Wet Dreams

by Emily Bishop

  “I know that but Scott isn’t one of those people. He didn’t even know who I was when we met. It doesn’t matter to him.”

  It occurred to me that I didn’t actually know how she met him. “How did he not know who you were?”

  “We met while I was at the arcade with Nicole and the girls.”

  Nicole was one of Nancie’s best friends, a scholarship student at their exclusive school who took no prisoners and fit right in among them, despite her status.

  “Were you still in your school uniforms?”

  “Yes, but—”

  “Then he knew it was a good shot that you had money, Nancie,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest and leaning back in my chair as if that was the end of it. I should’ve known it wasn’t.

  “Nicole doesn’t,” Nancie was quick to point out the obvious flaw in my reasoning. “He came over to help us when one of our bowling balls got stuck in the machine.”

  “He sounds like a nice guy,” Adam interjected, smirking at the crawl into a corner and die stare I shot him.

  “He is,” Nancie said. “He really is. Please just think about it, Barrett. We’re going to prom together. Wouldn’t you feel better if you knew the guy I was going with a little?”

  She had a valid point. If my own memories of prom served me correctly, I was going to have to put the fear of god in the little shit before he stepped into any limo with my niece. “Fine, I’ll think about it.”

  Nancie squealed. “Thank you! Finally. I’ll need your answer ASAP.”

  “Don’t push your luck,” I growled, my resolve crumbling when I heard how happy her voice sounded at my small concession. “I’ll talk to you later. I need to get back to work. Right after I wash out my ears and scrub my memory with steel wool to erase your little confession earlier.”

  Nancie laughed, a genuine laugh, straight from her belly. The sound made me smile. “You’re such a prude, but sure. I’ll let you go. Bye, Uncle Adam.”

  “Cheers, Nance,” Adam called out as Nancie hung up the phone. “You know, if there was one thing I’d never have thought you would be accused of, it’s being a prude.”

  “You’re telling me,” I muttered, staring at the skyline beyond my window, trying hard to think of the fact that before I knew it, Nancie would be all grown up and living her own life somewhere down there.

  “Why are you giving her such a hard time about this?” Adam asked, smiling like he was the cat who ate the canary. “Lord knows you’re no stranger to all things of the sexual persuasion.”

  “That’s exactly why I’m giving her such a hard time about this,” I grumbled, turning my gaze to meet his as I waved my hand between us. “Do you honestly want her to end up with an asshole like us?”

  Adam’s eyes grew contemplative. “True, but is it entirely avoidable? I mean, she’s not a baby anymore. When is the point when you just have to trust that you and Bex raised her right and let her spread her wings and see if she’s ready to fly?”

  “When she’s fifty,” I replied firmly. “Maybe fifty-five.”

  Adam laughed. “You know you’re only thirty-two, right? By all rights, that means that you should be tucked in early every night with a hot cup of cocoa for at least the next eighteen years. We both know that’s not going to happen.”

  “It’s different.”

  He arched a thick eyebrow and gave me a pointed look. “Careful, Hart. Your inner chauvinist is showing.”

  Sighing in exasperation, I ran a hand through my hair. “It’s not like that. I just want to protect her from assholes like us. I mean, do you have any idea how many hearts we’ve broken over the years?”

  “Are you growing a conscious in your old age all of a sudden?” Adam asked, amused incredulity in his voice. “Weren’t you just fucking the new face of the company in this very office like, a couple of days ago?”

  “Demi’s a grown up. She knows who I am. It’s different.” Despite my protests, I was starting to see the point to his argument.

  “True, and it sounds like Nancie knows who this Scott kid is,” Adam argued. “Maybe just invite him over to dinner and see how it goes.”

  I didn’t even have to think about it. “No way.”

  “Okay, look. I understand your reluctance. We’re not exactly the best guys but think about it this way. There are plenty of guys our age who have been married to their high school sweetheart for more than a decade and are great fathers to their spawn.”

  “And they’re cheating on their wives with the head of the cheerleading squad from way back then and jerking off to the chicks we shoot every day.”

