Arm Candy

by Jo Leigh

  “Yes, I saw. Now, we must go to the bar and discuss this situation, yes?”

  Marla nodded. “Oh, yes. Definitely.”

  DAN FINISHED checking his phone messages, then turned on his computer to retrieve his e-mail. He’d have a ton of it, but most was probably spam.

  As his computer downloaded, he got the phone and called his mother.

  She answered with her typical cheer.

  “Hi, Mom. How’s it going?”

  “Your cat peed in my shoes.”

  “Really? I’ve been training her for months. Be sure and give her an extra treat.”

  “Ha, ha. Now, how are you, and how is the big experiment going?”

  “Great and great.”

  “No kidding? I figured she’d get tired of you and throw you out after the second night.”

  “Gee, your faith in me is touching.”

  “Only you would think prying into some strange girl’s private thoughts is a romp in the park. Private thoughts are private for a reason. Wasn’t it Oscar Wilde who said, ‘There is hardly anyone whose sexual life, if it were broadcast, would not fill the world at large with surprise and horror’?”

  “No. It was Somerset Maugham. However, I don’t find anything Jessica does horrible. Surprising, yes, but not horrible.”

  “Oh, my.”

  Dan realized he couldn’t do the e-mail and talk at the same time, so he brought up his solitaire game. That he could practically do with his eyes closed. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “You’ve fallen for her. Three days out of the gate, and you’re in love.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. I’m not in love.”

  “You are. And she’s going to break your heart.”

  “She is not.”

  “Aha!”

  “Don’t aha me. She’s a very bright, very insightful woman, and she’s illuminating the subject in a way I never anticipated.”

  “Which means,” his mother said, her voice dropping an octave, “that you’ve stopped asking questions and are just having sex as often as humanly possible.”

  Dan opened his mouth to protest, when it occurred to him that his mother was right. He hadn’t asked Jessica anything for what, twenty-four hours? “Shit.”

  “Oh, honey. What can I tell you? Your intentions are always so good, but when it comes to women…”

  “What?”

  “Let’s just say that famous scientific detachment comes unglued.”

  The solitaire game forgotten, Dan leaned forward in his chair. “You don’t understand, Mom, she’s different.”

  “Right.”

  “No, really. She’s doing a bang-up job on this marketing campaign. She’s focused but not obsessive, and she’s been unbelievably honest with me. That’s why it seems like it’s moving so fast, because we’re smashing through all the typical getting-to-know-each-other bullshit.”

  “I understand.”

  “I know that tone of voice,” he said, getting a little fed up. “You’re assuming a hell of a lot.”

  Silence on the other end of the line. Then finally, just as he was going to apologize, his mother did.

  “I’m sorry. You’re right. I have no business judging you like this. For what it’s worth, sweetheart, I hope she’s everything you ever dreamt of.”

  “I’m not saying she’s that,” he said, hating the defensiveness he heard in his voice. “I’m just saying she’s, you know, great.”

  “Good. And when am I going to see you?”

  “After it’s all over. Next weekend, I guess.”

  “So your cat will have every opportunity to pee in all the rest of my shoes.”

  “Oh, don’t worry about that. I also trained her to pee in your sock drawer.”

  “Daniel!”

  “I love you, Mom. Talk to you soon.”

  He hung up to the sound of her sputtering. His smile didn’t last, however. He stood up, went to his window and stared at the street below. Was he rushing into this? Was he making Jessica into something she wasn’t? Or was this excitement that he’d felt since that first day something real, something he could count on?

  So he hadn’t asked any questions. That was just a matter of timing, nothing more. He’d ask. He had by no means abandoned his project. On the contrary. Knowing her this well was a stunning revelation. Hadn’t he been spot-on about her fear after that first time? By giving her space, she’d come around by the next morning. That proved that he was starting to understand women!

  And he also understood that he’d better get his ass in gear if he wanted to get dressed and make it out to the boat by five.

