by Stella Rhys
I snorted. “Yeah? Is he hot?”
“He’s got nice forearms, I’ll give him that,” Sara laughed. “Seriously, though. I don’t know how you do it, Li.”
“Do what?”
“Focus without needing to physically bang out your frustration sometimes. I’d get so much done if I were you.”
“I think that was God evening out the playing field. You’d take over the world if you didn’t need to stop every twelve hours and have sex with someone.”
She paused. “I think there was a compliment in there. Somewhere.”
“There was,” I giggled but I quieted down fast when I heard the front door of the townhouse swing open downstairs. “Ooh. I gotta go.”
“Why? Hottie’s home?”
“You know the drill,” I said with a grin.
“Okay, bye. Save me a truffle or I’ll hurt you!”
“’Kay, bye!” I whispered, hanging up as I listened to Lukas come up the stairs. The first night of our deal, he’d come home to hear me giggling with Sara on the phone. I heard his footsteps pause in the hall and when I went to peek in the peephole, I confirmed him smirking at my door. With a tired laugh and groan, he said, “You’re killing me, Lia,” then disappeared into his apartment. I blushed to myself for probably thirty minutes after that.
Last night, it was similar. I’d peeked out into the hallway to see him gaze at my door for a good second before cursing under his breath and going in.
It was surprising to me, and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t flattered and charmed. I’d half-expected Lukas to plain forget about me by day one. He had beautiful women of every kind at his beck and call – I really couldn’t imagine that he’d wait several days for me instead of round them up to have multiple threesomes in the penthouse of his favorite hotel.
Hearing him approach his door, I tip toed to mine, peeking out into the hall. Damn, I bit my lip when I saw him walking in looking tired but unbelievably sexy with his tie and jacket in his hand, his shirt un-tucked those deft fingers undoing the first few buttons.
Shit. I ducked when he peered over his shoulder at me.
“I can hear your slippers every time you come to the door,” he said, his voice a mixture of amusement and exhaustion. “You better be working your ass off in there. I heard you giggling on the phone the other night.”
“What – I am!” I retorted. “I haven’t left my house in three days!”
His door was open now but he leaned back against it to squint at my door. “Are you serious? That’s not healthy,” he laughed incredulously. He cocked his head as if to get a better look at me. “You can’t open the door for a second so I can at least look at you?” he asked.
“Trust me, you don’t want to.”
He massaged the back of his neck. “Trust me. I can’t think of anything I want more right now,” he said.
My cheeks were hot as I bit my lip again. There was surprisingly no flirtation in his statement – it was just matter-of-fact. And somehow, that made me blush even more. I turned away from the peephole and leaned my back against the door.
“One more day, Lukas,” I said, if even to remind myself. “You’ve already gone this long without breaking the rules. Don’t do it now.”
“Fine. I won’t,” I heard him say. It was quiet for another few seconds as I leaned against my door. But finally I heard Lukas laugh to himself, go inside and close the door.
But barely thirty minutes later, there was a knock.
“Seriously, Lukas?” I shook my head as I marched over to the door, gathering my messy hair into a topknot and securing it haphazardly with a tie. Knotting my robe, I suppressed the smile on my face and swung open the door. “Lukas, didn’t we just – oh!”
I blinked when I realized it wasn’t Lukas. The man at my door was about a foot shorter including the chunky bicycle helmet. His look was blank as he held out a paper bag, raising his eyebrows expectantly as he waited for me to take it.
“Lia Pope, yes?”
“Oh. Yes.” I grabbed it, confused as I examined the bag. “Sorry, what is this?” I asked. But by the time I looked up again, he was gone and Lukas was opening his door.
Goddammit. He was barefoot and shirtless, wearing just a pair of grey sweats that hung well below his hips. I stared. Didn’t even try to hide it. He looked good enough to lick. When I looked up, an irresistible grin spread across his lips.
“Lukas.” I shook my head. “This has to be breaking the rules.”
“Not at all. The rule was that I couldn’t knock. There was nothing about getting a delivery guy to do it for me.”
