Chapter 29
“Think they knew?” Jack asked once the Goldsmiths were ensconced in the elevator.
“That we slept together?” I made my way back inside. “Considering you couldn’t take your eyes off my ass, I’d assume so.”
Jack followed behind, a palm resting at the bottom of my spine. “Or maybe I loved your outfit.” He ran his hand over the cream lace dress. “It’s a very nice dress.”
“Don’t pretend you care about the dress.” I packed up the marketing materials we’d laid out. The Goldsmiths had been a hard sell for the second penthouse, and they weren’t any different when it came to the finishes they wanted. They’d taken twenty-five minutes debating the bathroom taps.
Jack snaked his arm around my waist. “I don’t give a shit about the dress,” he growled in my ear. “But I’m a big fan of what’s underneath it.”
I giggled, and my lips found his. In less than twenty-four hours, I’d gone from despising the man to aching to touch him. Being this giddy went against my MO of staying withdrawn and detached. The speed my heart travelled in his presence gave me motion sickness. But Jack could take what I dished out and give it straight back to me. A quality I’d hated since we met.
Oh, the irony. What used to irritate me now made me wet.
“Anyone here?” a voice boomed down the hallway.
We stepped apart and wiped our mouths. After our third round of fucking, he’d pulled me into his chest as we discussed whether to disclose anything to David.
Believing he’d consider our situation complicated and thus risk becoming even more unprofessional, we’d agreed on keeping schtum. I didn’t have it in me to climb another building.
“In here, David,” I called, straightening Jack’s tie.
With a final check, we stood at attention as David entered.
“Morning, David,” Jack greeted him.
David took a second to look up from his cell. “What are you doing here?”
He’s gonna call security and get us thrown out. “We had a meeting with the Goldsmiths about the finishes for the penthouse.” Please don’t fire us.
“Good. I assumed leaving before the event finished yesterday meant the team building hadn’t worked,” David said.
He knows. Goddam Sally and her spies. “It did. The climb brought us together.”
Jack jumped in. “We helped each other. Then Scarlett ate something that didn’t agree with her… condition, and I wanted to make sure she got home okay. So in a weird way, her being sick brought us closer.”
Could people spontaneously combust with sexual energy?
David hit the decline button on a call without even checking the screen.
“Good. Cause as I told you, realtors are a pain in the ass, but you two are kind of okay.”
“We think so,” Jack agreed, giving me a playful wink.
“So we’re not fired?” I double-checked.
David ignored my question. “How many units until we’re sold out?”
“Fifteen units and two penthouses,” we both answered. Contracts for three one-bedrooms had come in late Sunday night. A goddamn miracle and a true labor of love.
He squinted at something on his screen. “You’re not fired.”
“We appreciate it.” Between my arousal and relief, I wanted to faint onto the mega-expensive couch we’d needed to have cleaned at a cost of three hundred dollars.
David’s cell rang again. “Keep me updated. Bye.” And with a tap on the screen, he began conversing with someone in French as he left, his shouts bouncing off the marble.
My knees gave way, and I flopped onto the couch. “That was close.”
Jack joined me. “Getting fired or getting caught groping each other?”
“Both,” I sighed and watched as he rubbed my bare knee. “We’re supposed to be working.”
His hand moved a little higher, and I wriggled as his fingers went to work. “Wanna look at the social-media stats instead?”
“Fuck no,” I whispered as his index finger hit the exact spot.
* * *
“I cannot believe you, Aria. How did you forget to ask them to sign it?” Clarissa loomed over Aria’s desk, waving a piece of paper. “If they don’t sign it, that means no contract.”
Aria’s backcombed head bowed. “I thought they’d already signed it with you.”
“What’s going on?” I asked Viv, handing her a paper bag with her favorite bagel.
She ripped into the bag with relish. “Aria stood in for Clarissa at a listing appointment, she didn’t get them to sign, and now they’ve gone with someone else.”
Clarissa stalked off in a huff, and Aria rushed to the bathroom, followed by Tamica.
“Then me and Clarissa both got fucked,” I stage-whispered to Viv.
Viv’s bagel plopped onto the grease-proof paper. “What were those words that came out your mouth?”
I smirked and took a sip of my latte, enjoying the prolonging of the agony.
“You did not,” she wheezed, bagel forgotten.
My lips twitched. “Maybe.”
She gripped my arm and squeezed. “You fucked Jack?”
I just smiled and took a sip of my coffee.
Her fist pounded the desk. “I knew it. I could tell something happened from the way you were walking?”
“My walk?”
“Honey, you’re walking like John Wayne,” she squeaked.
My thighs were burning. “It did feel like riding a horse.”
Viv slapped her knees with excitement. “That good? Honey, I need details. Who did what and how did it start?”
In a hushed voice, I told her about what David had set up for us, my fear of hanging over the edge, and how Jack had stepped in to comfort me. Faking illness so we could play hooky. Inviting him back to my apartment. Revealing my childhood. Ending with what he said to me.
