rick’s birthday, and it was supposed to be a romantic evening for the two of us. That’s all he needed as his birthday present, so I planned a romantic candlelight dinner at home. Eva and Lily had helped me decorate the apartment with flowers and aromatic candles. To be honest, I felt it was a bit much. I don’t think Rick even noticed it.

“It was fine.”

“And how was the... y’know,” she wiggles her eyebrows.

“Sex? Why do you feel awkward saying it out loud?”

“The baby, Nora! They can hear in the womb, for Christ’s sake.”

I roll my eyes. “The baby’s the size of a pea, if even that. It probably doesn’t even have ears right now. But the s-e-x was fine, I guess.”

“Oh no. Just fine?” She says, checking that the door is closed and leaning forward a little.

“It just wasn’t good. That’s all.”

“He couldn’t get it up?”

“Nooo… and what the hell? Aren’t you the one who doesn’t even like to say the word out loud in front of your baby? What kind of talk are you exposing her to?”

“So he couldn’t?”

“He could. He had a good time. At least, I think he did. It’s just that... y’know what? Forget I said anything.”

“Oh! So you couldn’t come? You had to fake it?”

I nod. She won’t leave till she has the details. “Well, we were doing…it, and things were heating up. Right then, he began saying, or rather chanting— are you close? Are you close? I swear, it was so irritating, such a turnoff. Yeah, I’m close to like getting 50k followers. I’m close to getting a promotion. But in bed? What does it even mean? Whispering things like that non-stop? Non-f*cking-stop.”

“Um. Yeah. That’s a turnoff for sure.”

“And he never goes down on me. Like ever.”

“You don’t say! That’s like so amazing. I mean, when Ryan… um, well, nothing.” She blushes a little, and it’s so sweet that she still blushes when she talks about her and Ryan. “But you’re missing out, girl. I always thought you’re with him because of the ... y’know...”

She covers her tummy with her hands and whispers, “S-e-x.”

Then continues in her normal tone. “But if that too ain’t good, what’s tying you to him? You don’t share interests, friends, food habits, nothing. So I’m wondering yet again, why’re you with him?”

“Me too, Eva. Me too. I think it’s his apartment. It’s really cozy and beautiful and so close to the office.”

Eva chuckles. “You know how silly that sounds, right?”

“On top of that, he hinted he might propose. I told him I’m not keen, but you know how he is.”

Eva takes my hand in hers and creases her forehead like Rick usually does. “I know you want this, Sugar. You don’t really mean what you’re saying. When a girl says ‘no’, it means ‘yes’.”

I can’t help smiling at Eva’s impression of Rick. She does a good one, complete with his Texan accent.

“I think if he calls me Sugar one more time, I might get diabetes. Anyway, so now I’ll live in dread every time I’m near him ‘coz I don’t know when he’ll pop the question. Hashtag awkward.”

“Let me know if you need my help to make him understand. I think the hormones are making me a little short tempered. I’d be happy to blow off some steam on him.”

I smile. Eva is the worst in confrontation. She’s getting better at it, but still. I take a sip of the coffee that’s almost gone cold by now.

“Thanks. I’ll manage. You want some coffee?” I ask her.

She shakes her head. "Only water and juice for me, as per Ryan’s instructions.”

I smile. Ryan takes real good care of her and it’s always great to see them together. It even reduces my contempt of the married world.

“Great then. So, did you come over as my boss to tone down my posts? Or is there something else?”

“I don’t care much about the posts. They’re getting so much traction, it’s good. I need help with my educational product. We’re still seen as a gaming and fun company and no one thinks we can be serious. You got anything planned for our branding yet?”

Eva is heading a new division in the company. It’s for education through games and I’m helping her with branding the products.

“There are a few things I’ve thought of. As far as branding goes, I don’t like the existing product logo. It needs to be focussed on your product and not MooreGames if we want to show it as different from the company. We can keep the same brand colors with ‘MooreGames’ in a tiny font below it to show the technical connection. But focus should be on the product. See, something like this.”

I turn my screen toward her and show her the new logo I’ve been working on. She studies it for a bit.

“Um. This is good. We can work with this.”

“I’ve also connected with a few educationists in the US, UK, Singapore, and India. We will send them the beta version of the product, have a one-on-one discussion with them, and take their reaction and feedback. Hopefully, it’ll be good, and then we can use that to market it to schools. I’m also talking to a few senior educationists and scientists to be a part of our advisory board. I should have something for you in a couple of weeks.”

The smile on Eva’s face says it all. She’s passionate about what she’s doing and after seeing the products that her team has worked on, I honestly think that children will have fun learning basic concepts. I mean, she’s even made math fun!

“You’re the best, Nora. Have I told you that?”

“Not nearly enough,” I reply, smiling.

“You should ask for a raise. We don’t pay you enough. And don’t tell Ryan, I put you up to it. But without your social media marketing skills and contacts with industry stalwarts and influencers, we wouldn’t be growing nearly half as fast.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Though Ryan said the exact same thing last week when they launched their new game and so many YouTubers raved about it.”

MooreGames was founded by Ryan Moore. It’s a gaming company, and I joined here soon after grad-school as part of their social media team. Well, ‘team’, may not be the right word. I was a one-woman army. It was a tiny establishment then, and I had taken up the role because my childhood friend, Gabriel, the CFO of MooreGames and Ryan’s friend, put me on to it. It was supposed to be a stop-gap arrangement for me to get some experience before I moved to something bigger. But I loved it here. I still do. And things have only become better after Eva joined.

I enjoy my work and have full freedom as far as social media marketing goes. Isn’t it great that being on social media and posting your thoughts is part of your job description? I’m in touch with so many influencers. I love posting on my personal page as well, though sometimes lines blur, like today, where I ended up posting #ProudFeminist and #WomenAreFromVenus posts on the company page as well.

Eva walks to the door. “You wanna come for drinks tonight? Lily and me. Drinks for you at least, just water or juice for me.”

“Um. Let me see if Rick has planned anything. Raincheck?”

“Sure,” Eva says and leaves.

Has Rick planned anything? To be honest, I’m beyond caring now. Truth is, I’ve started feeling more and more uncomfortable and out of place when both Eva and Lily are together. Hey, don’t get me wrong. I love them both.

Lily is Eva’s childhood friend. During the time she was opening her dance studio, I helped her out a bit, and we became good friends. On top of that, she’s now engaged to Eva’s brother, Alex. And that’s the rub. Since they’ve both gotten into these deep relationships, things have been a little different. Let’s just say, they are at a place in life where I never wanna be. Eva’s going to have a baby and Lily and Alex plan to get married next year.

Love! Soulmates! Gah! I could vomit.

It’s all nonsense spewed by the entertainment industry to get people to read and watch and buy stuff that they otherwise wouldn’t. It’s not a real thing. I mean, do you know of any person who really makes you feel like a book boyfriend does? No, right? At least I don’t. Rick is the latest on my list of boyfriends. There’s no need to be scandalized. There haven’t been that many.

I like steady relationships, if they qualify my parameters. I should get complete freedom. We don’t have to spend our free time together. No jealousy if I spend time with my male friends, aka Gabs. And no clinginess. That’s a sure deal breaker. Has to be working and independent.

Rick checks all the boxes. In addition, he has an apartment that suits my needs perfectly. But lately, I’m noticing that, like all the ones who preceded him, he’s getting a wee bit possessive and a little clingy in the sense that he wants me to spend weekends with him. I mean, I can do a few hours, but I have a life. So I know it’s time to move on.