Chapter 17
AJ
Unlike my past few mornings after Adam-related incidents, I felt… pretty damned good. And content.
It was surprising, and a little strange, but a part of me was relieved to have no regrets whatsoever.
If there was any at all, it was just the fact that I slept in so late, because after twenty or so minutes of just lying lazily in bed, I popped up and hissed, “Crap!” because I totally forgot about brunch.
It was Sunday, my usual day for boozy afternoon catch-ups with Georgia and Emily, the latter of whom I shot a quick text to before I bolted into the bathroom to take the world’s quickest shower.
ME: No need to pick me up. I just woke up. So sorry. Order the usual and start eating with Georgia I’ll be there ASAP
By the time I got out of the shower, I checked my phone expecting to see a text from Emily. But instead, it was Georgia.
GEORGIA: Lol she thinks you’re sleeping in because you’re depressed over how lonely you are and that we need to stage an intervention or take you on a girls trip ASAP
ME: Oh God no
I snorted despite feeling pretty damned guilty about my sister’s worry.
While Georgia was completely caught up on my Adam escapades, having been the person I was texting till 2AM, my sister was still in the dark.
About everything.
The last time I spoke to her about Adam was when I texted her at the Engelman gala in Palm Beach, and I wound up just telling her that I got way too drunk with some female coworkers who were egging me on about my hot boss, and the “tell me I can’t sleep with my boss” text was just the result of being hammered while dealing with some pretty raw post-breakup emotions.
She bought it, and I never updated her about, well, full-on sleeping with Adam, because I knew what her reaction would be.
It would be all the horror and disappointment in the world, and maybe even a little panic on my behalf.
The plan had been to just not tell her anything forever, until the end of time, because I’d very much planned on snuffing out whatever weird feelings I was having for Adam.
I mean they’ll be gone in no time, so why bother? I kept telling myself.
Yeah…
No time my ass, I thought only somewhat ruefully as I finally got into brunch a whopping thirty minutes late. Thankfully, the hostess had been kind and let Emily and Georgia get seated first, which meant they were already halfway through their first round of mimosas when I sat down.
“Aww! You don’t look sad at all!” Emily said happily, making me laugh, because tucked behind her ear was one of the flowers from the vase on the table—though that was no doubt Georgia’s doing, because even when she was tipsy, my sister was still ever the practical one.
It was actually amusing to see her in her typical blue Oxford and jeans while sitting next to my free spirit of a best friend, who was the polar opposite as usual, decked out in a yellow gingham print dress, a big, floppy hat and heart-shaped sunglasses.
I blamed how cute they looked—specifically with their big smiles and playful hair flowers—for the fact that I decided to just come clean to Emily about Adam.
My heart was pitter-pattering already, but I figured it was best to put Emily out of any worried misery she might have about me and my breakup with Caspar, so within the first few sips of my mimosa, I went for it.
“So, I have something to confess to you about Adam.”
Emily’s eyes went wide, but she was still laughing. “Oh God,” she said in her I’m horrified voice. “You still want to sleep with him?”
Oof.
“I slept with him,” I said, ripping off the bandage before I could change my mind. But I regretted it as soon as I watched the mirth flicker from Emily’s eyes, leaving them cold and hard as she stared at me for a second.
“I’m sorry, what?” she said.
“She slept with Adam,” Georgia confirmed. “In his office. Like a porno.”
I looked at her. “Georgia.”
“What? That’s the best part.”
“I agree, but I don’t think that’s where Em’s head is at right now,” I said slowly, and a bit humorously in hopes of tricking Emily to be lighthearted about this. But I should’ve known that wouldn’t work.
“You have got to be kidding me, Adrienne,” she said, her voice so stone-cold and sober it was as if she’d never had a drink in her life, let alone one a second ago. “How could you do this?”
I heaved a giant sigh, saying things I knew would be useless, things about the tension, the inability to work.
How we were actually doing better now than we were before we had sex.
I even played the Caspar breakup card in hopes of earning some sympathy, but I got absolutely none.
The cross-armed death look that Emily pinned on me was so potently icy that the waitress kept nervously peering at us and skipping our table, even as Georgia tried to flag her down for another round of drinks.
“Look, I know you’re pissed, but all I want you to know is that I’m actually fine,” I said in the end. “I’m not depressed and you don’t have to worry about me.”
