Chapter 6
SIX
Sadie
I lifted the lychee martini up to my mouth and breathed in the aroma. The scent was so yummy that my eyes closed as I took a sip. The sweet, almost-floral taste circled my tongue while the vodka and vermouth burned—a combination I craved at the end of a long day.
Or a week that felt as if it had lasted an entire year.
Like this one.
“This drink is hitting so differently—am I right?” I said to the girls.
Cat was to my right, and Bryn was to my left, the three of us at a high-top table in the bar of a popular sushi restaurant.
Dear Foodie wasn’t on duty tonight. This was all Sadie.
Of course, I’d still snap some pictures and share it on my social media with a cheeky caption. When food was beautiful, it deserved an audience, and that was why I fed it to mine. My brand wasn’t just about reviews, although that was a large part of it; it was also about celebrating all things culinary. So, when I got home, I would choose the best picture from this evening and schedule it to go live in a few weeks.
The girls knew that when I was at a restaurant, my phone would stay on the table, and I’d be snapping photos throughout the evening, even asking them to take some of me, neck down, to guarantee I wouldn’t be recognized.
“This honestly might be the best thing I’ve ever put in my mouth.” Bryn laughed. “Okay, maybe that’s a bit extreme, but, yes, it’s hitting in every way.” She nodded toward my sister. “So, fill me in. How are things with Mom and Dad? Sadie told me they’re driving you cray.”
“Cray is an understatement,” Cat replied. “I’m really thankful Sadie talked me off a ledge and tried to make me feel better, but the way they constantly weigh in on every situation and pretty much let me know that whatever I’m doing, I’m doing wrong—I could do without all of that.”
“I’m thirty, and my parents still do it to me,” Bryn told her.
I lifted my hand in a wave. “Same to the age and same to hearing the constant opinions of our parents.”
“But you’re kicking ass,” Cat said to me. “You’re making a ton of money, you own your own condo, and you did it all without our parents’ help. What exactly do Mom and Dad have to say to you? You’re making all the right decisions.”
“I didn’t make all the right decisions, little sis. I made decisions that just happened to work out after lots and lots that didn’t.” I offered a gentle smile. “Mom and Dad harp on my plan B. You know, on what I’ll do if social media goes away or shifts and influencing no longer pays my mortgage. My gig at Seen pays well for a publication, but it doesn’t compare to the brand deals I get checks for and my earnings from the social media giants.”
Bryn moved her hair off her shoulder. “Your followers aren’t just going to disappear. ”
“No, they won’t, but that doesn’t mean I’ll get paid to have so many,” I countered.
Cat shook her head. “Mom and Dad will forever worry about every single thing.”
“Remember, it’s kinda their job, and we have to love them for that,” Bryn said. “Just because we left the nest doesn’t mean they’ll cut back on parenting. I swear, girl, it only gets worse.”
“Ugh,” Cat groaned.
“Wait until you have a kid,” Bryn offered. “You’re going to hear everything that they did and why it was right and why you should do it too—at least, that’s what my sister tells me.”
Cat rolled her eyes. “I can’t wait.” She held the wide glass of her filthy martini up to her lips. “Stop me when I try to convince the waitress to get me a pitcher of these. Because that’s how many I’d like.” She swallowed down half the contents. “Two martinis I can handle. Three? Things have the potential of turning a little wild.”
I laughed. “Three is, by far, my max too.”
Bryn smiled at me. “We’ve heard about Cat’s week. Now it’s your turn.” She ran her finger around the rim of her glass. “Work-wise, I’m sure it’s been a doozy since I know how busy you’ve been. But personal-wise, I’d say the end of last week wasn’t so bad for you.” Her grin grew.
“She’s talking about the Horned guy, isn’t she?” Cat asked.
“Oh, he was horned all right.” Bryn laughed.
My sister didn’t know all the details. Some things didn’t need to be mentioned to family, regardless if we were best friends. Cat knew I’d broken my dry spell and that, for once, I’d become a bad girl. She didn’t know how many times I’d had sex with Lockhart and where. The gist of it was that I might have turned bad for a night, but the good girl had returned.
“We were both horned,” I added.
“Tell me again why you haven’t already fallen in love with this man and spent every night with him this week?” Bryn asked.
“You know why,” I replied.
“It’s me,” Cat said, raising her shoulders in defeat. “I’m the problem.”
