4. Chapter 4
“ I f you don’t hear from us, that’s good news,” the doctor said at the clinic. “You’ll only know if something turns up in your test results.”
Alicia left the clinic with free condoms, because she obviously could not be trusted with her lust-crazed vagina.
Now what the fuck do I do? Spend the last of her only paycheck from Midnight at a coffee shop so she had an excuse to sit down and comb through ads?
Feh . Good thing her bag of prophylactic paraphernalia could be shoved into the bottom of her purse.
Still an idiot . Yup. Definitely an idiot.
That’s what she thought after she grabbed her small Americano and sat in the sunniest corner of the neighborhood café.
She pulled out her phone and grabbed a newspaper somebody else had left behind.
I had the best job in town . She could have easily paid rent with one paycheck and debt with the other.
The tips could’ve bought her food and gas.
Sure, she’d still be saving money at a snail’s pace, but at least she would be calm about her finances for the first time since taking out her first credit card!
Nope. She had to go and fuck the boss. The one testing her to see if she would fraternize with guests at her club. Yeah. Yeah, she would have. ‘Cause she was stupid.
That wasn’t the only reason she was so hard on herself. There was also the fact that she decided to lose her virginity to some haughty billionaire who had no idea she wasn’t as experienced as they probably thought she was.
It hadn’t been easy to still be a virgin at twenty-eight.
Not exactly something she talked about to people.
Candice had known, but it wasn’t a huge point of discussion.
If anything, Alicia’s roommate probably assumed she was asexual or saving herself for marriage.
The truth was neither. As usual, things were complicated.
Alicia wasn’t anti-sex. Nor did she lack a sex drive – it was pretty average, really, and heavily dependent on hormones.
Nope. She had no real reason to say why she was still a virgin until twenty-eight.
Really? She hated the fact. High school wasn’t so bad.
Alicia had no interest in the boys in her class, having seen how they treated her female friends.
She was content to explore her sexuality on her own, in the comforts of her bed or the shower.
The internet taught her a lot of things that school and her sexually conservative mother wouldn’t.
She openly talked about sex with her friends. She just didn’t have it.
College was supposed to be different. Alicia had heard that college students were hot and ready to fuck anything that moved. I figured that when I was ready, I would easily get laid . She was good-looking. Available. Clean!
It was not easy. In fact, Alicia found it pretty impossible to get laid at all.
Oh, she had done things. Lots of heavy petting.
Kissing. Touching. Both guys and gals. Alicia had known she was bisexual since freshman year, and foolishly assumed it would expand her horizons.
Nope. Even when things looked like they were going all the way, someone fell asleep. Sometimes it was her.
Senior year, she met Matt.
Matt was the perfect guy. Smart. Funny. Good family and a lot of ambition for his future career as a pediatrician.
Matt was at the top of his premed game when he met Alicia at a senior social.
They hit it off, going on multiple dates and spending whole half hours at a time making out in his apartment or in the back of movie theaters.
I felt like a teenager at 22 . After a month of dating, Alicia wondered why neither of them had brought up sex.
She assumed it would be a natural thing after making out and touching so many times.
Yet when she asked Matt about it?She had managed to find the perfect guy…
if she was hellbent on saving herself for marriage.
Matt had his reasons. While not a virgin like she was, he had discovered at his young age that sex overly complicated his relationships with women and heavily distracted him from his studies.
“I love you, Alicia. I don’t need to have sex with you to love you.
” Alicia had found it terribly romantic.
And frustrating. She was ready to get laid, damnit!
But her love for Matt was two-sided. She desperately wanted to sleep with him, to show off her affections in such classically carnal ways, but she also loved him enough to stay with him even though sex was off the table.
He promised they would discuss marriage after he started his residency.
That sexually frustrating relationship lasted a whole three years and was Alicia’s most serious one.
I thought we were going to get married. I thought sex didn’t matter if I found someone I was so perfectly compatible with in other ways.
Alicia was a fool, though. Matt was barely out of med school when one of his classmates showed up at her front door with photographic evidence that he was making out with someone behind Alicia’s back.
The worst part? He was a cheater who wasn’t even having sex!
I don’t know what’s worse . Having the guy who says he’s waiting to fuck you until your wedding night stick it in someone else, or not even bother.
A cheater was a cheater, though. Alicia dumped his ass…
and proceeded to try to rebound with everyone she met.
She never got lucky. Either potential lovers were such turnoffs that she actually feared sleeping with them, or they were taken, or they had no interest in her.
I started to feel like a freak. By twenty-six, however, when she was fully committed to the workforce and acting like a real adult, she stopped caring.
