by Stella Rhys
It was the perfect plan.
Until the breakup, of course. Because now Mike was gone and I was still living on Long Island and that made me feel stupid for even quitting the restaurant in the first place.
“The worst part is I can’t even come back to work here because I took all those consulting gigs in the city,” I griped as I sat in the back office with Aly, both of us sipping on the restaurant’s signature cocktail, the Hail Mary. It was a drink I had designed and was, as Aly called it, “a Bloody Mary on steroids” since it was garnished with not just the usual fixings, but also pickled asparagus, vodka-poached shrimp and a giant lobster claw.
“Are you just going to commute to the city every day for those meetings?” Aly frowned as she clicked about on the computer doing payroll.
“Yeah. That’s another thing that’ll kind of suck.”
“Seriously. Fuck Mike for that shit. That frickin’… douchenozzle of an unredeemable asshole,” Aly grumbled angrily as she worked.
I chewed my lip while saying nothing in reply.
I knew I was supposed to hate Mike. I mean he’d waited till the day we were supposed to move to Brooklyn together to tell me that he was dumping me. He knew I couldn’t afford to rent our new apartment alone, so dibs went to him, even though I’d spent months apartment hunting without his help.
That said, he did pay for my stay at a not-horrible hotel while I looked for my own place, because he knew I was having money troubles of late. But still. He dumped me in a fairly classless way, and I knew Aly was particularly mad because even before the breakup, Mike and I had been having problems. He’d begun picking weird fights here and there and stopped letting me show any affection. Our sex life had been nonexistent for more than a year before he left, so on paper, it didn’t really make sense that I was still pining to be near him.
But I personally knew what Mike still meant to me.
The reasons weren’t things I discussed in detail with anyone – not even Aly – but I knew them in my heart, and that was all that really mattered.
“Yeah… I know, he sucks, but anyway – topic change,” I declared, since I did have an actual order of business to tend to here. “As I told you before, I have a juicy story to tell you from the other night.”
“Yes, yes! Hit me.”
I wasted no time recounting everything I’d been dying to tell her for almost two days. I started with my voicemail to Mike and ended with the heat of the kiss Drew left on my neck. I also backed it up to include the detail of how he groaned when I squeezed his forearm, and how that deep, throaty, annoyingly sexy fucking sound had reawakened something inside me.
I said all that and when I finished, I dealt with five straight minutes of Aly literally shrieking in my face, squealing her ass off and kicking in her chair with a mixture of disbelief and delight.
“Oh my God, I can’t breathe – that’s amazing!” she gasped before getting swiftly angry. “Wait. You bitch! Why didn’t you tell me the night it happened?”
“I wonder why, Aly. Could it be because you arrived completely shithoused and I was afraid you’d go and cause a scene with Drew if I told you that he was mean to me?”
It was a genuine concern that night because shortly after leaving Drew and his annoying skilled tongue on the terrace, Aly had finally arrived at the party. The reason she was so late, apparently, was because she’d gotten wasted with the staff here before going home to Emmett. She hadn’t known about the surprise party, obviously, so she’d let the waitresses and kitchen guys talk her into doing an absurd amount of shots.
Emmett, bless his heart, had done his best to sober her up before hauling her into the city, but the effort was in vain. By the time they arrived at Boulevardier, Aly was still drunk and going to town so hard on a Philly cheesesteak that she didn’t even look up at the first “surprise!” We had to say it twice for her to gasp, drop her sandwich, then drop to her knees and mourn the loss of her sandwich.
“Okay, fair. I was a complete shitshow that night,” Aly relented with a sheepish giggle. “But clearly I got my punishment, because I’m so mad I didn’t get to witness that ridiculous sexual tension between you two!”
“It wasn’t – ” My attempt to deny the heat of that night was dead on arrival. “Ugh, who am I kidding. It was one of the hottest moments of my life,” I grumbled.