  MARLA SIPPED her mocha Frappuccino noisily as she hit bottom. For the last forty minutes, she’d been talking a mile a minute, telling Jessica every last detail about her and Shawn. Jessica had never seen Marla so animated, so over the moon. There simply wasn’t a way to stay passive in the face of so much happiness.

  And still, Jessica couldn’t help wondering what was going to happen when the week was over. Shawn was a famous man, with a whole world full of women to choose from. While Jessica thought Marla was one of the best, brightest, and certainly sweetest, did Shawn Foote really want her for keeps? Watching Marla talk, with her extravagant gestures and her totally unique vocabulary, all Jessica could think was if Shawn hurt Marla, she would chase him down and cut him where it hurts the most.

  “And he said that he wants me to come with him to Montana. He’s thinking about buying the ranch that’s right next to Harrison Ford’s. I mean, can you imagine? ‘Uh, Harrison,’ she said, lowering her voice in an approximation of no one in particular, ‘May I borrow a cup of sugar? Or maybe an Oscar?”’

  “Did Harrison Ford win an Oscar?”

  “I’m not sure, but I don’t think we’ll be borrowing it anyway.”

  “True.” Jessica sipped her plain old coffee. “Montana, huh?”

  “What’s not to like?” Marla said. “I mean, trees, horses, cows. Woodland creatures. Bunnies!”

  “Right. Deer.”

  “Bambi!”

  “Oh, does Shawn hunt?”

  Marla looked stricken, but only for a moment. “Don’t know. Can’t imagine. He’s too sweet to shoot anything. I think he fishes, though.”

  “Fishing’s okay.”

  “Yeah. As long as, you know, you eat them.”

  “Right.”

  “And you don’t have to look into their eyes.”

  Jessica nodded, understanding completely. In fact, she understood a lot about what her assistant was feeling. More than she liked to admit.

  What Jessica had that Marla didn’t, however, was her plan. Even though she hadn’t stopped thinking of Dan since this morning, that wasn’t because she was getting all “gooey” about him, as Marla would say. She was simply reacting to the novelty of such great sex.

  “Aha!” Marla said, pointing straight at Jessica.

  “What?”

  “I knew it. You’re also sharing this wonderfulness with your handsome Dan. It’s happening to us both!”

  “Wait a minute,” Jessica said, feeling her cheeks heat and fighting the urge to bolt. “It’s not what you think.”

  Marla’s eyes widened and Jessica realized what she’d almost admitted.

  Marla leaned forward. “He’s not really a boyfriend from college, is he?”

  She kept her expression completely neutral, despite the blush she couldn’t hide. “Of course he is.”

  “Oh. I thought he was someone you brought to get Creepy Owen to back off because, well, you not having a life and all.” Now it was Marla’s turn to blush. “I didn’t mean that the way it sounded.”

  “It’s okay,” Jessica said. “I’m not offended. I work hard at maintaining that image.”

  “Why?”

  “Because personal lives get so messy.”

  “Hmm.”

  Jessica hated it when Marla did that. Got all quiet and wouldn’t look her in the eye. “Come on. Out with it.”

  �
��Well, it’s only my opinion.”

  “Yes?”

  “Doesn’t it make your happiness dependent on your job? And wasn’t it you who told me, early on, that companies have no loyalty to anything but the bottom line?”

  “My career doesn’t depend on one job.”

  “True, but it does depend on some job. And that’s not very comforting, is it?”

  “Marla? Go buy yourself another Frappuccino, would you?”

  “Okay. But then we have to go get dressed. It’s boat time tonight.”

  “Yes, it is,” Jessica said, amazed she hadn’t blown it. At least not completely.

  “Dan will be there, right?”

  She nodded.

  “Oh, goody. You’ll have fun.”

  Jessica said nothing, not as Marla got up, or even when she put her hand on her shoulder. It did occur to her that in all the time they’d worked together, it was the first time they’d actually touched like that. Jessica couldn’t help wondering if it was because Marla had changed, or she had.