Sex didn’t matter. If it was going to happen, it would happen.
Well, it happened a few nights ago!
Alicia had finished her Americano before finishing the Classifieds.
That’s how distracted she was with her own thoughts .
I can’t believe I did that . Danica was her first time going all the way with anyone.
She was old enough to be mature about it, to even be relieved that it had finally happened and was out of the way, but it was still a big deal.
Sort of. Losing her virginity stopped sounding like a big deal after she broke up with Matt.
So here she was. A young woman at the tender age of twenty-eight, reflecting on her first time… a few nights ago. With a sexy billionaire.
On the job.
Which Danica did to get her fired.
A woman sat down next to her at the bar overlooking the highway.
Alicia caught a whiff of musky perfume and shivered.
No, this woman, with her business suit and clean brown hair, didn’t smell like Ms. Moreau at all.
But she was good-looking. Smart in her office clothes.
Smart in the paper she asked to borrow, and the tablet he brought.
No ring on her left hand. Should Alicia go for it?
She was an experienced woman now. Maybe it would be easier to get dates now that she no longer exuded a VIRGIN!
aura to everyone in the room. The only ones who went out of their way for virgins were weirdos she had no business sleeping with.
Besides, she needed something to fill the time between jobs.
The woman left before Alicia could drum up the courage to talk to her. Oh, well . Back home she would go. Maybe Candice would come back early and help her look for a new job.
Candice was, in fact, home. She had also made omelets, stuffed with fried rice and fresh vegetables. Slathered in marinara sauce, too! Oh my God, my favorite . Alicia smiled for the first time in a week as she sat down to savor her dinner.
“How were things at the clinic?” Candice asked.
“Boring. Sterile. Got my pap and had them do an STD panel while there. The usual.”
They were halfway through their omelets when the doorbell rang.
“I’ll get it,” Candice said, tossing her napkin down before getting up. Pete called her a sexy hussy on her way by his perch. Should be calling me that right now . Alicia tried not to think about it. No point thinking about Danica, anyway.
“Uh, Alicia?” came Candice’s voice. “There’s someone here to see you.”
Alicia didn’t like the uncertain tone in her voice. “Coming!” she called, tearing herself away from the delicious omelet. She made sure to straighten out her T-shirt and denim shorts before entering the living room.
Good thing. The person waiting for her was so well-dressed she might as well have been walking right out of a catalog!
“Ms. Colbert.” A nondescript brunette in a designer pantsuit extended her hand to Alicia the moment she walked into the room. “I’m glad I found you at home. This matter is urgent.”
Alicia exchanged looks with Candice, who slowly pretended to be more interested in cleaning the bird cage instead of listening in on this strange conversation.
“Who are you?” This woman seemed vaguely familiar. Or maybe Alicia was losing her mind. Again.
“Sarah Clayborn. While we haven’t formally met before, we saw each other at Midnight. I was with Nigel Clayborn, Ms. Moreau’s other assistant.”
Alicia took a step back. “Oh. Oh .”
This woman had been in Danica’s entourage. As Alicia recalled, Ms. Clayborn spent most of the evening thumbing through a tablet.
“If you would, I need you to come with me.”
“What’s that now?” Alicia scoffed. “No offense, but your boss got me fired from that job. I don’t have anything to do with it anymore. If she thinks I stole something, she’s wrong.”
The woman’s already blank expression did not change.
“I do not know why Ms. Moreau wishes to speak with you. All she has asked is that I bring you to her as soon as possible.” Her look changed…
and it insinuated that Alicia didn’t have much choice in the matter.
What was this woman going to do? Forcibly remove Alicia from her apartment? Like the police?
Worse, perhaps. Her boss was one of the most powerful women around. She probably had more clout than politicians.
“I see no reason to go with you.” Alicia crossed her arms. “I have nothing to say to her. What could she possibly have to say to me?”
“I do not know, Ms. Colbert, but I will say that Ms. Moreau rarely wastes people’s time. Her own time is precious to her. Ms. Moreau has asked that you meet her in her home downtown.” Ms. Clayborn paused. “I am confident that you are not in trouble, Ms. Colbert.”
Alicia looked to Candice for help. Her roommate merely shrugged.
“All right.” Alicia checked her reflection in the living room mirror hanging by the window.
A ratty white T-shirt and frayed denim shorts looked back at her.
Her hair didn’t look much better. Needed a good combing, that was for sure.
“Give me ten minutes to get changed. Tell Ms. Moreau that I’ll be… ”
Alicia hadn’t even finished talking when Ms. Sarah Clayborn lowered her headset and confirmed that Alicia Colbert would be coming. Promptly.