“And you sound so unhappy because…?”
“Because he was right and I was wrong, and I feel guilty for letting a complete stranger turn me on harder than I’ve been in recent or even distant memory,” I confessed. But then I held my finger up. “That said, I maintain that he caught me during a special circumstance. I haven’t been touched in a remotely sexual manner in more than a year, so my body was just particularly sensitive that night. But me and Mike in our prime? Like the days of our relationship when we weren’t fighting all the time? We could have sex hotter than that kiss any day. Guaranteed.”
“Mmm-hm,” Aly said. I chucked a piece of shrimp at her. “Whoa, hey! Don’t waste the garnish! What did I say?”
“You said ‘mmm-hm’ with an undertone of skepticism, which I think you made deliberately audible just for me.”
“Did I?” Aly smirked. “Well, I do have to ask – would you ever want to be with Drew Maddox?”
I squinted at her.
“I mean he’s not as intolerable as he seems.”
“Nice. You really sold me there.”
Aly laughed.
“I mean I’ll always have a soft spot for him because he’s the reason Emmett and I got together. But also, he’s one of Emmett’s closest friends, Evie. And double dates should be enough incentive as it is,” Aly cracked as I shook my head adamantly.
“No. Absolutely not. I know he’s your boyfriend’s bestie, but he’s also a famous athlete who’s allergic to commitment of any kind, and I know you don’t like to hear it, but I’m still…” My face contorted with guilt as I trailed off. “I’m still waiting to hear from Mike,” I finally mumbled. “Even if it’s just for closure purposes.”
Aly chewed her lip as she nodded, which meant she was giving herself time to rephrase something in her head so that it didn’t just blurt out and hurt my feelings. I braced for it.
“Speaking of Mike, did he ever text or call after the voicemail you left him?” she finally asked.
“Oh, no… I think maybe he didn’t listen to it because it came from an unknown number,” I said as she shot a dubious look.
Once upon a time, Aly tiptoed around Mike and my troubles because she didn’t want to further stress me out about our already rocky relationship. But now that Mike was gone, those days were over.
“Yeah, no, I think he heard the voicemail but he’s ignoring you because it’s easiest for him. He’s enjoying the single life right now, and he’s not feeling remotely guilty about it – which means you should be doing the exact same thing.”
“Well, damn, girl, I’m trying,” I argued before realizing I totally wasn’t. I caught a second of the please look on Aly’s face before holding my hands up in surrender. “Okay, fine, I was totally not trying the past month or so. I was definitely wallowing and not doing anything with my days. But as of today, that stops.”
“Good.” Aly nodded. “Besides, if you really want to get back together with Mike, ” she paused to eye me with a look that said please don’t, “nothing’s going to get him crawling back faster than knowing you’ve moved on.”
“True,” I conceded – because she was a hundred percent right.
I knew Mike well enough to know that the only reason he was comfortable ignoring me right now was because he knew well that I was still waiting around for him – pretty much on call to talk to him. It had always been like that when we argued. If I gave him the cold shoulder for long enough after a fight, he’d panic and agree that we needed to talk.
So, if I stopped being so available, and if I stopped calling and asking our mutual friends how he was doing these days?
I had a fee
ling he’d be much quicker to answer all my questions.
Taking in a deep breath, I let it out like it was a brand new day.
“Okay,” I exhaled with a big smile as Aly gave my foot a playful kick.
“There’s my Evie,” she grinned. “So, what’s the first order of business on your first official day of moving on?”
I thought about it. A sheepish look twitched on my lips.
“Well… I did always say that when I finally got a day off from here, I’d go read a book in the window of Poppy’s Tea Room.”
Aly snorted.
“Hey. Do you, girl,” she shrugged with a giggle.
I couldn’t blame her for the mild judgment. Poppy’s Tea Room was an overpriced, heavily floral-decorated tea parlor that served flavorless finger sandwiches on three-tiered platters. It was all hype, but it spoke to the girliest part of my soul and I decided today was the day I was going to go.