  Adam’s eyes widened as he chuckled. “Wow, I hate to say it, bud, but you’ve really lost the plot. When did you become such a shining beacon of relationship pessimism? There are good guys out there, Barrett. Maybe this Scott kid is one of them. How are you going to know if he’s one of us or one of them if you don’t give him a chance? Size him up in person.”

  Two more points for the away team. Damn. “First of all, I’m not a shining beacon of relationship pessimism. I’m just pointing out that it’s not all rainbows and sunshine out there. Secondly, I’ve already met him.”

  “For all of what, two seconds to be a snob about the clothes he was wearing before you ran them off?”

  It was another good point. The scoreboard was becoming seriously lopsided. Unfortunately, the results were not in my favor.

  I groaned loudly, rising to pace the length of my office. “Since when did you become the voice of reason?”

  “Since you had this little fit of overprotective assery out of nowhere,” Adam said, smiling as he leaned back in his chair.

  “Fine, I’ll text Nancie and tell her to invite him for dinner tonight, but I’m warning you, Campbell, if this blows up in her face, you’re eating every pint of broken heart ice cream with us.”

  “Get me chocolate chip,” he answered. “On the other hand, if that happens, we could just get her drunk and—”

  I silenced him with a look. “We are absolutely not doing that. No getting her wasted. We’re sticking with ice cream.”

  Adam laughed again, throwing his hands up in surrender. “You got it. Now send that text.”

  As I fired off the text to Nancie, another thought occurred to me. I thumbed through my contacts and hit Demi’s name. She answered after only a few rings. “Barrett, I’m glad you called.”

  “Yeah, me, too.” I ignored the strange look Adam gave me. “Listen, I need a favor.”

  “I’m listening,” she said, her voice warm and friendly. It did unfamiliar things to my heart and stomach when she was so open and receptive. I wondered idly if I was coming down with something but I filed the thought away to be considered later.

  “Adam and Nancie have convinced me to have the boyfriend over for dinner later. Please tell me that you’re not doing anything and that you can come over to help keep me from killing the poor boy?”

  “Failing which, to help you bury the body, right?” She laughed.

  My heart pounded. She got me. She so got me. “Exactly.”

  “Okay, I’ll be there,” Demi agreed, laughing. “Just don’t get the shovels out before I get there.”

  “Deal. See you at seven.” I didn’t add that I couldn’t wait to see her, though that was the thought that consumed my mind for the rest of the day.

  Chapter 16

  Demi

  “Was that him?” Mandy squealed as I hung up the phone. I’d finally quit my job at the diner, and they were throwing me an impromptu farewell lunch. Roy had even splurged by letting us each choose any item off the menu, on the house.

  Mandy and I were squashed together in a booth, the others all having gone back to work once we were done.

  “It was,” I said.

  “This is so exciting.” Mandy clapped. “Are you guys, like, together now?”

  I twirled a lock of hair between my fingers. “I think so. We haven’t really talked about it, though.”

  Mandy swooned.
“He’s so dreamy. I would kill to even think that I could be with him.”

  “You’re not wrong,” I confessed. “He’s amazing.”

  “So, what did you just agree to?” she asked, practically drooling for details.

  “Dinner at his house tonight,” I told her. “His niece has a boyfriend that he’s trying not to kill.” I laughed at the memory of the desperate pleading in his voice.

  “That’s so sweet of him,” she said, her green eyes glazing over dreamily. “Hot, rich, and sweet. What I wouldn’t give to be in your shoes...”

  “They are pretty damn amazing shoes to be in right now,” I said, surprising myself by discovering that I actually meant it. I never wanted back into the lives of the elite, but I would be lying if I told her that I wasn’t enjoying it.

  Mandy laughed, then her forehead was marred by a frown as if she was remembering something. “Are the other girls still so horrible to you?”

  “Yeah, but I’m not letting them get to me anymore. Stefan, the photographer, is super happy with me. All of our shoots so far have been huge successes, and I’m actually getting comfortable with my new role, so screw them.”