“Hm…” I said to disguise the fact that I was dangerously charmed. "Clever loophole,” I mused, looking into the bag and back up at him. “Wait. Did you just buy me dinner?” I asked, unable to hold back my smile.
“Yes.”
“You don’t think I can feed myself?”
“Not if you haven’t left the house in three days. I saw your fridge the other morning – all you had in there were three eggs and I used them for your omelet.”
“True,” I relented, completely thawed at this point. Closing my eyes, I breathed in the steam from the bag. “Mmm. Smells good. I’m not sure what it is but I think I’ll like it.”
“You will,” Lukas said with a faint smile. And for a couple seconds, he stood there, gazing at me like I were some picture at a museum.
“You alright?” I asked. I wasn’t sure why. Something just felt the slightest bit off. But he recouped fast.
“I’m better now,” Lukas said. “But I’ll let you go before your dinner gets cold. It tastes best when it’s hot.”
“What is it?”
“You’ll know when you see it. It’s from your favorite place,” he grinned, giving a sexy little nod goodbye before stepping back and closing the door.
I stared for a bit, confused. But when I retreated into my apartment, I went straight to tearing into the food he’d ordered me. I couldn’t stop smiling when I saw what it was – paella.
14
LIA
“I look forward to speaking with you very soon.”
The line played on repeat in my head as I practically skipped across town from my meeting. Really though – what could that possibly mean besides anything good? I was genuinely trying to answer the question because I wanted desperately to keep my hopes down, or at least at a reasonable level.
But I couldn’t. I’d frickin’ killed that meeting and the cherry on top was my creamy lavender truffle tucked into my signature teal box, wrapped in a shiny peach ribbon printed with my name, Pope Chocolates. The product, the branding, my pitch – everything was completely on point and though I had no final word on anything, I needed to celebrate.
“You made it!” Sara squealed, her lithe arms outstretched as I angled my way through the crowd at The Margot. The swanky bar hosted her company’s Friday happy hour every week, and Sara had begged me for years to go but I never did. Top shelf open bar sounded like a massive hangover just waiting to happen so I had to decline.
But not tonight.
Tonight I was giving myself permission to take full advantage. I planned to drink, I planned to dance and I planned to scarf down a 2AM slice of pizza with Sara to cure the drunk munchies. I was giving myself the entire day off tomorrow, so for the next twenty-four hours, I was free.
The only thing I didn’t plan to do tonight was text Lukas.
I wanted to see him. I couldn’t deny that. He’d charmed my figurative pants off the other night by ordering me paella but I couldn’t afford to be around him this drunk. Whatever attraction I had for him was already too big too fast and I needed to slow it down. And since alcohol was never the key ingredient to slowing anything down, I nixed the idea of inviting him and decided to make it a girls night.
“So do you think it’s gonna happen? Do you think you got the deal?” Sara asked, squeezing both my hands so tight I could barely feel them.
“I don’t want to jinx it but…”<
br />
“You totally got it.”
I grimaced because I really didn’t want to jinx it but for once, I let myself be nothing but optimistic. “I… think I did.”
“Yesss!” Sara squealed so loud half the bar looked at us. I laughed as she forced me to jump up and down with her. “Oh my God, fingers crossed but even if you don’t get it, I’m so fucking proud of you and this calls for all the champagne. Come on!” She tugged urgently on my arm. “We can toast to your new business and I can introduce you to all my coworkers so they’ll stop saying I made you up!”
I laughed as we did exactly that, grabbing two flutes of champagne at the packed bar and mingling with all the coworkers who playfully doubted my existence since they’d heard about me for years, but had never met me.
“Honestly, you really seemed like Sara’s imaginary friend because none of us could believe she found someone as work obsessed as her,” giggled Willa, a raven-haired girl Sara described as “one of the good ones” at the office. “We wouldn’t believe you were real if it weren’t for the chocolates Sara brings us on Mondays. Lia, the rum raisin truffle you make? It might be the best thing I’ve ever tasted.”
