“It’s okay…” I tell her as I flag over a bus boy.
She buries her face in her hands and then looks up at me. She seems so small, so unsure. She stares at me like she’s looking for answers in my soul. “I don’t even know who I am anymore. I got lost in you. I got…lost…”
“Nova…”
Just as the bus boy shows up with a dry rag, she grabs her purse from the table and pulls herself together, drying her eyes on a napkin.
She’s leaving. She’s leaving me again.
Desperate. Hopeless. I put it all on the line. “Nova, don’t go.” She doesn’t listen. She’s marching to the door. “Don’t walk away from me. Stop being so afraid.”
“This was a bad idea.”
My fingers clasp around her wrist and I tug her to me. “You’re the one for me. I’m going crazy without you.”
“We should have never started this, Charlie. Look how it turned out.”
“Starting this with you is the best thing I ever did. The only thing I regret is letting you go.”
“It’s not that simple and you know it.”
“It is.”
“It can’t be.”
“I love you...”
We both freeze. I wordlessly beg her to give me a chance.
But she just looks me in the face with a heart wrenching expression. “Maybe love isn’t enough.”
And then, she walks away.
Chapter 43
Nova
Monday morning finds me in my badass-babe thigh-high boots and slim-fitting dark wash jeans, knocking on Lori’s office door. My heart is in my throat but I stand tall. I may have unwittingly given up my dignity when I accepted this pity job but I’m going to gather what’s left of my pride and walk out of here with my head held high.
I’m still Nova Chester.
I don’t have a backup plan. I barely even have two pennies to rub together. But I did a lot of soul-searching over the weekend and I decided that I won’t allow myself to be a pawn in some rich woman’s seduction scheme.
She looks up at me in the doorway and her elegant brow arches on her face. “Norrine! Come in.”
Gritting my teeth, I step up to her imposing glass desk. My fingers are clenched tight around the resignation letter in my hand. A part of me is still screaming that there’s time to back out of this. That I can make up some silly excuse for the interruption and turn around, tuck my tail and head back to my desk.
But that would be dishonorable and if I don’t honor myself who will?
I know, I know. I’m giving up a fantastic opportunity, one I’ve waited for years for. But some things are more important than career or money.
“It’s Nova, actually.”
She blinks as if confused.
I repeat myself. “My name is Nova.”
She sets down the expensive ballpoint in her hand and her gaze sweeps over me head to toe, sizing me up. “Well, you look nice,” she says in a demeaning tone. “Motorcycle club princess meets Park Avenue, I guess.” She smiles that fake smile. It takes a certain type of bitch to smile as she stabs you. Lori has got the blood splatter all over her white leather pencil skirt and she doesn’t seem to mind. “How can I help you…Nova?”
I cut straight to the chase. “Actually, I’m here to give you my resignation letter.”
Her mask slips for a second and genuine shock plays on her meticulously constructed features. “You’re quitting?”
I throw my shoulders back and hold my head higher. “Yes. I’m quitting.” I’m proud of myself. My tone is respectful, yet firm.
She leans back in her plush office chair and observes me again from top to bottom, her expression downright hostile now. “You do realize that I practically moved heaven and earth to get you to come and work for me, right?”
“And that’s part of the problem,” I tell her. “I need to work in a place that hired me on merit and not as a means to manipulate the lives of other people.”
The expression that flashes across Lori’s features tells me that she’s clearly offended. But that’s not my problem. I’m just telling it like it is.
She stands gracefully and rounds her desk. “Nova, let me make something crystal clear…I don’t know what the hell it is you think is going on here—”
Fearlessly, I interrupt her. “I think you hired me to get me away from Charlie. But I love him and he loves me.” My heart goes crazy when I finally hear myself say the words out loud. “He loves me. Charlie loves me. And I don’t care if I have to spend the rest of my life balancing trays of overly-meaty meatballs in a small town Italian restaurant and singing at weddings where I get dairy products thrown at my head, I won’t let anything or anybody get in the way of my being with him. Especially not you.”
She freezes for a long beat.
And then she throws her head back and laughs the throatiest laugh I’ve ever heard. “You think I hired you to keep you away from your one true love, Charlie?” She bends over and braces her knee. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen her slip out of her carefully-manicured persona.
When she finally she stops laughing, she manages to string together a sentence. “I hired you after spending hours pouring over your online portfolio with trusted members of my team. That’s how I hire all my recruits. Doesn’t matter if I find them on Craigslist or if I find them flipping through a sketchpad in some hot guy’s truck.” Her expression is serious now, her eyes narrow.
I’m still trying to figure out whether to believe her. “So you didn’t hire me to separate me from Charlie?”