  “That’s my girl,” Mandy cheered, raising her coke for me to clink with. “To being a beautiful, successful model who doesn’t take any shit from those bitches.”

  I raised my milkshake, agreeing wholeheartedly. “Hear! Hear!”

  “So,” Mandy said. “Back to Barrett and tonight. What are you going to wear?”

  I rolled my eyes and smiled. “Of course, you would be worried about that. I’m sure I’ll find something. It’s just dinner at his house.”

  “It’s dinner at your maybe-boyfriend’s house. Your maybe-boyfriend being a billionaire CEO of a Fortune 500 company. I don’t think jeans and a sweater are going to cut it.” Mandy pulled her flaming hair away from her face into a messy bun as she stood from the booth.

  “Where are you going?” I asked, confused that she seemed to be leaving.

  Mandy’s eyes sparkled mischievously. “Come with me, sexy supermodel friend. We need to get you a proper outfit for this occasion.”

  I paused, my teeth sinking into my lower lip as I thought about what she was proposing. I had been saving every cent that I made from my modeling job, preparing for the next medical bills to come rolling in. Could I afford to splurge on an outfit for a date?

  As if Mandy could hear my thoughts, she tugged on my hand. “Don’t overthink this, Demi. It’s one outfit. You deserve to spoil yourself a bit.”

  Although I was sure that if Mandy had her way, it would be a lot more than one outfit. “Okay, but we stop at one. One outfit only, okay?”

  “Okay. Though to be more specific, it’s one dress. One absolutely perfect dress that you cannot leave in that store.”

  I knew immediately which dress she was talking about. The blue one I had tried on the day I accepted Barrett’s job offer, the day my life changed.

  Excitement buzzed in my veins when I realized that I could actually afford the dress now. It had seemed like an impossibility at the time. I decided then and there that I deserved this one tiny reward. “Okay, let’s go get it.”

  An hour later, Mandy and I both inadvertently held our breath as we watched the shop assistant swipe the charge through. We both knew it would go right through, but I’d never spent so much of my own money at one time before, and it was a bit surreal to think that I could do it and not have to worry about how I was going to afford food for the rest of the month.

  The shop assistant smiled as she handed me back my card and the receipt. “Thank you for shopping with us today. We hope that you’ll be back soon.”

  “I… uh… thank you,” I stammered, accepting the beautifully wrapped box she held out to me. It was dazzling white, with a bright pink ribbon wrapped around it. I was almost too nervous to touch the box for its opulence, never mind accept that I’d been able to afford a shop where the packaging was this nice.

  “Congratulations, girl,” Mandy cheered at my side, sliding her aviators over her eyes as we left the store and stepped back into the bright sunlight. “I’m proud of you for taking the leap.”

  Clutching the box under my arm, I couldn’t help the proud grin from spreading on my lips. “Thank you for encouraging me to do this. I never would’ve done it without you.”

  “I know,” she said, linking her arm with mine. “Now, I might not be a professional stylist but I’ve got a few moves. Let’s go get you ready.”

  Mandy wasn’t kidding when she said she had moves. Staring at my reflection in the small mirror in the tiny bathroom in my apartment, I would’ve sworn I’d just sat down with Stevie. Mandy was that good.

  “I called an Uber for you,” Mandy said from my kitchen. She’d decided it was time for a celebratory glass of wine. “It’ll be here in a few.”

  “Great, thanks.” I smoothed the soft material of the blue dress, reveling in the way it hugged every curve and caressed my sides. I followed her voice to the kitchen, and she held out a small glass of wine to me.

  It was ice cold and delicious. The condensation from the glass wet my fingers as I took a small sip of the crisp white liquid inside. We’d made one more stop on the way home, spoiling ourselves with a bottle of actual wine, as opposed to the cheap, boxed stuff we usually got.

  “You should take the rest of that with you,” I told her, nodding at the bottle on the counter. “It’ll just go to waste here.”

