Chapter 7
Monica
I waited awhile to leave the office after watching Troy slip out the door without so much as a goodbye. Could I blame him, though? This whole thing was so awkward. I wondered if his afternoon meeting had been canceled, or if it had been made up to avoid me. I probably would have done the same thing. But we couldn’t avoid each other forever.
“How was your first day?” asked Kathy, striding up to my desk with her purse.
“It was good. Just settling in,” I replied, as I shuffled some paperwork on my desk mindlessly.
“What did you think of Troy?”
I felt a guard go up, like she had just asked me something extremely personal. I wondered if there were two sides to that question. Had she picked up on the tension between us? It wouldn’t be hard. It filled the room like a thick smoke.
“He was very professional,” I answered. “I can see why he has earned so much success.”
She snorted through her nose. The second time she had done that. She must really not like him. I gave her a curious look.
“Well, good luck,” she said, drumming her fingers on my desk.
“Thank you.”
I watched her turn and walk down the hallway toward the elevators. I breathed a little sigh of relief, knowing I was finally alone with my thoughts. Alone now, I opened my emails and scrolled through to make sure I hadn’t missed anything. It was all just onboarding that I had already completed. I leaned back in my chair and glanced toward Troy’s empty office across the hall.
It was like I could still feel his presence long after he had gone home. How could one night with him have such a hold on me? This morning, I had done everything to convince myself that it was just a one-night stand and it didn’t mean anything, even if it was a triumphant feat to leave him in that cloud of a bed this morning when all I wanted to do was stay. Clearly, I was not cut out for intimacy without the strings attached.
But I had sensed a tinge of disappointment in his voice when he brought up me leaving unannounced this morning. Or did I imagine that? He didn’t seem like the sort of man to care, especially with his reputation with his personal assistants. I wondered how many he had gone through. I was sure I could find out easily from Kathy, but I kind of didn’t want to know. I’d already had one too many unwarranted jealous thoughts this afternoon of people I had never met.
I put my head in my hands and ran my fingers through my hair frustratedly. I needed to talk to someone about this. I reached for my phone and scrolled to Heart’s contact to type out a quick text and hit send.
Me: SOS. Can we grab dinner?
Heart: Of course.
I smiled at my phone. No questions asked, she was there for me. That was why she was my best friend.
Me: The Tavern? In thirty?
Heart: See you then.
I slid my phone in my purse and stood from my desk. It was nearing 6 o’clock. It seemed like the rest of the office had emptied out, too. Knowing I would be back here tomorrow was a strange feeling. I hadn’t worked a 9-5 in so long and was used to a more fluid schedule where I could work where and when I wanted. It would just be something I had to get used to again.
Among other things.
Like seeing those green eyes again.
The cab ride to Queens took longer than expected because of the evening traffic, but I was relieved when I got to the restaurant to see I was the first one there. The hostess led me to a corner booth and I immediately ordered a glass of white wine. I took a sip and let the cool crispness run through me as I unwound from the day.
“You started without me?” asked Heart, standing with her hands on her hips.
I laughed and scooched over so she could sit down.
“Sorry I’m late,” she said. “Bridgette was practically clinging to my leg, but then Daniel put puppets on his hands and it was like I was invisible. I swear, she loves those puppets.”
I laughed at the thought of Daniel with puppets on his hands. He really was a good dad. He had completely stepped up and given my best friend and their baby a good life. I was so happy for her.
So was the rest of America when they read my book.
“I would pay to see that,” I said, taking another sip of wine.
Heart held her hand up and politely waved the server over.
“I’ll have one of those,” she said, pointing to my wine.
“And I’ll have another.”
I wasn’t even finished with my first.
When the server walked away, Heart eyed me curiously.
“What’s going on?” she asked. “First the SOS text and now the drowning in wine. Are we back in our twenties or did something happen?”
I groaned as I fiddled with the stem of my wine glass.
“Oh, my gosh, Monica. Is it the stalker?” she asked, sitting straighter and reaching for my hand.
“No, no.” I shook my head profusely. “Nothing to do with him.”
Heart breathed a sigh of relief. I knew she worried about me.
I honestly hadn’t heard from him or seen him in months, not since he got out of jail. I had asked the police for an update, but they said they couldn’t reveal any information due to confidentiality. It was frustrating, but I was able to put a restraining order in place. I had also moved since the break-in and had been trying to keep a low profile.
Queens wasn’t my first choice to live, but with the current market it was the only place I could find that fit my small budget. Heart and I used to live together in Brooklyn. I took over the remainder of her lease when Daniel asked her to move in together. I loved that little loft. There were so many memories there, especially with my goddaughter in her early days. It was a shame someone could come in and tear all those memories apart, tainting them with shades of fear.