Lori gives me an incredulous look, “Bitch—I’m running a business. I have shareholders to account to. Do you honestly think I make multi-million dollar business decisions using my vulva?”
“But you slept with Charlie…Right?”
She rolls her eyes. “Who hasn’t? It’s his thing.” She eyes me again. “Or at least it was before he got mixed up with you. Last time I saw him, I couldn’t even get the guy to scope out my tits. I was wearing a four-hundred dollar handcrafted bra flown in from Italy. For nothing.” She shakes her head in frustration. “Charlie has a past, it’s true, but it’s clear that he wants a future is with you.” She waggles her brows. “It’s just as well because I’ve got a blind date with George Clooney’s cousin on Thursday night. Fingers crossed that those good looks run in the family.”
I’m so confused. “But you always give me that fake-ass smile. I was sure you hated me.”
“Honey, I’ve had so much plastic surgery that I don’t even think my brain recognizes my facial muscles anymore.”
Dropping my head, I snicker against my chest.
She leans on the edge of her desk. “Look, you’re a strong woman, a smart woman. You have a bright future within this organization, if you want it. So, I’m willing to just put this episode of insecure, emotional diarrhea behind us. As they say, keep calm and carry on. You probably have the good sense to be deeply embarrassed. I think that’s retribution enough. What do you say?” She folds her arms across her chest and waits for my response.
I’m so tempted to say ‘yes’. I kind of like my new job and I don’t want to go back to the way I was living before. Unfulfilled and miserable about my career prospects, living every day in a state of near-physical pain because no one would take a chance on me and my dream. But I’d never be able to live with myself if I didn’t put my heart on the line and take a risk for Charlie.
“Can I ask you a question?” I speak in a slow, hesitant voice.
She tilts her chin, motioning for me to go ahead. “What’s on your mind, Nova? Quick, quick, quick. Spit it out. You’ve got to have confidence to make it in New York City. Even the cockroaches here have got it. Those fuckers are bigger, badder and bolder than any other cockroaches you’ll ever meet. “
I smile. “You asked me to move to New York for this job. Was that just to get me away from Charlie?”
She gives me an exasperated eyeroll. “No, child. I’m not trying to separate you from y
our Romeo. If you can collar that wild animal, more power to you. Besides, you don’t have to work from here in New York. This is the 21st century. We have a little invention called the internet, it allows you to get your work done from any corner of the universe. In fact, half of our team is in India. I’ve never seen their faces outside of a computer screen.”
“Are you saying that I can go back to Copper Heights and keep my job?”
“You can go to Timbuktu, for all I care. At this point, I actually want you out of my sight.” She shoos me away with her hand. “Go. Go make arrangements with Jessie. Tell her you’ll be working remotely now.” Her falls back into her plush seat.
The relief I feel is overwhelming, all-encompassing. “Thank you, Lori. So much.”
“Yeah, yeah,” she mutters under her breath as I turn to leave. “Damn twenty-something hipster types. You Millennials really need to give yourselves a break with all the narcissistic, self-righteous grandstanding bullshit.” With dainty fingers, she stretches the skin on her cheeks up to her ears. “No wonder you’re all aging so poorly.”
I just chuckle as I hurry out of the room with a flicker in my heart and a bounce in my step.
Chapter 44
Charlie
I wave feebly at my new temp assistant as her minivan careens out of the parking lot and onto the main road. The lady has, like, six kids and when the clock strikes 5:00, the only thing on her mind is getting back home to make dinner for her rambunctious family. I’m pretty confident that the chances of her offering me a blowjob are pretty low.
She and I are off to a good start.
I push a sigh. The end of another long, unexciting workday. Time to face another long, excruciating night alone.
Yay!
Shoving the key into the lock on the back door, I twist it and then jiggle the handle to make sure that the place is secure for the night. I slump against the door and take a moment to stare up at the sky. The orange glow of the setting sun melts into the coppery hills in the distance. The heavy clouds in the violet sky tell me that it’s about to start raining. It’s only fitting that the weather matches my mood.
I’ve been all torn up since I got home from New York. Nova isn’t coming back. And now, I’m struggling to find some kind of direction for myself. The success of my business isn’t enough to fill that void. Other women hold no appeal in my eyes. I don’t want to go to bars with my friends.
I just want my Nova back.
My friend. The girl who understood me. The girl who would show up at my house at all hours with baggy sweats and stolen food. The girl whose laugh I can’t get out of my head. The girl whose curves are memorized by my brain.
The girl I love.
I drop down to the concrete stoop and bury my face in my hands. Maybe I didn’t try hard enough to convince her. I should have been more persuasive. I should have showed her my heart. Because right now, I can barely breathe thinking of how much I want her and how much I miss her. I drag my nails over my scalp and close my eyes against the pain. I really fucked up. So bad. There’s no denying it.