“Oh, I think I do,” Emily said in singsong, raising her eyebrows as she turned her attention briefly to her drink. Across the table, Georgia shot me a crap look because we both knew the singsong meant Emily was about to throw down.
And that was precisely what she did after a sip of her mimosa.
“I’m sure you know this, AJ, but you are playing with fire here.
Adam might be a good boss, but you have no idea what he’s like in a relationship, because he has no idea what he’s like in a relationship.
He’s never been in one. He can’t commit to a single human being beyond a work level.
He can’t even keep in touch with his own sister without you reminding him. ”
“Hey—easy,” I frowned hard, feeling defensive. The only people I’d ever talked to about Adam and Holland were Georgia and Emily, and it had always been with the understanding that there was no judgement.
Emily took in a deep breath.
“I’m just saying, AJ. I like Adam. A lot. I know he’s a good person. But this is uncharted territory for him, and we have no idea how he’s going to act. I mean how many times have you slept with him?”
“Once.” I paused. “Plus some stuff last night.”
“At his house?”
“Mine. And then I kicked him out.”
“So you gave him that one orgasm last night and you haven’t talked to him at all today?”
I squinted at her. “No…”
“And you guys haven’t carefully mapped out the exact logistics of your new friends-with-benefits situation?”
“No, because we aren’t serial killers—what are you even getting at right now, Em?” I asked.
“The fact that it’s his one off day a week, and I highly doubt he’s going to just spend the day jerking off in his living room like the homebody he’s not,” Emily said. “You make his schedule. What’s he doing tonight?”
I took a second to think. “He has a dinner tonight,” I replied.
“With who?”
“A friend.”
Emily arched an eyebrow. “The kind he has sex with?”
I pursed my lips. The answer was yes, because his dinner date was with Naomi, his fuck buddy from his days at Stanford Law. She was particularly eager to see him while she was in town, which was why I’d confirmed this reservation for them over two weeks ago.
Emily took my silence as the “yes” it very much was.
“So, how would you feel if Adam slept with her tonight?” she asked.
“Well, we’re not dating, so he’s well within his right to sleep with her,” I said.
“Obviously, but how would it make you as a person feel?” Emily pressed.
Totally fine? I tried the thought out in my head but realized it didn’t actually fly as hoped. Okay no, not really. Ugh. I couldn’t even lie in my own head.
Reading the look on my face, Emily sighed.
“Alright, well, I’ll wrap this up since you both look like you want to jump off a bridge right now,” she snorted, glancing over at Georgia who had her chin in her hand and her glass overturned to drip the last bit of mimosa onto her tongue.
Shaking her head, Emily laughed before turning to me, her eyes softer now.
“I’m sorry for being an asshole about this stuff, AJ.
I know it’s annoying and it’s not what you want to hear, but I’m only this tough, because I know what this job means to you.
We all saw what you had to deal with in college with Schilling, and I just don’t want even a shade of that to happen again,” she said earnestly, offering a sad little smile as I nodded in understanding.
Then she turned back to Georgia. “Help me out here, GiGi.”
“He’s hot as fuck, I say go for it,” Georgia said, barely finished with her sentence before Emily had her hand covering her face.
“What?” Georgia frowned. “I mean I can acknowledge that it’s risky what AJ’s doing, but I also know someone as measured and careful as she is wouldn’t be doing it if her body wasn’t calling for it. ”
Emily cackled. “I love how you have a way of framing impulsive decisions as something healthy and holistic.”
“You know me, I’m all about listening to your body. I can’t even begin to tell you how much better life got for me when I stopped counting calories and just eating intuitively.”
“Are we really comparing Adam to food?” I snorted.
“We should, considering I’d lick him all over,” Georgia smiled brightly at me. “Can we get confirmation, by the way, on how big it is?”
I gave her a look that said not now, but then I saw Emily arch a curious eyebrow at me. “Wait—what the hell? You don’t get to disapprove of my choices and then ask me how big Adam’s dick is!” I practically yelled.
But I was also thankful for a reason to laugh, because I knew we needed it—in particular Emily and me.
Georgia had been very much there for me during the whole thing that went down in college, but as my sister, Emily shared half my heart, and had hurt for me on a whole other level than my friends when Schilling did what he did.
So as much as everything she’d just said sucked to hear, I gave her a pass. Because I knew it came from a place of love.
Tough love, for sure. But love nonetheless.