I was just so thankful that she and Bridgette had moved out by the time everything had gotten so ugly. I would never forgive myself for being the cause of their personal safe space being invaded like that.
Since moving, I had kept a low profile. I hadn’t done any book signings or appearances. Not that anyone would really want to come after my last book.
“Then what is it?” she asked.
“Well, I started my new job today…”
Heart smacked her hand against her forehead. “Oh, my gosh. I’m the worst friend ever. How could I have forgotten? Bridgette has been teething and I swear she’s a gremlin. I don’t know up from down with the lack of sleep.”
“It’s okay. Seriously.” I gave her a reassuring smile before it was eaten up by a nervous one.
“Did you like it? How was your first day?”
I took a long sip of wine. “It was good. Just have to get used to a corporate job again.”
“You will. And you can still write in the evenings. This won’t be a forever thing if you don’t want it to be.”
“I met Troy,” I said, my voice jumping an octave.
“And? How did you like him? I’ve only met him a few times, but he seems really nice.”
“You’ve met him? You could have warned me that he was a Greek god.” I narrowed my eyes at her.
She laughed and took her wine glass from the server who had just brought it over.
“The thing is…I had already met him before,” I said coyly.
“Oh? I didn’t know that.” She took a sip of wine.
“Yeah, I kind of slept with him last night.”
Heart spit out her wine right onto the table as her eyes bulged out of her pretty face.
“What?!” she choked out.
I put my hands up to my face to hide the burning red that had taken over them and peeked out of the slits of my fingers at my best friend.
“Tell me everything ,” she demanded.
I slid my hands down my face and explained to her how I had met him last night at the bar after our dinner together. One thing led to another and then I was up at his penthouse. I had no idea who he was or that he would end up being my boss.
“ You asked him to leave with you? This is so unlike you. This is so exciting!” she said, clapping her hands.
“Will you stop that?” I said with a laugh, grabbing her hands and pulling them under the table. “There’s nothing exciting about it. Everything is so complicated now.”
“What did he do when he saw you?”
“I think he panicked. Just for a second. Then he went back to being cool as a cucumber.”
Heart nodded in agreement before a sly smirk crept over her face.
“What?” I asked.
“How was his cucumber?”
“Oh, my God, Heart!” I couldn’t help but giggle.
“Oh, come on, Monica. Details. I need details.”
I waited a few moments, knowing it was torturing her.
“Best sex of my life.” I sighed, leaning against the back of the booth.
She squealed and some of the people in the restaurant looked over curiously.
“But that’s not the point! How am I supposed to do my job? He’s my freaking boss!”
“This is so crazy. You know what? It sounds like a great plot for a novel…” she said suggestively. “Maybe you could find some inspiration for your next bestseller.”
“I don’t know…”
“Well, what would the heroine in this scenario do?” she asked.
“She would probably spend the entire book having wild, passionate, secret sex all over the office with the hottest man she’d ever met,” I admitted.
“Exactly,” she said with a curt nod.
“But this isn’t a novel. It’s my life. I can’t do that,” I said. “Plus, I found out Troy has quite the reputation for sleeping with his personal assistants.”
Heart groaned. “Oh, he’s one of those.”
“Yup. And I don’t really want to be added to that list. Even though I kind of already was.”
Heart laughed. “That doesn’t count. You didn’t know,” she reassured me.
“Still, I can’t risk my professional reputation to live out some fantasy. I need this job. I need the money. You’d think I was living in Manhattan with how high Queens has gone up. I can barely scrounge up rent right now.”
“I know,” said Heart, putting her arm around me and giving me a squeeze before releasing me. “You know, I’m here to help you out with whatever you need.”
This wasn’t the first time Heart had offered to lend me some money while I caught my bearings. I felt like she thought she owed it to me after her life turned upside down with her unexpected pregnancy, but I just did what a best friend would do and helped her the best I could. I never wanted her to feel like she owed me anything in return.
So I always refused her offer of financial help. I didn’t think it was smart to mix friendship and money, no matter how tempting the offer was sometimes. It also wasn’t smart to sleep with your boss, but here we were.
This was my mess to sort out.
“I’ll figure it out,” I said. “But thank you.”
“Okay, but I’m getting dinner tonight to celebrate your new job.”
“In that case,” I joked. “I’ll have the most expensive thing on the menu.”
She laughed as she waved over the server and we both ordered a bacon cheeseburger with extra fries, the most expensive thing on the menu. That was why I loved this place. It also felt like a safe bet that Troy, Mr. Billionaire, wouldn’t ever step foot in here.
It wasn’t like I could actually avoid him. I would see him in the morning. The thought made my stomach do a flip. I hoped the feeling would eventually subside.