Chapter 39
Julianna
I’m getting out of my shower on a lonely Tuesday night when Presley calls me.
This late at night, it could be about anything. A crazy idea she’s suddenly had. She’s in jail for drunk and disorderly conduct and needs me to bail her out. She’s still drunk and disorderly and wants to bother me.
Basically, there’s no good reason for my business partner to call me this late at night. Not with her track record, anyway.
“What are you doing this Saturday night?”
That’s all she says the moment I answer. Knows how to cut to the chase, doesn’t she?
I rub my chin as I continue to dry off in front of my bathroom mirror. I don’t need to wrap a towel around my body in my home. Hell, I’d make a huge spectacle of it if Alessa were here, but noooo, she’s at a study group for one of her finals and going back to her apartment for the night. Something about being on her period anyway. I admit, once she starts talking about blood, I tune out. I’ll throw her all the ibuprofen she wants, but that’s the extent of it. All I hear is, “I’m not feeling cuddly enough for sex in the next couple of days,” and I’m good.
“Hopefully I’m going out with my girlfriend this weekend.” It’s the highlight of my week, isn’t it? Spoiling Alessa silly, that is.
“But you don’t have any meetings or need to see your parents, right?”
I squeeze toothpaste onto my brush and hope to wrap up this conversation. “Not that I recall. Call Vern and find out for me.”
Is it cold in here? What is with this randomly cold evening in Portland? After a string of early summery days, it’s suddenly sixty degrees and rainy again. Even a woman like me can start chafing with ridiculous weather extremes like these. I better apply some body powder to my groin. Alessa appreciates it when her woman isn’t chafing around sensitive areas.
Of course, I’m technically touching myself when I hear, “Excellent. Then you can come to a small party we’re throwing at my place this weekend.”
I stop, my powdery hand slapped against the side of my crotch. “With whom?”
“Yeah, so, I thought a lot about what you said last week and got in touch with Cher again. She’s not an employee anymore, right? There’s no issue with us dating.”
“Excuse me?” I’m not hearing this, right? I know for a fact that my dumbass business partner is not continuing to see a woman I had fired because she was acting like a petulant child.
“Do I have to say it a third time? Cher. Lieberfield. Come on, you remember her. The hot fox working with Alessa before you started tapping that?”
“Yes, I remember her,” I grumble. “Why the hell am I hearing about her again?”
“Because we got back together, and I think it might be a real deal now, Jules.”
I brace my free hand against my sink and consider my pissed-off countenance in the mirror. “You’re a fucking idiot,” I spit.
“Following your lead around the office, champ. So, you and Alessa can stop by my place for dinner around seven on Saturday, right? Thought we’d take advantage of the sunny daylight on the balcony off my dining room. What say you?”
I say a lot of things. Things that I’d rather not repeat here.