“He said that?” Viv’s voice trembled.
Her lip shaking almost set me off. “‘Being around you is like standing in a lightning storm.’”
She ran a hand over her face. “That might be the most romantic shit I’ve ever heard in my life.”
“You think he fed me a line?” Experience had taught me that when something seemed too good to be true, it was. Now that I’d said it out loud to my best friend, it hit home how na?ve I’d become.
“Don’t do it,” Viv admonished, picking up her bagel.
“Do what?”
“Talk yourself out of feeling something because you’re scared.”
“I’m not.”
“I can see the cogs in your brain turning, trying to look for a flaw. Turn them off,” she admonished.
A reminder lit up my cell. “I need to go meet Hailey. I’ll be back in an hour.”
“Finally getting that lunch, huh?” Viv whistled. “Go tell her about your wild night with a stallion. She’ll be thrilled it’s shaken the stick out of your ass.”
“I know where I can shove it next.” I rubbed my thighs before standing. “Now get those deal sheets sent out.”
* * *
The restaurant had deteriorated with age compared to the shiny cafés situated on either side. A once starched-white awning drooped like a loose grey tooth over the door. The green leather seats were split open and spilling out foam either side of the worn wooden tables. Our favorite table had mine and Hailey’s initials carved in the top-left corner. It was where she’d taken me to celebrate my high school graduation. Back then, we’d gone there out of necessity because we couldn’t afford any better. Now we visited out of nostalgia.
I smiled at the hostess and continued past her and up to the very back booth, spotting the back of my sister’s head above the stained-glass divider. She knew I always liked being able to see the door.
Hailey handed the menu back to the waitress. “I’ll have a salad, no dressing, and a lemonade.” She did a double take. “Hi, you look nice.”
A wave of affection rolled through me, and against my nature, I bent to give her a peck on the cheek. “You too.”
“Do you need a few minutes to look at the menu?” the waitress asked me as I slid into the booth.
“No need, I know the entire menu by heart,” I quipped. “I’ll have pancakes with extra syrup and a side of bacon.” Last night had left me feeling famished. Twice, I found myself in the kitchen grabbing a chocolate cookie. Then Jack would come looking for me, and it would kick off another cycle of sex and snacking.
“Do you get your cholesterol checked?” Hailey asked after we’d spent fifteen minutes exchanging pleasantries and she’d caught me up on my nephews. This was why I’d put this lunch off for so long. Random questions that would segue into a lecture.
I finished typing an email to a seller. “I’m not that old yet.”
She frowned. “You should. Heart disease runs in the family. Mom’s dad died right after he turned forty-three.”
“Can we not spend lunch discussing the causes of death of people we never met?”
I’d never met any of my other relatives. Both sets of grandparents had died before we were born, and mom had never told us about anyone else.
“She told me about it last week. I went to the doctor, and they were asking about family history, so I wanted to find out,” she explained, nodding at our waitress as she placed our lunch in front of us.
In defiance, I poured the entire cup of syrup over my plate. “Ignorance is bliss.”
Hailey crunched on a lettuce leaf. “Not when it comes to your health.”
“Can you please let me enjoy my pancakes, and not talk about mom or heart disease?”
“Yes, so what are we allowed to talk about?” she replied, spearing a tomato with her fork.
“I had sex last night.”
The tomato and her jaw dropped. “With who?”
“The guy I’m working with.” I cut off another slice of pancake and considered asking for more syrup. But all I could see emblazoned in neon letters above my sister’s head were the words “heart disease.”
Hailey leaned forward. “Is that smart?”
I swallowed. “It’s not dumb. We don’t work for the same company.”
“Fair enough. So what? Are you dating?”
“Ugh, I don’t know.” We’d never discussed it. Before, during, and after sex, we’d stayed in a bubble of pheromones and desire. When my alarm had gone off at 6 a.m. and he’d pulled on his jeans to rush home, it hadn’t seemed the appropriate time to bring up where this could go.
What if he considered it a casual thing? Something we needed to get out of our systems so we could go back to working with each other like normal humans?
This was what Viv had meant. Stop overanalyzing. Not everyone leaves.
Hailey looked at me, puzzled. “Are you planning on talking about it? If you work together, it might make things complicated if you’re not on the same page.”
No, not complicated. I wanted the opposite of that.“I’m a professional. It’s not going to get in the way of me doing my job, regardless.”
A dribble of tomato juice ran down Hailey’s chin, and she used a napkin to wipe it. “Hey, it’s your life. I’m offering my sisterly advice.”
Hailey couldn’t understand the turmoil she’d ignited in my brain. The cogs were spinning so hard I could almost smell smoke. Where did this leave us? We were vying for the same business. Lacey had made it clear where the ax would fall if I didn’t lock down David.
Hailey smiled. “We should do this more often.”
My pancakes lost their appeal. “Yeah.”