“Thank you so much!” I said, blushing as a couple others chimed in about the “fucking divine” truffles of mine that Sara was known to bring in to work from time to time. I was normally squirmy and uncomfortable when it came to accepting compliments but for some reason, I was reveling in them tonight. I felt deserving of them for once – bright, happy and confident in a way I was pretty sure I’d never felt before tonight. Before this week.
Surrounded by Sara and her favorite coworkers, we toasted to my “ninety-nine-percent-sure-gonna-happen” deal and the good vibes went on strong for the next hour or so – right up till the moment I heard a familiar voice shriek in my ear.
“Whoa, am I wasted or is Lia Pope out on a Friday night?”
Oh… no.
I turned to find my first-floor neighbor, Rachel, holding her mouth wide open as she came in for the hug. I was tipsy so I let her bring it in, flashing a warning look over her shoulder at Sara, who was already rolling her eyes and retching. She’d worked with Rachel at June Magazine for years before I moved to New York and it was only through Rachel that I found my apartment. But once I did start my lease, she apparently griped for weeks that her landlord chose some “boring goody two shoes” to rent the second-floor unit, instead of one of her “fun, cute friends.”
Obviously, Sara didn’t take kindly to it and called her out in front of their coworkers multiple times, which led to a few awkward run-ins with Rachel for me at home. Lucky for me, she had her own entrance to the townhouse so we didn’t run into each other often. Of course when we did, she tried to pressure me out of my lease, saying I didn’t need such a “centrally located apartment” since I never went out.
In summary, Rachel kind of sucked and I was already anticipating some sort of passive aggressive remark as she held my shoulders and cooed at me.
“Aww, you even got dressed up. Is that a one-inch heel I see on those flats? Damn, girl. Livin’ wild!” she giggled, giving my arm a little smack. “So what finally brings you out tonight? You’re like, literally the least social person I’ve ever met in my life.”
I flashed a strained smile and ignored her not-so-veiled insult. “Well, you know. Just had a good workday and now I’m rewarding myself with a little – ”
“Sunlight? Some actual vitamin D?” Rachel cracked. “That’s good, ‘cause you definitely need it. And while you’re at it, you should get yourself some actual D. As in dick?”
“Yes, thank you, Rachel. It was an extremely sophisticated joke, but we got that,” Sara said as she handed me a much-needed shot of vodka. Rachel smacked her arm.
“Am I not right though? We should hook her up with one of the interns. They’re cute and they’re like, nineteen,” she said, turning back to me and winking as she sucked on her straw. “They won’t even be able to tell if you don’t know what you’re doing.”
“Wow. Very kind offer, Rachel, but I think I’ll decline,” I said dryly.
“Why? It’s been ages for you and beggars can’t be choosers.”
Sara cleared her throat. “Actually,” she started in a tone I both recognized and feared. She ignored the death look I flashed her to flash a dazzlingly fake smile at Rachel. “Lia might just have the most interesting sex life out of all of us right now. And by ‘might’ I mean ‘definitely,’” she said, turning back to me with a look that wordlessly begged for permission to spill. I shook my head adamantly, mouthing a clear no as Rachel let out a snort.
“Mm… doubtful.”
It irked me but I was much more inclined to let her be smug than brag about something completely uncertain. I’d slept with Lukas once. For all I knew, he would forget about me in a week. He might even move on to sleeping with Rachel. I made a face as the thought twisted something in my stomach.
“See? Look how uncomfortable she still gets about sex,” Rachel giggled as Sara groaned and nudged me hard for permission. When I ignored her, she huffed and turned away to furiously text on her phone. “Seriously though, Li,” Rachel leaned on her elbow, studying me curiously. “How are you surviving living next to Tess’s brother? He’s like, a sex maniac.”
Sara ripped the loudest snort. “Yeah, Lia, how on Earth do you survive that?” she asked as I ground my teeth.
