Chapter Seven #2
“I don’t think so,” Knox said. “We’ll keep the countertops white, and I think you should go with white for the walls, too.”
“Oh, but white’s so plain,” Gwen protested.
“Not with these cabinets,” Jesse said. “Chloe? What do you think?”
When three pairs of eyes turned her way, Chloe had to scramble to bring her brain online. “Ah…I think Jesse’s right,” she managed. “You have all your art, that’s plenty of color for the walls. And the cabinets can be the star of the show.”
“Okay. Okay, then.” Gwen beamed. “I want the orange.”
“Orange it is,” Jesse agreed, dimple winking again.
“And I’ll go with white out here, but I really want some color in the bedroom.”
“I pulled those samples you picked, painted some swatches on the wall.” Jesse jerked his head toward the bedroom. “Want to take a look?”
“Absolutely.”
“If you don’t need me anymore, I’m going to get going,” Chloe blurted out, and had three pairs of eyes turning her way again. “I’ve got some work to get done, so…”
Gwen nodded. “Ah, sure. I’ll stop by before I leave, okay?”
“Yeah.” Sucking in a deep breath, because she had to walk between Jesse and Knox to get to the door, Chloe worked up what she hoped was a cheerful smile. “Um, see you later Jesse, Knox.”
“Later,” Jesse echoed, a faint frown on his face.
“Good to see you, Chloe,” Knox said as she passed him.
“Samesies!” she said cheerfully, then she was out the door and darting into her apartment, slamming the door shut behind her.
“Samesies? Smooth, Chloe. Very smooth,” she muttered and went to see if there was any vodka.
She was digging the bottle out of the freezer when Gwen came back in. “What color did you pick for your bedroom?”
“Teal Temptation.” Peeling off her coat, Gwen tossed it over the couch. “For the bathroom, we’re going to match the kitchen cabinet color.”
“Of course, you are.” Chloe tried to twist the top off the vodka bottle. “This thing is stuck.”
“Vodka?” Gwen raised her eyebrows. “I thought that was for emergencies only.”
“This is an emergency,” Chloe said, giving the bottle another twist. It didn’t budge.
“Which is?”
Chloe put some muscle into it. “Toolbelt. Suit.”
“So, horniness.”
“Yes. Dammit, open!”
“Here, give me that.” Gwen took the bottle. “Get three glasses, Bailey’s on her way over.”
Chloe frowned. “Why?”
“Toolbelt. Suit. And voilà,” Gwen announced, spinning the cap off the bottle. “Cocktails, or are we drinking this straight?”
Chloe plunked three shot glasses on the counter. “It’s an emergency, not happy hour.”
“Right.” Shaking her head, Gwen poured with a generous hand, then capped the bottle and set it aside. “Are we waiting for—okay, I guess not.”
Chloe tossed back the shot, shuddering as the vodka burned a path down her throat to her empty stomach, then set the glass down and wheezed, “Again.”
“Two is your limit,” Gwen warned her.
Rather than answer, Chloe picked up one of the other glasses and tossed it back.
“Okay, we’re making bad choices then,” Gwen decided and snatched up the third shot when Chloe made a grab. “Forget it.”
Head swimming, throat burning, Chloe tried a beseeching look. “But I’m so horny.”
“Then try some dick,” Gwen suggested.
“Did someone say dick?” Bailey called out over the slam of the front door, then walked in to toss her coat over Gwen’s. “What’s up, friends?”
“Bad choices,” Gwen said and passed Bailey her shot. “Here. Chloe’s cut off.”
“Already had her two, huh?” Bailey tossed back the shot like it was water. “What happened?”
Head spinning, Chloe shoved past Bailey to sprawl on the couch. “Toolbelt. Suit.”
Bailey looked at Gwen. “Is that code?”
“She went next door to help me pick a cabinet color, and Jesse and Knox were there.”
“Oh. She’s horny.”
“Yep.”
“Of course, I’m horny,” Chloe said, annoyed that they were talking over her. And between the vodka and the fact that she hadn’t eaten since breakfast, a little lightheaded. “And I was such a dork.”
“I’m sure you weren’t,” Bailey soothed.
“No, she was,” Gwen said. “Knox said it was nice to see her, and she said ‘samesies’.”
Bailey’s expression twisted into a mix of horror and sympathy.
“But if it makes you feel any better,” Gwen went on, “they didn’t seem to notice.”
“How could they not notice?” Bailey wondered.
“I don’t know. They seemed distracted. It was weird.” Gwen opened the refrigerator to poke inside. “Do you have anything to eat? I’m starving.”
Chloe was frowning. “Huh?”
Gwen shut the fridge. “Food.”
“Oh. I’m either going to make scrambled eggs or order Chinese.”
“I could go for Chinese,” Bailey decided and pulled out her phone. “Gwen?”
Gwen nudged Chloe’s feet aside to sit on the couch. “Pot stickers and pork fried rice, please.”
“You know, that whole thing at the diner was weird, too,” Chloe said.
“What whole thing at the diner?” Bailey asked absently, looking at her phone.
“When I was there with Sawyer and Jesse and Knox showed up,” Chloe said. “Wasn’t it?”