  THE NICE THING about the boat trip was that someone other than Jessica was in charge. Which didn’t mean she could just sit around and drink mai tais, but she wasn’t responsible for the whole gig.

  The bad thing about the boat trip was that Jessica wasn’t exactly the warm bubbly woman he’d kissed on his way out this morning. It wasn’t like that first night, when she’d gotten so scared. But she also wasn’t the open book.

  For his part, he was pretty determined to get back on track. Not that he wasn’t going to continue to make all that hot monkey love to her, but he was going to refocus on the project.

  Once she came back from talking to some People magazine bigwig, he would ask away. If he could figure out what to ask, that is.

  “May I refill that drink?”

  He looked up into the pretty eyes of the cocktail waitress. She was the opposite of Jessica in almost every way, from her blond hair to her tall, too-thin body. But her smile was nice and friendly. “Yes, please. And bring a whiskey sour, would you?”

  “Of course, sir.” She headed off, but he found her looking back at him twice.

  It hadn’t skipped his notice that ever since he’d started this job, women had been coming on to him. A lot. Way more than normal. In fact, he could go weeks, months, without being the recipient of that kind of smile. But every time he was with Jessica, he was a babe magnet. What was with that?

  “Hi.” Jessica sat down across from him. She breathed deeply then exhaled as she pushed her hair behind her ear. “That woman is a barracuda,” she said. “It’s like she wants New Dawn to fail. Maybe she doesn’t like cosmetics. Or maybe she just doesn’t like me.”

  “That’s absurd. How could anyone not like you?”

  Jessica looked at him a long time. In fact, he was getting a little worried when she finally said, “I don’t care.”

  “What?”

  “I don’t care if people like me. I don’t understand why I even said that. I need them to buy the product I’m selling, that’s all. Or promote it, or whatever else they need to do for me to succeed. Liking me has nothing to do with it.”

  He wasn’t sure what brought this on, and decided to keep his mouth shut.

  “I don’t want people to hate me, either. What I mean is, it shouldn’t matter. I’m not in a popularity contest. What she thinks of me is no concern of mine.”

  “Okay.”

  She looked him in the eye critically. “Do me a favor, would you, Dan?”

  “Anything.”

  “Let’s cut the intimate act when we’re in public, unless Owen is right there, okay? I need to keep my eye on the prize, and that’s not going to happen if I’m dancing with you all night.”

  Her words hit him like a blow. All he could do was nod, smile, act as if it meant nothing. As if this was just another day at the office. As if what she felt about him was no concern of his.

  Top Five Things Only Women Understand

  5. Fat clothes.

  4. Cutting your bangs to make them grow.

  3. Romantic stuff like mushy cards and flowers.

  2. The inaccuracy of every bathroom scale ever made.

  1. Other women!!!

  Source: Dobhran “Top Ten Things Only Women Understand”

  http://www.dobhran.com/humor/

  15

  JESSICA COULDN’T believe it. Here she was, in the middle of another tremendously successful party, getting raves from everyone from E! to W, accolades up the ying-yang from the folks at New Dawn, the wink-wink-nudge-nudge from Revlon, Chanel and Estée Lauder, and all she could think about was Dan.

  She’d hurt him, which she hadn’t meant to, but now that it was done, and the repercussions were in progress, maybe she had meant to hurt him, to send the whole business back to square one. She wanted to start over, to put on the brakes well before she’d become entranced, definitely before they’d become intimate. But some things can’t be undone, can’t be unfelt.

  She looked over at Dan, standing by the bar, toying with his drink. He’d had a few, more than was probably wise, but she wouldn’t dream of saying a word. He’d taken her at her word, and he’d backed off completely until Owen had approached. Then it was as if nothing had changed. Dan had become affectionate, endearing, territorial. She had to admit it had felt incredibly good, which was, of course, the problem.

  She’d felt so sure about the plan of hers, to see Dan every few months, wear each other out in the bedroom, then do it again in another few months. It still felt as if that was the way to go. But talking to Marla had put a kink in the works, and Jessica wasn’t quite sure why.

