Vote Then Read: Volume II

by Lauren Blakely

  “I knew it after we got home yesterday. The thing is, I can fight with you, I can laugh with you, but I don’t want to hurt you, Ava. I’d do anything not to hurt you anymore. I just want to be with you.”

  Her eyes were wide on mine. I didn’t know what she was thinking, but at least she was listening.

  “Keep going,” she whispered.

  Christ, I have to say more?

  “Umm. And whatever this is,” I added hastily, “it’s … intense for me. I don’t know where it’s going to go. But I don’t want anything getting in the way anymore.”

  “Damn, Suit. That’s a lot of words.” Her voice was unusually soft as she peered up at me

  I wished I could see inside her head.

  “Yeah. Now it’s your turn,” I prompted her.

  “You and me?”

  I nodded. I’d been afraid to hear the words, but when she finally said them, they sounded like heaven.

  She watched me a long moment with serious eyes the color of emeralds.

  “All right.”

  The breath I didn’t know I’d been holding released and a shit-eating grin took its place.

  “But I’m not sure how this is going to work,” she warned. “Even though the sex is—”

  “Epic?” I offered.

  She shot me a flirty look. “It’s so good I feel like shouting it from the top of the Empire State Building. But it feels like we still can’t spend more than ten minutes without an argument, and—”

  “Ava.” My impatience kicked in. “For the love of God. Just fucking kiss me already.”

  She did.

  As much as I liked hearing her talk, I loved shutting her up.

  26

  Ava

  “You did it at his office?”

  Nod.

  “Right in the middle of—”

  Nod.

  “Then we did it again.” I smiled so big it hurt. “And again.”

  Lex licked ice cream off her spoon. If her eyebrows got any higher they’d be off her face.

  When Nate had finally walked me out, it was after eight and no one else was in sight. We’d still hung our heads like we thought we’d get caught.

  When we made it back to the elevator at our place, he’d high-fived me. Then kissed me the whole way up.

  I had unlocked the door to find an agitated BFF. Now Lex and I were curled up at opposite ends of the couch. She’d “made” Haagen-Dazs for dinner, but I was too excited to eat anything.

  I’d known she’d freak out when I filled her in on what happened at Townsend Price. But finally Lex said, “I’m happy for you, A. But are you sure he’s off the case?”

  “You didn’t see his face. He’s not using me.”

  “I’m not saying you wouldn’t know. But it’s his dad’s firm, Ava.” She looked worried.

  I crossed my arms. “Uh-huh. Nice try, Alexis Caine. Don’t tell me it was never like this for you and Dylan,” I warned. “You didn’t want it to happen, but nothing you could do would stop it.”

  “That’s true,” she admitted grudgingly. “Though I hope Nate didn’t persuade you the way Dylan persuaded me.”

  “Which was?”

  “Physics.”

  “Huh?”

  “Never mind.”

  “Whatever. The point is, Nate wants to date me. For real. Hell, his parents already know about us. How bad can the rest be?”

  She couldn’t argue with that. “So at the risk of destroying your post-coital fog, what do we do about the settlement?”

  That was the easiest question I’d heard all day.

  “I’d rather get beat in court and pay every penny from my pocket for the rest of my life than say we did something we didn’t.”

  Lex stuck the spoon back in the ice cream tub with a sigh. “I was afraid you’d say that.”

  “You get it, right?”

  She pushed a hand through her hair and levelled serious eyes on me. “Yeah. I get it. I just hate feeling like we have no control in all of this.”

  I squeezed her arm. “I know.”

  For the next week Lex and I were busy with promotions and retailer visits for the fall line. Despite the schedule, most nights I wound up at Nate’s.

  The biggest surprise for me this year, beating out being flashed and getting sued?

  Dating Nate Townsend was awesome.

  On top of what I already knew, I’d learned a few things.

  One: the heat between us wasn’t burning out. Nate liked it rough, sweet, and everything in between. Which, I’d also learned, was fine by me. There was almost nothing in the world I’d rather do than anything, everything, with Nate Townsend.

  Two: every single inch of Nate was completely riveting, from the freckle on his hip to the weird obsession with late-night infomercials he’d acquired in his post-Jamie insomniac phase.