Bailey looked up. “How would I know? I wasn’t there.”
“Oh, right. But it was,” Chloe insisted, thinking back. “There was, I don’t know, subtext. And they were so mad.”
“At you?”
Chloe looked at Gwen. “No, at Sawyer.”
“Why would they be mad at Sawyer?”
“I don’t know,” Chloe said, exasperated. “That’s why it was weird.”
“Maybe they know him.” Bailey sat down in the chair across from the couch. “Does anyone want to split an order of sesame chicken?”
Chloe leapt up. “What?”
“Sesame chicken. I want some, but their portions are huge.”
“Uh, I don’t think she’s talking about food,” Gwen said.
“Oh, my God. Oh, my God!”
“It’s just a theory,” Bailey began.
“Do you think he told them?”
“Told them what?”
“That I was trying to hire him to have a threesome!”
“I’m sure he didn’t,” Gwen soothed and shot Bailey a quelling look.
Chloe shoved her hands in her hair, wishing it was still long so she could tear it out by the roots. “If he did I’ll die. I’ll just die.”
Bailey pointed a finger. “First, there is no shame in hiring a sex worker. Second, you won’t die.”
“I will,” Chloe insisted and began to pace. “I’ll stroke out from embarrassment.”
“That’s not a thing. Will you sit down?” Bailey demanded.
“If I die, you can have the pearl earrings my parents gave me for college graduation. Gwen, you can have the sapphires.”
“I want the pearls,” Gwen protested.
“We’ll swap,” Bailey told her and shoved Chloe back down on the couch. “Put your head between your knees before you hyperventilate.”
Chloe obeyed. “You guys could show a little more concern over my pending demise,” she mumbled to her kneecaps.
“We’re very concerned,” Gwen assured her.
“We are not, because there’s nothing to be concerned about. Is someone going to split this chicken with me or not?”
Chloe picked her head up. “How can you say that?”
“She’s still not talking about the chicken,” Gwen advised.
Bailey sent Gwen an exasperated look. “Because A—we don’t even know that they know Sawyer, that’s just a theory. And B— even if they did know him, he’s not going to tell them anything.”
“How do you know?”
“Because sex workers have to be discreet,” Bailey told Gwen. “How long do you think they’d stay in business if they went around blabbing about their clients?”
“That’s a good point,” Gwen admitted.
“Okay,” Chloe said, panic receding a little. Then another thought struck. “But if they know him, then they probably know he’s a sex worker, and he wouldn’t have to tell them anything, they’d already know!”
Bailey looked at Gwen. “She’s spiraling.”
“I know.” Gwen grimaced. “I should’ve poured the vodka down the sink.”
“They might not know he’s a sex worker,” Bailey told Chloe. “Discreet, remember?”
“But they could know.” Chloe stood up. “I have to find out.”
“How?” Bailey wanted to know.
“I’m going next door to ask.” Chloe walked to the front door, looking for her boots. “Where are my boots?”
“They’re still on your feet,” Gwen pointed out.
“Oh.”
“You’re just going to go over and ask, ‘hey, do you guys know the sex worker I was having coffee and pie with the other day’?” Gwen called after her.
“You got a better idea?” Chloe asked and opened the front door.
“Any idea would be better than this.”
“They’re not there,” Bailey called.
Chloe shut the door. “What do you mean?”
“They were leaving when I pulled up,” Bailey said.
“Thank God,” Gwen muttered.
“Well, shit,” Chloe said and, deflated, walked back to slump on the sofa. “Now what?”
“Dinner,” Bailey said. “If you don’t want sesame chicken, I could split an order of beef and broccoli.”
Chloe sent her an exasperated look. “I meant about Jesse and Knox.”
“Why do you have to do anything?” Gwen asked.
“Because I have to know,” Chloe insisted and jumped to her feet again. “Come on.”
“Come on, where?”
Chloe patted her hips, looking for her keys, before she remembered she was wearing an old pair of leggings and without pockets. “I’m going over there.”
“I hope she’s talking about the restaurant,” Bailey said.
“Knox and Jesse’s house,” Chloe said, turning in a circle. “Do you see my keys?”
“Spiraling,” Bailey muttered.
Gwen shot to her feet. “Are you kidding? You can’t go to their house.”
Chloe stopped searching for her keys. “Why not?”
“Because…” Clearly at a loss, Gwen looked at Bailey.
“Because you just had two shots on an empty stomach,” Bailey tossed out. “You can’t drive.”
Chloe thought that was a weak argument, but… “Fine. Gwen can drive.”
“Chloe. I’m not driving you to Knox and Jesse’s house.”
“Why not?” Chloe asked, then she remembered. “Oh, right, your heater’s out. Bails?”
Bailey sighed and stood. “Fine, we’ll take my car.”
“Bailey!”
“We’re not going to talk her out of this,” Bailey told Gwen.
Gwen glowered. “We might, if we present a united front.”
Bailey looked at Chloe. “Are we going to be able to talk you out of this?”
“No.”
Bailey looked at Gwen. “See?”
“Bailey!”
Bailey grabbed her coat. “Listen, the faster we do this, the faster we can eat.”
“Because that’s our main goal right now?” Gwen asked, incredulous.