  The only way the plan was going to work was if she and Dan didn’t expect too much from each other. It totally depended on the focus being sex. She didn’t want more than that. In fact, she wasn’t even sure at this stage of the game if she could handle that much.

  She wasn’t sure why, but sex always seemed to be more than sex for women. Men usually had the right idea, but women wanted more. Romance, security, love, commitment, a future. Why? Why wasn’t it okay to want sex for its own sake?

  It would be enough for her, but only if there were no expectations of anything else. No hoping, no plotting, no daydreaming. All her thoughts needed to be on work, and her creativity, too. She wanted to rise to the top of a very competitive market, and to do that she needed focus, focus, focus.

  How could she do that when she was worried about Dan’s feelings being hurt? Maybe if she just explained things to him, set it all out like the business proposition she had in mind, he’d sign on, and they wouldn’t have to continue to go through this emotional crap. It was too draining. And too distracting.

  She simply wouldn’t worry about him anymore tonight. Tomorrow, when they had some privacy, she’d lay out the ground rules and see if he wanted to play.

  “UH, DAN? Is everything okay?”

  He looked up from his drink to see Marla standing to his immediate left, so pretty in her sailor dress, complete with a little blue boat pin on the collar. “I’m fine,” he said.

  “Not that we know each other that well or anything, but that’s a total lie.”

  He had to smile. They hadn’t spent a lot of time talking, but he was enchanted by the way she spoke. “Not a total lie. Just a partial lie.”

  “Which part?”

  “Just the part before the period.”

  “Ah. Anything you want to talk about?”

  “No.”

  “Oh, okay.”

  “Except, maybe you can help me.”

  She moved next to him, putting her right elbow on the bar, her left foot on the rail, mimicking his stance exactly. “I’ll do my best.”

  “What is it with women?”

  She raised both eyebrows, pursed her lips, but at least she didn’t burst out laughing. “I don’t know. Can you narrow that down any?”

  He sipped his drink, surprised yet again that he wasn’t drunker. Usually his limit was two, on a bad night three. This
was his fourth screwdriver. He remained disappointingly sober. “Narrow it down? Okay. Let’s try this. Why do women think it’s perfectly fine to change their minds every twenty seconds? First it’s yes, then it’s no, then it’s maybe, then back to yes, then damn no. Are you starting to see the drift here or should I continue?”

  “Perfectly clear,” Marla said, nodding so her red hair flowed down past her shoulders, then back up. “I’m familiar with the pattern.”

  “So? What’s the deal? Why can’t women say yes and mean yes?”

  “Sometimes they do.”

  “When? When exactly do they do that? What in hell does it take to make a woman mean what she says? I don’t get it.”

  Marla patted his shoulder. “It must be frustrating. But it’s not personal.”

  “It sure as hell feels personal.”

  “Personal is usually when she says no and means no.”

  “You’re saying rejection is final.”

  “Almost all the time.”

  “Almost?”

  “Yeah, see, because there might be new information.”

  “I’m not talking about court proceedings here. I’m talking about—” He stopped, unwilling to get more detailed about the situation. He was still working for Marla’s boss.

  “It’s tricky when you’re talking about…stuff. Because with…stuff, there are a lot of factors. When women do say yes, they usually mean yes forever, so there aren’t many casual yeses. And sometimes women can think that they’re saying yes to one thing and then realize it’s a completely other thing they’ve said yes to, and then they’re not sure about the yes, so that’s when the maybe comes into play. But the no, that’s typically pretty clear, except when the no is because the woman is frightened about a new situation, and so she says no, but that really doesn’t mean no, it’s mostly a maybe, but the man, he needs to give her time to see that there’s nothing to be afraid of, and that she won’t ruin her career because she falls in love.”

  Dan blinked twice. Shockingly, he’d understood everything Marla had said, specifically that last bit. “Okay, so let’s say some men get it about the being afraid part, and some men make allowances for that which seem to work but not really. Then what?”