So, grabbing my purse, I kissed Aly goodbye and headed straight home to change and pick a book to read. Then I drove fast to Poppy’s to beat the lunch rush because that coveted window seat was mine. I was going to relax my ass off today. I’d already made that decision.
It was about to be the best, most tranquil and stress-free day of my life.
I could already feel it.
6
EVIE
Okay, so my best day ever was already off to a rocky start – but solely because of the ladies who lunch at the table next to me.
They wouldn’t stop shooting dirty looks because I’d arrived a minute before them and was seated at the window table they of course wanted. After complaining in vain to the waitress and manager that they wanted my seat, their queen bee with the overdone lip fillers actually dared to approach me and say that I was affecting the enjoyment of four people, instead of just one by refusing to relinquish my spot.
I, of course, flashed my best eat me smile while politely saying, “I’m sorry, I’m not going to move.”
And since then, it had been a silent war of dirty looks and under-the-breath muttering. To my credit, I only peered at them once when I heard one scoff that I was a “miserable person” and she “wasn’t surprised” by my “lack of company.” But since that remark, I’d been doing a pretty good job of keeping my nose buried in my book.
But shortly after my food arrived, I heard their hushed murmurs again. I paused, momentarily sure that they were now judging my choice of finger sandwiches, but then I heard the sound of shock and unfiltered lust in their voices.
“Oh my Lord, girls. I think it’s our lucky day.”
“Good God. Who gets dibs?”
“I say me because I’m the only one whose husband is out of town.”
I bit back a giggle.
So they were ladies who lunched and also sometimes cheated on their husbands. I had to peek over at them, entirely too amused with how quickly they went from posh to vulgar. One of them was talking about her new sex swing now. Okay. Wow. I was so busy watching their purring, lip-smacking reactions to this random guy that I didn’t care to look up till I tracked their gaping stares right back to my table.
They wore looks of pure indignity as their eyes flicked back and forth between me and their object of desire – who was clearly standing right in front of me.
Oh… God. Slowly, I turned from them and looked up, up, up till I was staring at Drew Maddox.
Standing in the middle of the pinkest, frilliest tea parlor on the East Coast.
Looking like flat-out inked-up sex in a fitted white V-neck and jeans.
Holy fuck.
“What are you doing here?” I breathed.
“I hear they do some killer tea and crumpets,” he deadpanned.
“Seriously. What are you doing here?”
“Can I sit?”
I eyed the ladies to my right, who didn’t care to avert their big eyes when I caught their stares. I didn’t want to give them the pleasure of overhearing whatever Drew was about to say, so with a reluctant pat next to me, I had him take the seat right beside mine.
“Good to know you have horrible taste in restaurants.”
“How did you find me? I didn’t even tell you my name let alone where I might be on this particular Monday.”
“My agent told me your name, and your own best friend sold out your location. I went to find you at her restaurant – ”
“Our restaurant.”
“Sure. And she said you were on your way here,” Drew said, prompting me to peek at my phone, which I’d put on silent. Twelve texts and two missed calls. Okay, yeah. This all checked out. Apparently, Aly hated Mike enough to aid Drew in completely breaching my privacy today.
ME: WOMAN. haven’t read any of your texts yet but I’m going to kill you very soon
I sent the message quickly before looking back up at Drew.
“Look, if you came here just to gloat then you have much less of a life than I’d imagine for a star athlete,” I said.
“Gloat?” he smiled. “About what? Remind me.”
Ugh.
Dammit. I ground my teeth as Drew played dumb. Set yourself up for that one, I told myself while trying to carefully word my response.
“You’re under the impression that you won some bet about getting me hotter than Mike ever could. You didn’t,” I insisted crisply. “But since your superstar ego is clearly as big as it is fragile, I’ll let you go ahead and believe that.”
