Chapter 46 #2
“The hand,” I say lifting up my hand, “or”, I speak slowly, “the belt?”
“The hand or the belt,” she repeats. And then her eyes go wide, and she starts giggling loudly. “Holy smokes, Batman.” She licks her lips. “No way did stiff old Remington Parker say that. Why did he ask you this?” She looks thoughtful. "Did he want to spank you?"
“I mean, I don't think he was asking me, asking me. There is no way in hell that I would let him spank me. I think he was trying to get a reaction out of me. Maybe see if he could outrage me.” I shrug.
“It was kind of weird, you know. A part of me thought maybe he was flirting, but I don't think he was. Not really.”
“He is so into you. He wants you badly,” Skye says emphatically. “Where the hell is Lila? We need her feedback. I bet she will agree with me.”
“I think she said she would be here in thirty minutes.” I pick up my phone. “And that was seventeen minutes ago, so she should be here soon.”
“She is going to absolutely die when she hears that Remington Parker wants to spank you.”
“No,” I say quickly. “You're twisting my words, Skye. He doesn't want to spank me. He just—”
“He wants you, girl. You may or may not see that, but I definitely do. I know men like I know the back of my hand.” She stares at the back of her hand and nods.
"That man wants you bad. He's probably into butts.
I always used to think most guys were boob guys, but a lot of them are into butts.
I think that's why they like doggy-style so much. "
“You know what? I never really got that saying,” I say, changing the subject. I do not want to think of myself on my knees with Remington Parker behind me.
“What do you mean? You never got what saying?”
“That saying that you know something like the back of your hand. I mean, do you really know the back of your hand?”
She stares at me and blinks. “You know what? Let me see." She closes her eyes and starts laughing. "I can't even picture the back of my hand.” She opens her eyes and nods her head. “So, I guess that means I don't know men very well.”
“Do any of us really know men? I mean, we think we do, but then they go and say or do something really stupid, which makes us question everything we thought we knew.”
“That is true,” she says, nodding. “Did I tell you about what Kingston did last week?” She pauses. “Anyway, let's wait till Lila gets here, and then we can dish all the gossip. By the way, does this weekend still work for you?” she asks excitedly.
“Yeah, you mean for the makeover?”
She nods. “Yes, for the makeover. You are going to look like a million bucks.”
“But what if I want to look like a billion bucks?”
“I mean, I can't promise that.” She giggles. “I am not Elon Musk. Though I wouldn't mind some of his money, even though I don't want him.” We both burst out laughing, then I take another sip of my water.
“Where are our drinks? They are taking forever.” I look around for the waiter.
“I know,” she says. “It does not take that long to make strawberry margaritas.”
“No, it doesn’t. And I’m kind of hungry,” I say, rubbing my stomach. “We’re going to share a pizza, right?”
“Yeah, I was thinking maybe we could do a pizza and salad.”
“That sounds good. Caesar salad?” I ask.
“Yeah, of course. It’s my favorite.”
“I thought you really liked Cobb salad?”
“I do. But not with pizza. Plus, I don't like love the dressing options. Do you know who has the best salad dressing?”
“No, who?” I wait for her to answer, thinking she is going to name some exclusive five-star Michelin restaurant that I will never be able to afford in my life.
“Olive Garden,” she says with a steadfast face.
“What?” My jaw drops.
She grins. “Olive Garden has the best salad dressing ever.”
I start laughing then. “You did not just say Olive Garden.”
“What? You’ve never been to Olive Garden?”
“Of course, I’ve been to Olive Garden. I went when I visited Florida with my dad. We got the never-ending breadsticks and pasta. And I mean, the salad was good. But I don’t know if it was the best salad I ever had in my life.”
“Trust me,” she says, “I’ve eaten in a number of different sorts of restaurants, and their salad dressing is good.”
“Man, maybe you should get a job working for them in their marketing department because you’re selling their salad like it's your day job.”
She giggles. “Yeah. I mean, I don’t think that's the job of my dreams. But I guess I could make them a trillion dollars just from the salad dressing alone. If they gave me 10 percent of the profits, I'd be willing to share my talents.”
“Bet you could get a good .000001 percent.”
"Might still be worth it." She looks around and then bursts into a wide smile. “Finally!” She motions to the waiter approaching with our strawberry margaritas.
“Hi, sorry about the wait,” he says, batting his long, dark eyelashes. He's a handsome man and reminds me of some of the frat guys I used to see in of my college classes. “The barman got mixed up and made you Russian mules, and I didn’t think you wanted those.”
“That’s a big mistake to make.” I take my glass from him. “Strawberry margaritas became Russian mules. Not even the same liquor, right?”
He stares at me for a couple of seconds and nods. “He’s new. And may or may not be able to read properly.” He looks me up and down, a half smile on his face. “But thank you for being so patient. These two are on me.”
“Oh, no, you don’t have to do that,” I say quickly.
“When I say me, I mean on the restaurant, so don’t worry.” He winks. "Don't worry about it, Lois Lane.”
I grin at him. “Well, thank you, kind sir.” I'm not sure why he's calling me Lois Lane, but I'm not going to ask either.
“You’re welcome. Have you decided what you would like to eat?”
“We’re still waiting on another friend,” Skye says. “But she should be here any moment.”
“Okay, well, I’ll wait for your friend to arrive and then I’ll be back. Enjoy your drinks, ladies.” He gives me another small wink and then walks away, turning to look back at me and waggling his tongue once.
Skye stares at me for a couple of seconds. “I don't think you need that makeover. You're getting men left, right, and center without it.”
“What men am I getting?”
“Um, Marco the waiter was just flirting with you.” She wiggles her tongue. "Man wants to get down with you."
“No, he was not. He was just being nice because—”
“Because nothing. You didn’t see him looking at me. You didn’t see him giving me any eyes. I bet he asks for your number before the evening is out.” She takes a long sip of her drink. "Lois..."
“He is not going to ask for my number,” I say, not knowing why the very attractive waiter would want to ask me out. “He is not interested in me.”
“Yeah, let’s wait and see,” she says. “Would you date him over Remington? Which one do you want more?”
“What are you talking about? I don’t have Remington, and I don’t have him. Neither one of them wants to date me.”
“But just saying, what if both of them came to you and said, I would like to take you on an exclusive date. Which one would you say yes to?”
“I can’t say yes to both?” I say, laughing, taking a sip of my margarita. “Oh, my gosh, this is so good. I think I’m going to have to drink about ten of them tonight.” I watch as Skye lifts her glass and takes another sip, as well.
“I think I just went to heaven,” she says as she holds up her glass, and we clink. “Cheers.” She beams happily, the tequila going to her head already.
“Cheers.” I lean back in the booth and look around.
I’m so happy that Skye and I are friends.
I’m lucky to have ladies in my life who, even though they are in relationships, take time to be with me, to hang out, and take time to just enjoy life.
“This is a really cool place. How did you hear about it?”
“Oh, I literally just Yelped for a bar in the area, and this came up with a 4.4 average. I’m not going to lie, the pizzas looked amazing and really big. And when you said you wanted pizza, I was like, we’ve got to go there.”
“I have been craving pizza, so I'm glad you found this place."
"Why have you been craving pizza?"
"It’s kind of funny, the reason why.”
“What’s the reason why?” she asks.
“Because Canyon kept asking her dad if they could get pizza tonight. And the more she talked about it, the more I wanted it.” I giggle. “I have a feeling she was not as lucky as me.”
“Oh, poor Canyon,” Skye says with a small smile. “I wish I had seen her this morning. I wonder if Remington will bring her into the office again. I'd love to meet her.”