Chapter 4
Four
From out in the bedroom, her phone started to ring.
Jal quickly finished drying her legs and dropped the towel, scrambling into the robe she’d draped over the vanity.
She secured the belt and dashed for the doorway only to have the hem snag on a drawer handle and bring her staggering to a halt with enough force that her wet hair slapped her in the face.
“Really?” she complained to the empty room as she cleared her eyes and back-pedaled far enough to free herself. The phone continued to ring as she lurched forward and tripped over the towel.
Jal snarled. She kicked the offending heap of cloth aside and dove for the phone, putting it on speakerphone while she retrieved the towel and wrapped it around her hair. “Shouldn’t you still be asleep?”
The deep, throaty laugh in response told Jal everything she needed to know about how Elena’s night had gone. “Why would I still be asleep after working until two and then dancing my ass off at Fuego?”
“Those would be two,” Jal replied with a jaw cracking yawn.
There was a time when Jal would have been right there with her.
After the last of the dough had been prepped for tomorrow’s bread, and the last dish had been washed, they’d raised hell up and down the Upper East Side, usually financed by a few tourists with unguarded pockets, only to stumble into Bob’s for breakfast the second they unlocked the doors.
Instead, it had been nearly a week of dreams filled with endless hallways with endless doors leading nowhere while she searched for God-knew-what unable to even find the way out.
Actually, getting up and taking a shower was an accomplishment given the lack of restful sleep.
Jal rubbed a finger over one eyebrow. “You haven’t been to bed yet, have you?”
“Not to sleep, anyway.” The saucy wink she would have given in person was implied.
Jal rolled her eyes as she shimmied into a pair of leggings, and almost cracked a smile. “You're incorrigible.”
Elena’s laugh was like a seductive curl of smoke and Jal understood how her friend always seemed to have at least three men circling her at all times. “You know that’s your favorite part about me.” she replied. “Come meet me for coffee and I’ll tell you all about it. I know you’re dying to know.”
Jal pulled the towel off and tossed it toward the hamper, nearly overflowing with clothes that needed to be lugged down five floors to the laundromat to be washed.
Not to mention, brought back up. She scooped up the phone and took it off speaker.
The floor of the living room was cold beneath her feet, sucking away the residual warmth from her shower as she went to the kitchen and opened the fridge.
A week’s worth of takeout containers stared back at her.
Deciding that she didn’t have the energy to play a round of “is this edible” roulette, Jal grabbed a bottle of water and closed the door again. She plopped down on the sofa and tucked her knees under her. “Not this time.”
“Thought so.”
Three knocks sounded on the door. Jal jumped; her heart started to claw its way up her throat. She might have also let out a squeak before swallowing it down.
Elena said something that sounded much like a curse as the line went dead. Sure enough, when she pulled the phone from her ear, the screen was full of the usual collage of brightly colored icons.
“Are you going to let us in?”
Jal threw the phone onto the cushion beside her and hurried to flip the column of locks, then flung the door open to find Elena lounging against the half-wall beside it.
She was smiling like the cat who’d gotten the cream with her arms crossed under her ample chest, a white satin top barely visible under a black cardigan, not that there was much of one to begin with.
The hip resting on the wall was covered by a blue skirt that barely contained her curves.
A pair of strappy heels dangled from one hand.
Beside Elena, their friend Lexi, dressed far more seasonably in leggings and a denim jacket, carefully balanced a tray of coffee cups and a carry bag that looked fit to burst. The heady scent of fresh baked bread mixed with the tang of cream cheese wafted through the doorway, making her mouth water.
Elena pushed off the wall and strode into the apartment, pausing only to peck Jal on the cheek in greeting. Her heels clattered to the floor beside the door, and she disappeared into Jal’s bedroom.
Jal looked at Lexi, who simply shrugged. With the barest smile, Jal shook her head and took the bag from her. Lexi took advantage and wrapped her free arm around her shoulders.
Lexi’s straight, blonde hair tickled her nose with the scent of lilies from the boutique salon shampoo that she used. “Hey, chick.” It was her nickname for everyone.
“Hey, yourself.” Jal closed the door, and followed Lexi into the kitchen. They deposited the food and drinks on the counter and Jal started unpacking foil wrapped bagels from the bag while Lexi shed her coat and draped it over a chair at the table.
Elena emerged from the bedroom tying the string on a pair of Jal’s sweatpants that were only slightly too short. Her sable hair was now in a ponytail, the scraps of white and blue tucked under one arm.
“By all means…” Jal murmured with a sarcastic wave of her hand as if it wasn’t normal for them to share clothes, but Elena’s answering smirk had a smile curling her lips for the first time in a while.
Lexi pushed one of the foil-wrapped bundles in her direction and turned to toss another at Elena, who caught it mid-flop into a chair and held it aloft triumphantly.
Jal grabbed the roll of paper towels off the holder and carried her food to the sofa with Lexi following in her wake with the drinks.