  “No need to ask me twice,” she said. “I will make sure it’s properly appreciated.” She glanced at my phone in her palm. “Oh, your driver is here. I’ll lock up. Go get him, girl.”

  Nervous energy pulsed through me as I slid into the back of the Uber, my palms clammy and my heart racing. Getting all dressed up for dinner made this feel like a real date, like I was Barrett’s girlfriend. I couldn’t stop the way my stomach fluttered at the thought.

  Technically, we hadn’t discussed what was happening between us, and we hadn’t put a label on anything. Still, I couldn’t help but feel things were moving in a more serious direction. Barrett and I had already had sex a couple of times. So, if this was some kind of fling for him, he would have called it off by now. Or he would have kept things way more professional at work.

  We weren’t openly dating or anything, but we definitely didn’t ignore each other, either. Stevie had noticed something going on between us, and all of the other models were sure that I was his favorite. Thinking of the other models reminded me of the run-in I’d had with that bitchy blonde.

  She’d told me that Barrett would just break my heart. I didn’t want to believe her, even a little bit, but some of the things Adam said about Barrett seemed to confirm the blonde bitch’s warnings. Barrett seemed to have a bit of a reputation for getting around. I didn’t know how true it was, but it was certainly possible, considering how amazing Barrett was.

  The man was sexy as hell. I knew that from firsthand experience. Whenever I was around him, I had trouble controlling myself. I was sure he had that same effect on other women, too. I mean, a woman would have to be blind not to react to him the way I did. But the best thing about Barrett was that he wasn’t just a sexy bastard. There was so much more to him than that.

  He was funny, smart, and sweet. Seeing him with Nancie was like seeing a whole different person that the rest of the world never got a chance to see. And the fact that he revealed that part of himself to me must mean things between us weren’t just casual, right? He wouldn’t just let me into his life if I was just a quick fling for him.

  It was impossible to be sure how he felt about me, exactly, but I knew how I felt about him. I liked him a lot. More than any other man I could remember. I wanted things to be serious between us, or at least, I wanted things to be moving in that direction. I didn’t need him to put a ring on my finger, but I wanted to know if I could allow myself to fall for him. Being that vulnerable was terrifying, and I couldn’t open myself up like that if I didn’t know there was a real c
hance for us to be together in the future.

  These conflicting thoughts consumed me all the way to Barrett’s mansion. I was stunned again by the size of the house as the driver pulled up.

  “Thank you,” I told the man as I got out.

  “No problem, ma’am, have a good evening,” the driver said, then rolled out of Barrett’s wide driveway to navigate the tree-lined streets of the estate to his next pickup.

  Nancie appeared in the wide double doors, rushing out to hug me tightly. “Thank god you’re here. Please keep him in line.”

  The desperation in her voice was clear. I squeezed her shoulders, returning her warm embrace. “I’ll do my best, but you know your uncle.”

  “That’s precisely why I’m pleading with you.” She smiled, releasing me and stepping away, her eyes traveling to my dress. “Wow, you look amazing. That dress was made for you. He’s going to come in his pants when he sees you.”

  My cheeks grew flaming hot. “Nancie! You can’t say stuff like that.”

  Nancie smirked at me, a knowing look in her eye. “What? It’s true. Barrett says I should always tell the truth.”

  “I doubt he meant it quite like that,” I muttered, desperately trying to control the heat that had spread all the way to my chest.

  Great, now I’m going to look like a tomato when he sees me. “Thanks for making me blush harder than ever before, right before I have to see him.”

  Nancie threw her head back and laughed easily, reaching for my hand. “It’s my pleasure. Don’t worry. The color in your cheeks makes you look even more beautiful.”

  “Quit hogging my date, Nance,” Barrett called with a laugh as he appeared at the door, the smile dropping from his face when he laid eyes on me. “Fucking hell...”

  “You like?” I did a little twirl before we ascended the stairs to his porch. Nancie laughed again at his reaction.

  “Like? I fucking love.” His eyes burned hot as he skipped down the stairs and swept me into his arms, his voice low and breathy in my ear. “I’ll show you just how much later.”