“Wine and meditation, Sara. How about that?” I asked, but when I turned to her, she’d already disappeared into the crowd. What the hell, woman? I cursed her for leaving me, which she never did. Rachel gave a sudden gasp.
“Omigod, Lia. You know,” she sipped her drink with big, scandalous eyes. “Last weekend… I can’t even say it. You’re totally gonna die.”
“What?”
“I heard Lukas having the loudest. Sex. Ever.”
I choked on my champagne. “You… really?”
“Yes. I’m pretty sure he was like, fucking her in the hallway.”
My heart pounded. “You could actually hear that?”
“Ca-lear-ly,” she said, breaking up the word to convey just how darned clearly she heard it. “You were probably dead asleep but I was straight up wondering if I should march up there and ask if they wanted company!” she cackled, slapping my knee. “I was just back from a date myself so I still looked super cute. Pretty sure he would’ve been happy to have me.”
“Possibly,” I said, recalling the threesome I almost witnessed Lukas having the first night that we met.
“‘Possibly’? More like definitely,” Rachel scoffed. “You don’t know because you weren’t there but Lukas invited me and my friends over for drinks awhile back and he was literally in heaven surrounded by so many hot chicks. He loved it. I seriously wish you got to see him that night, Lia.”
I smiled. Oh, I saw him that night. He rubbed his rock-hard dick against me while kissing me in the hall, and I spent the next few days dreaming about the sex we wound up having later that week.
I sucked a breath between my teeth.
God, I was so tempted to say it but instead, I ground my teeth and took the high road that Sara so passionately despised, smiling and nodding as Rachel gabbed on and on about Lukas and his friends being “so flirty” that night.
“That sounds like fun!” I interrupted when I’d finally had enough. I wanted to keep my prime seats at the bar but I didn’t love them enough to hang out another second with Rachel. “Anyway, I should probably go find Sara…” I said, going on my tippy toes to scan the crowd for my best friend’s long, black hair. But I saw nothing and when I reached into my bag for my phone, I froze.
Shit.
“Where’s my phone?” I murmured, digging deeper as Rachel watched me.
“Oh,” she sucked loudly at the bottom of her drink. “I thought you knew.”
I blinked up at her. “Knew what?”
“That Sara took it? Pretty sure I saw her do that like, twenty minutes ago.”
I stare
d, realizing what those nudges were actually for.
“Oh… fuck.” I was in frantic denial, still searching my pocket-less outfit for my phone. I was hoping Rachel was wrong because if Sara really had it, I knew exactly what she might want with it and whom she might be trying to text. “Hey, Rachel? Can I borrow your phone really quick?” I asked, still patting myself down and surveying the bar for my soon-to-be former best friend.
“No, I’m on twelve percent,” Rachel said barely a second before a sharp gasp ripped from her throat. “Oh. My. God.” I froze, staring at Rachel’s giddy face as I felt the heat on my back. “Lukas!”
She launched off her chair as I gripped my barstool, feeling like I might topple over from the weight of my heart slamming against my chest. I still held out hope that it was another Lukas, but that hope was dashed once I turned in my chair because there he was and damn it.
Goddammit.
He looked beyond good and he knew it as he grinned at me over Rachel’s bouncing head. Hoo-boy. He was wearing a black V-neck and jeans and despite nodding along with Rachel, he kept sneaking sexy little glances at me. With the last look in my direction, he gave me a full-body onceover, arching an eyebrow at the pencil skirt wrapped around my hips before turning back to Rachel with a full grin I knew was for me.
It was crazy. I could somehow feel his attention on me despite his eyes on Rachel and just to test it, I played with the stem of my champagne flute. His eyes flicked over instantly and watched my fingers stroke the glass for two seconds. Then he broke into a dirty laugh for which he apologized to a quizzical Rachel.
Yeah… fuck it.
I wasn’t even that drunk but I couldn’t resist anymore. Cocking my head at Lukas, I drew his eye. Holding my hand up, I beckoned with one finger. I grinned with satisfaction as he promptly came to me, letting the crowd separate him from Rachel.