Elena reached over and tore off a sheet for each of them while Lexi passed them each a cup.
Jal took a sniff through the small hole in the lid as Lexi sat down beside her and a familiar homey scent filled her head.
Matcha green tea with honey and cinnamon, her favorite.
She took a cautious sip and hissed set it aside on the coffee table with the lid off to cool.
Her stomach growled from the fragrant steam that wafted up as she peeled the foil back from her bagel.
“Pumpernickel, toasted, with garlic and herb cream cheese and bacon, just how you like it.” Elena informed her around a mouthful of blueberry bagel, and licked away a trickle of butter from the side of her hand. “Good thing you don’t have to kiss anyone after you eat that.”
Jal bit into her bagel and sighed with contentment. It was the perfect combination of crunchy bacon, cool cream cheese, and toasty rye. She raised an eyebrow at her friend. “Speaking of kissing…”
Beside her, Lexi sat up a little straighter.
Elena’s mouth spread into a wide grin as she chewed.
“His name is Eric,” she replied. “He was at the bar ahead of me at Fuego and we got to chatting. And let me tell you, he’s some of the finest Dominican chocolate to ever come in a six-two package.
And then there's his package…” She swiped a thumb across her bottom lip leaving a gloss on her skin.
Lexi looked scandalized. “Elena!”
Elena’s grin only widened, and she winked. “What? They used a lot of butter this time.”
“That’s not what I meant, and you know it,” Lexi protested, then turned to Jal. “Though I can attest to how hot he was. Enough for her to ditch me to shake it on the dance floor for two hours.”
“As if that was a hardship?” Elena popped the last bite of bagel in her mouth. “It's not like I left you alone. You had a certain Legion defenseman in the VIP area to keep you company.”
"We're just friends, you know that." Lexi sipped her coffee, though there was the faintest hint of pink high on her cheeks.
Elena laughed and crossed her legs over the arm of the chair.
Jal’s heart clenched. Her two closest friends had gone clubbing without her. Again.
Turn down enough invitations, she supposed, and people stopped asking. Not that she’d been in any mood the last few days anyway. She also never really begrudged her friends of their romantic exploits.
But it had been a while, mostly by design. Mostly.
Out of nowhere, the memory of Ciaran strutting through her apartment like he owned the place drifted through her mind. She reached for her tea, now cool enough to drink, and swallowed half of it in a few gulps. She realized her mistake when she sat back to find both her friends looking at her.
Elena’s eyebrows drew down over her dark chocolate eyes, then they rose. Shit, Jal knew that look.
“You know, you never told us about that dinner you went to last week.”
Lexi looked at her. “Dinner?” she asked. “What dinner?”
"Some mystery man."
Jal got to her feet and started clearing trash just to escape their crosshairs.
"Oh, I like a good mystery man." There was a creak as Lexi adjusted her position on the couch. Their eyes burned holes in Jal's back as she stuffed the trash bin back under the sink.
Jal turned back to her friends and leaned on the counter. "There's nothing to tell," she replied. "Like I told Elena, he took something of mine, and I had to go to dinner with him to get it back."
"You didn't tell me what he took though."
Jal sighed and went back to the sofa. "He took my stash, or most of it anyway."
"Your stash?" Elena asked, she looked around the room, though nothing was visibly out of place. "You mean he broke into your apartment and somehow found all of your little hidey holes?"
Jal nodded. "I still have no idea how he did it." she said. "I picked his pocket, he picked mine, and somehow he managed to get in here and clean me out before I got home. The next morning, he showed up here pretending to return my wallet, and to get his back, but it was all a trick."
"He took her to Amicetto." Elena told Lexi in a sing-song voice prompting their friend to respond with a low whistle.
"Don't get too excited," Jal growled. "We didn't even get to the food."
Lexi frowned. "What happened?"
"I got my money back and, when I got up to leave, he grabbed my wrist, and..."
"You panicked?" Elena asked.
Jal stared straight ahead as she mentally tried to keep the lid over a box best left unopened from wriggling loose, a box that had been tightly sealed for two years, except in her dreams. She nodded, gripping her knees to keep her hands from trembling.
Elena got to her feet and sat on the wide arm of the sofa. Lexi scooted over and placed her arm across the back behind her head.
"I got what I wanted." Jal pried her hands away and flexed her fingers in her lap. "It wasn't a date. The transaction was finished. There isn't anything else to say."
For a long moment, they sat together in silence, her friends encircling her. Jal understood then that this was what she had been missing.
Jal's eyes burned as they fixed on the table across the room, the shaft of sunlight spilling across the surface seemed to point at the hidden drawer.
Sitting between them, the tightness in her chest released and she took her first truly deep breath in months.
Slowly, she reached out a hand to each of her friends and wove her fingers with theirs.
Only then, did they both shift closer and tip their heads to hers.