“My superstar ego is backed by the dedicated stat keepers of Major League Baseball, so you’re a hundred percent right about it being big. Fucking huge, in fact,” he added, grinning as I rolled my eyes. “Fragile though? No. Not so much.”
“Right. Then why did you travel all the way to Long Island just to gloat and give me a hard time?”
“I’m not here to do that. I was satisfied enough with how I got you looking that night.”
“Which was like what?”
“Like you’d just been fucked for hours when all I did was kiss you.”
I sucked on my teeth to refrain from retorting. I didn’t have anything prepared and he was clearly fucking great at using my words against me. Something tells me this dickhead’s great at trash talking the other team, I thought, clenching my jaw and waiting out my seething irritation before I spoke again.
“Okay. Last chance, Drew,” I said slowly between my teeth. “What are you doing here?”
“I’d prefer to talk somewhere private.”
“You barged into my space to bother me – again – so I’m sorry, but you don’t get that choice.”
“Fine.” I watched his bicep flex as he gripped my seat and swiftly pulled my chair over – so close to his that my legs were now crossed between his muscled, man-spreading thighs. Holy shit. “In that case, we’re going to have to get a little closer.” His smirk was inches from my lips as he cocked an eyebrow. “That alright with you? Or does it make you nervous?”
“You don’t make me nervous,” I lied, my heart beating damned near out of my chest as Drew braced himself with a thick forearm on the table, basically caging me in with his enormous body.
“Good.” He eyed my lips. “Then I’ll get right into it. I need to ask a favor of you.”
“You’re kidding. Why would I do any sort of favor for you when you’ve been nothing but a dick to me? Don’t eat that,” I hissed as he stole one of my sandwiches and popped it into his mouth. I anticipated the face he would make a second before he made it. “I told you not to eat it.”
“What was that?”
“A cucumber sandwich.”
“You like eating this shit?”
“No, but I did like the idea of spending an afternoon sitting in this pretty window and reading a book because I woke up feeling kind of good today, and it’s one of my last days before work has me commuting four hours back and forth per day,” I hissed just loud enough for him to hear. “I don’t really have the money to eat at a place like this, but I told myself I’d splurge this once because I deserved to relax
, which I can assure you, I am definitely not doing now that you’re here.”
For some idiotic reason, I actually thought I had a chance at making him feel a shred of remorse right there.
But nope.
“Well, then I have a solution for you,” he said, a glimmer in his eye.
“I doubt you do, but for the sake of finishing this conversation, just tell me what it is you’re here to talk about, and if you can do it in three sentences or less, I’ll be really impressed.”
My hot breaths were short and my chest heaved as I watched Drew smile and study my face for a few seconds. My lips, my cheeks, then back to my eyes.
“I need to show the Empires that I’ve settled down so they won’t trade my crazy ass. After the other night, the New York Post claims you’re my girlfriend of five months. I want us to pretend we’re actually engaged for the next three so I can keep my job on this team.” He cocked his head at the dazed look on my face. “Succinct enough for you?”
“I… what are you talking about?”
“What, you want more than three sentences now?”
“Drew,” I hissed, so annoyed it felt like I might actually explode.
“Fine, I got you. Hold on.”
I breathed easy – easier, at least – as he leaned back and away from me to slide his phone out of his pocket. Of course, I was back to wild-eyed and bewildered once I finished skimming the tabloid story he flashed me on his screen.
“What is this?” I breathed.
“That was my reaction too. I mean Drew Maddox doesn’t grovel.”
“And I don’t date men who refer to themselves in third person.”
“True. You date the Matts of the world.”
“Mike.”
“Whatever. The point is, this story is bullshit but we can use it to our advantage.”
“No, we can use it to your advantage,” I corrected as Drew leaned close again. But this time, I kept my cool. “You’re the only one who stands to benefit from something as ridiculous as this. I mean, exactly what good does it do me to pretend to date you?”