The first rain droplet hits the back of my neck. The cold wetness splatters on impact. The next raindrop follows soon after. I move lethargically, pulling the hood of my sweatshirt over my head. Still, it takes me a few seconds to get my shit together and get up off of the stoop.
I trudge across the wide lot to my truck and with a click of my remote starter, I open the door and climb inside. As I settle in my seat, I notice a sheet of paper jammed under my windshield wiper. If I could ignore it, I would but it’s raining and once I start this vehicle, I’ll have wet shreds of paper all over the glass.
Fucking Jehovah’s Witnesses are taking this shit too far!
Grumbling to myself, climb out into the rain and round the truck. Leaning over the wet hood, I snatch up the paper, I’m about to crumple it up and toss it in the gutter when the shape of the soaked-through ink stains catch my eye. Returning to the dry safety of the truck, I carefully unfold the paper.
I gasp out loud.
My head snaps from left to right as I search for the person who left this here. Is this some kind of sick, twisted joke?
The rain is really coming down now, pounding the windows from all sides. But in the distance, at the far end of the parking lot, I see a shitty, little white car.
A figure is approaching, splashing through puddles, hunched over with an umbrella held up as a shield. A gust of wind flips the umbrella inside out and a head of crazy golden curls comes into view.
No fucking way…
The paper lands on the floor as I burst out of the truck so fast I nearly fall flat on my face. She sees me and the mangled umbrella slips from her fingers. We both freeze. Through the rain and the cold and the whirring emotions, we stare at each other for one long heartbeat.
And then both explode into motion, speeding toward each other. We’re a clichéd movie trope in action. But we don’t care.
“Nova!”
Her smile tears across her face as we crash into each other. She leaps into my arms, wrapping her legs around my hips and our mouths collide. I’ve never tasted a kiss so sweet, so passionate, so full of everything that’s been missing in my life.
“Charlie…” She moans my name between kisses as my hands travel up and down her back.
“You came back…” Relief floods my body as I say the words. She came back…
I don’t want to take my lips off of her as I blunder toward my truck with her in my arms. I yank the passenger’s side door open and climb inside without ever letting go of her. I’m never letting go of her again.
Now, she’s on top of me, clothes soaked through, hair dripping. She’s kissing me. Rolling her hips against me. Drawing her fingernails down my chest.
I’m clawing at her dress. I break the straps and rip the wet fabric clear off of her body. A shiver moves across her skin as my kisses travel over her collarbone. She groans for me as she reaches behind her and unclasps her bra. I tear it away from her body just so I can feel those round, heavy breasts in my hands.
“Oh, Charlie,” she cries and the way she says it sends blood shooting to my groin. She groans even deeper when my mouth moves to her hard nipple and I drag my teeth along the sensitive flesh.
She reaches for my fly. Undoes the button. Pushes the denim down my thighs. Her fingers wrap around my throbbing erection and I’m panting against her skin. “God, I’m so happy you came back, Nova. I was going crazy without you.”
“I missed you so much.” Her words fall somewhere between a sob and a moan. And I just want to fill her up. I want to be inside of her so there’s no separation between us.
I reach into the glove box behind her and grab a condom. When I roll it on, she rises up off of my lap just enough to swallow my cock into the tight heat of her pussy.
Growling as my head falls back against the seat behind me, my hands clench on her hips to control the reckless grind of her body against mine. “Jesus. Yes, Charile. So good.” Pounding both hands into the ceiling, she makes sounds that resonate with me on a primal level.
“You like that, baby?” I fuck her from below, slamming my cock into her depth, drowning in the ripples and waves moving through her core.
“So much. I love it so much…” She draws in a sharp breath. “I love you so much.”
My movements halt. I lift my head up to look into those emerald eyes, glimmering even in the darkening cabin. “I love you, too, Nova. No one else. There will never be anyone else.”
She quivers in my arms. The wet trail meandering down her cheek has nothing to do with the rain. I rub my thumb along her skin to stop the tear in its tracks. And she kisses me, melting into me.
One hard thrust after the next, I pound my name into her bones. One clenching spasm after another, she carves her name into my heart.
Hiding her face in my neck, she shrieks and her body goes stiff. Her legs clamp tightly against my hips as she climaxes. Her nails sink into the leather seating. Her pussy
undulates, suctioning my cock.
I detonate like a bomb, my love exploding inside of her. My cock pulses and her walls shake around me. She clings to me as minutes float by, as our breathing smooths out.
After a long time, she pulls up for air. Her skin dewy, her smile serene. “Hi…”
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