Chapter 21
Spencer
L ennox groans loudly, entirely unsubtle about the ecstasy she’s currently experiencing.
Avery reaches over and pats Lennox’s knee. “Hon, we don’t need an invitation into your bedroom. Now we all know what you sound like when Dex is on top of you.”
Lennox cradles her ballooning belly, which the white, fluffy spa robe can barely contain. “You really think Dex is on top these days with this thing in the way?”
Avery looks across to me, Dawn, and Chelsea all seated on the other side of the row of pedicure thrones. “I sincerely apologize for my best friend’s endless need to overshare. ”
Chelsea releases a sharp cry of a laugh. “Oh, please. My best friend comes with me to get my butthole bleached. No need for shyness here.”
Dawn plucks the cucumbers off her eyes one by one. Lids still shut, she exhales heavily. “And that, ladies, is what real oversharing sounds like. Chelsea, maybe enough Bellinis, hm?”
“Nathan rented this place out until closing. I’m going to finish at least another three…pitchers. I’m going to get so drunk I’m going to tell everyone about that time we were in Memphis and you rode the mechanical bull commando.”
Dawn leans over and snatches the champagne flute right out of Chelsea’s hands. “No. That’s enough for you. Just shut your lips and enjoy your pedicure.”
“Where are the little girls?” Avery asks, looking around the room.
“They’re doing a cereal bath soak in the zen room.
” From what I understand, there’s a giant in-ground soaking tub down there for mud baths and such, but they cleared it out and made a tween-friendly spa experience when Nathan called.
The girls are being treated to a warm, oatmeal-honey bath that has a bunch of bath bombs in the shape of Fruit Loops.
I was invited in and firmly said no to that chaos.
“I’m trying to be in solidarity, Spence, but it’s really hard to hate your boss right now.” Lennox groans again as the nail technician resumes massaging her swollen feet. “I mean, I’m on Team Spencer but— oh, God. Yeah, right there. ”
Encouraged by her moaning, the nail technician grinds her knuckles into Lennox’s arch.
“What Lennox is trying to say between orgasms is that this was really nice of your boss to rent out the entire spa for a day. Seems like he’s trying to impress you.”
I try to curb my enthusiastic smile, but Dawn notices how I light up. She waggles her eyebrows at me. “We came to an agreement last night,” I tell them. “I think working together will be smooth sailing from here.”
Nathan slipped out on me this morning. I woke up alone to a text from him that informed me he had to get our project notes over to his legal team, but I should call all my girlfriends and tell them to drop what they were doing for the day.
I didn’t mean to complain when I told him I couldn’t afford my spa day promise to Charlie.
But it slipped, and he took it as an opportunity to be the hero.
When I promised Charlie a spa day, I meant mani-pedis at a local nail salon that was running a BOGO deal, then a stop at Target for more animal face masks. The sloth one smells like grape cough syrup, but the rest of them are actually decent.
Nathan didn’t just one-up me. He made my plan look pathetic.
The Orchid Spa has a waiting list months out.
Somehow, my boss was able to shut the entire spa down for a day, get them to reschedule all their preexisting Saturday appointments.
That was probably expensive enough, but add on the charcuterie trays with actual caviar, the endless mimosas and Bellinis with top-shelf champagne and prosecco, and last but not least, spa services to our hearts’ desire.
Let’s just say I’ll be rewarding my boss in a really big way.
Being sweet to me earns him sex. But being so kind and considerate to my baby sister?
I’m going to read the Kama Sutra and take some notes before I see him again so I can show him my full gratitude.
“Dammit, I’m sorry,” Lennox says to her nail technician. “Can we pause? I have to pee again. Had I known this spa day was coming, I would’ve had them install a catheter so I could sit in peace for more than ten minutes.”
“Good grief,” Avery mumbles as she lifts her feet out of the foot soak and dabs them on the towel next to the bowl. “I’ll come with you.”
“Same,” Chelsea says, following suit. “I’m four Bellinis deep, meaning not only do I have to pee, but I also am too tipsy to find the bathroom on my own in this gigantic place.”
With most of our party excusing themselves, the nail technicians and masseuses seize the opportunity for a quick break.
“We certainly know how to clear a room,” I say to Dawn.
She laughs as she reaches for a piece of cheese on her appetizer plate, sitting right beside her on a beautiful, stained-glass end table.
The entire spa is decorated in a Venetian style.