I put my hand on one of those shoulders and rubbed it. “You are not. You called me that morning. I made a decision, and I left his suite. I could have woken him up, he could have gotten my number the night before. Lots of different scenarios could have played out, but none of it is your fault.”
Every word of that was the truth. Still, I had regrets. Even though I didn’t know how I’d feel if I’d woken him up and things turned awkward and he didn’t want my number, at least I could have said I’d made the effort. Because I hadn’t, I opened my eyes every morning since and wondered about what-ifs.
And now, as I sat in the middle of a bar that was full of what most would think were good-looking men, not a single one did anything for me.
Because physically, they didn’t compare to Lockhart.
“I still feel terrible,” Cat voiced.
“Don’t.” I continued to rub her. “You didn’t know. You couldn’t have even guessed. I mean, when have you ever called me and I was in a guy’s bed?”
Bryn snorted. “It should happen much more often.”
“It’s probably never going to happen again,” I confessed. “I’m truly not cut out for the one-night-stand thing.”
“Why?” Bryn asked. “Random sex would be the perfect stress reliever for you.” She winked. “Honestly, it would probably be the best stress reliever for all of us.”
I squeezed the stem of my glass. “Because if you were a fly on the wall, you would have thought he was into me. That this wasn’t the first time we’d met. That we’d already known each other’s body and what the other was craving. Our connection was that sizzling.” I sighed. “Which is where the problem lies. I can see myself catching feelings—and one-night stands aren’t conducive for catching anything.”
“Aside from orgasms,” Cat said.
I groaned, “Yep.”
Bryn moved her drink out of the way so she could reach across the small table and put her hands on my forearm. “You have feelings for him.”
She didn’t phrase it as a question.
She was confirming what she suspected.
And it triggered an immediate reaction in me. A thumping in my chest, a pounding so hard that I had to cover it with my fingers to attempt to slow it. When that didn’t work, I released my heart and lifted my drink, holding it to my lips and swallowing. I wasn’t even tasting. I was chugging as quickly as I could, my eyes wandering at the same time. Because staring at my best friend would only confirm what she already knew. How could I admit out loud and to myself that I had developed feelings for a man I’d spent less than twelve hours with?
That I’d caught more than just orgasms.
Which was the most idiotic thing I could have done, considering I had no way to get in touch with him. I’d looked up Lockhart Wright, and there wasn’t one listed who lived in LA—at least according to Google. I had no idea what he did for a living and no clues that could lead me to him—besides that he was a rock star in bed.
To make matters even worse, not a single thing I looked at was holding my attention. Nothing in the bar. Nothing in the entrance. Nothing in the dining room or toward the back, nothing?—
My gaze halted on the table in the corner, where a foursome was sitting.
The face of one of the men was achingly familiar .
So familiar that I almost choked on my martini.
I blinked, trying to correct my vision, making sure what I was seeing was real.
I blinked again and again and again and?—
Shit .
The view didn’t change.
It was him.
Lockhart.
He shared the table with another man and two women, and it looked like he was on a double date, staring at the lady beside him, smiling and laughing at her in a way that reminded me of the way he had looked at me.
I wished I were in that chair, not her.
But did I?
He was the kind of man who went on a date only a week after he slept with me.
Or maybe, even worse, he was dating her.
Or— oh God —what if he was married to her?
My brain was spiraling, and everything inside me started to burn.
I felt sick.
I slowly returned my gaze to Bryn, filling my lungs, holding in the air as I silently replied to her question, I had feelings for him, yes , but the words never actually left my mouth.
My heart rate was even higher than it had been before I saw him in the restaurant; now, it was making my entire body shake.
I put down the glass and raised my hand to point. “Look over there, in the corner—do you see the foursome? The guy who’s facing us, in a black button-down, with heavy scruff on his face and deep green eyes that are so bold you can see them all the way over here?”
“Yep, I see him,” Cat said .
“Me too,” Bryn agreed.
I sucked in another breath. “That’s Lockhart.”
“What?” Bryn gasped. “No way … he’s with …” Her voice drifted off, as if she didn’t want to say the words I was already thinking.
As soon as she turned quiet, Lockhart’s gaze shifted. It was as though he had heard her, but that was impossible; the bar was too packed, and the dining room was extremely loud.
But he was looking straight ahead now.
And his eyes were directly on mine.