Statue replicas of famous art pieces, marble columns, and Murano glass chandeliers dimly light the slightly jagged terrazzo tile, making it feel like you’ve transported straight to Venice.
This place is the kind of luxury I read about, not experience.
“Did you try the caviar?” Dawn asks. “Nathan splurged on catering.”
Stunned, my mouth falls open. “He even got this catered? Goodness. My old boss, Hank, gun to his head, could not tell you which deli I got his daily Reuben from.” If I called out sick from work, I’m convinced he’d just starve. Hank needed an assistant. I feel like Nathan just tolerates one.
“Nathan’s always been self-sufficient. He’s just overworked.”
“He can’t tell his dad he needs a break?”
Dawn tightens the twisted towel on her head. She got some kind of conditioning treatment on her hair that needs to saturate for at least another hour. “He’s a self-induced workaholic. Believe me, James has the same concerns I do. The only person he ever let take care of him was Elise.”
“Who’s Elise?”
Dawn gives me a sharp glance. “Nathan didn’t tell you about Elise? I thought you said he spent the night.”
“He did, but nothing happened.” I’m petrified as a sickening realization squeezes my throat. “Dawn, is Nathan single? Because I swear if he’s not, I didn’t know?—”
“Oh, calm down, honey. Nathan is single. Elise is the last assistant he had that he actually let in. After her, the brooding barricade that locks up his human emotions went up. Let’s just leave it at that for now, okay? I’m not above gossiping, but only when they’re my secrets to share.”
I nod in understanding, as the questions rip through my mind like a bullet train off the tracks. I want to know about Elise immediately so I can see whose shoes I’m trying to fill.
“So, is caviar calorie dense?” I respectfully divert the conversation. “I’ve never tried it before.”
“Did you just say caviar and calorie dense in the same sentence?” Dawn lifts a perfectly sculpted eyebrow.
I make a mental note to ask her if that’s permanent makeup, because her brows are always flawless.
I have to tweeze almost daily to keep my thick caterpillars in a feminine shape. “Still on this diet, then?”
I sigh. “I was on weight-loss injections for years. They were more expensive than I could afford, but selfishly, I just…” I shake my head.
“It’s hard, you know? Charlie is the living embodiment of my mom.
And my mom was gorgeous . Effortlessly slender and beautiful, light hair, light eyes.
She turned men’s heads wherever we went. ”
“So you took weight-loss drugs to look more like your mom and sister?” Obvious concern pools in Dawn’s eyes.
“No, it was more like after my mom died, I became really aware of how I was the odd one out. I’d take Charlie around and people would assume I was the nanny.
They’d compliment Charlie, telling me her parents were in trouble because she was going to grow up to be a heartbreaker and her daddy would have to beat the boys away with a stick. ”
“Ah, I see.” Dawn’s intuition is spot-on, because she proceeds to explain like she’s reading the lines from my own mind. “If Charlie and your mom were always noticed for their beauty, and you were told you were their polar opposite, that means?—”
“I was the troll.”
“You’re not a troll, Spencer. Not even close. I don’t mean to speak ill of your mom, but did she pressure you to lose weight while you were growing up?”
“ God no. ” I actually laugh at the sentiment.
“All we did was cook and eat together. She didn’t let me have coffee until I was sixteen, but other than that, she restricted nothing.
She told me I was royalty every day of my life.
I was blissfully unaware that I was considered ‘thick’ or ‘big-boned’—actually I think they’re calling it ‘big-backed’ these days.
I don’t know, I just didn’t feel insecure growing up.
My weight obsession started after what happened in college. ”
Reaching between her legs, Dawn turns off the jets in her foot tub, and it grows eerily quiet. “What happened in college?”
I chew on the inside of my cheek, wondering why in hell I decided to pick at this scab today.
Dawn has a presence. She’s sassy, like me, but also powerful and commanding, like I want to be.
I guess I already see her as something more than a colleague to look up to.
“It’s kind of difficult to talk about because it’s so embarrassing. ”
“You don’t have to. But it might make you feel better. Honey, I don’t care how embarrassing the story is, you’re with a friend who would never laugh at you.”
I hear the metaphorical locks unlatching, the secret boxes having their lids snatched off, the sound of a shovel digging deep into the frozen ground. That’s what I have to do to unearth one of the most defining moments of my life that I’ve tried and failed for years to bury and forget.
“It was a stupid hazing ritual for the senior football players… I was a virgin.”
Dawn drops her head. “I don’t like where this is going.”