  And most importantly, three: if Nate was Superman, I was definitely his kryptonite. One night Nate got caught pulling an all-nighter on a brief, reading and re-reading notes and details spread across his table. He had endless patience, but I managed to mess up his notes when I tried to bake cookies. Which led to us fighting. Which led to us making up. On the table.

  I still couldn’t think about it without getting flushed.

  If someone had told me a year ago—hell, a month ago—that I’d be falling for a lawyer, I’d have called them nuts. But I couldn’t get enough of Nate.

  Tonight he’d surprised me by opening the door just when I was unlocking mine, carrying me across the hall to his place, and laying me down on the bed before I had even gotten my heels off.

  Three hours later the sun had set, leaving the apartment dark. My body was aching, every part of me overstimulated from Nate’s greedy mouth and clever hands, not to mention his…yeah.

  I rolled over, jumping as something stuck in my ribs. “Ow!”

  One of my patent pumps. I tossed it off the bed before propping myself up on one side. “Hey. Tonight’s our one-week anniversary.”

  “Huh. I guess it is.” Nate’s hand stroked down my side. Then froze. “What are you looking for, a ring?”

  I laughed at his bewildered tone. “No. But maybe if we keep up this dating thing, someday we should try spending some quality time outside of bed.”

  He made a noise somewhere between a groan and a grunt. “We spent some quality time on the kitchen counter the other night.”

  “Nate!” I hit him. “I mean go out, like dancing. Or dinner.”

  When he spoke again, his voice was more alert. “Yeah. But I want to be careful. With us. It’s new, I don’t want people to get the wrong idea.”

  “Which is what, exactly? We’re dating. It’s not a secret. Secrets end badly.” Unease filled me as I thought of Lex and Dylan, and how they’d hidden their relationship. I was tempted to sit up and flick on the light but didn’t want to freak out more than I already was.

  “Ava, you know I’m crazy about you.”

  “So what’s the problem?” Silence greeted me and an awful thought seeped into my brain. “Nathan Cornelius Townsend,” I said in a warning voice.

  “That’s not my middle—”

  “Did you not tell your father we’re still dating?”

  Echoing darkness.

  “Seriously, Nate!” This time I hit the light switch on the bedside table. “What’d you tell him when you said you dropped the case?”

  He held up a hand, squinting into the light. “That I needed to. And I regretted going behind his back.”

  “You didn’t tell him it was for me?”

  “No,” he admitted. “But I will.”

  “You’d better. But in the meantime we’re not hiding out anymore. Isn’t that why you dropped the case in the first place?”

  “You’re right,” he relented, stroking a hand over my hair and pulling me close for a kiss. “We have seasons Yankees tickets and I usually go to Friday games, but I can give them away if you want to go out that night instead.”

  My ears perked up.
“Don’t give them away, I love sports! Did you know that Yankee Stadium is made from eleven thousand pieces of limestone?”

  He looked at me strangely. “Who are you and what have you done with my girlfriend?”

  After the game Friday we spent most of the weekend together going out to see some of Nate’s favorite sights in New York. Nate was completely floored by my fascination with baseball. I’d explained that when I was little it was the only sport my brothers would let me play with them, so I kept a special place for it. But more than that, watching sports wasn’t so much about the game—it was about the energy. The huge crowd of people, compelled to support their favorites. Rallying around something that was, on one level, totally trivial, but could inspire loyalty like nothing else. And coming from California, I was the first to admit that New York fans loved their teams.

  But the game wasn’t the highlight of the weekend. The best part was when Nate took me to a basketball camp in Queens where he’d volunteered for three summers. “I got made fun of a lot,” he’d said, grinning. “I probably couldn’t have stuck out more if I’d shown up in tweed. And I got my ass handed to me more than once. The kids always thanked me for doing it, but the truth is, my game wouldn’t have been nearly what it is without those teenagers grilling me every summer.”

  “How does it have enough money to keep running?” I’d asked.

  “I was part of a fundraising campaign two years ago. We managed to secure an endowment that should, if it’s managed well, ensure the camp can run in perpetuity.”

  Everything Nate said and did made me admire him more. Like the way his work ethic was so much a part of him that he glanced over it, played it down.

  I’d finished the sketches for spring in East Hampton and, inspired by Nate’s productivity and my own happiness, spent Monday and Tuesday sewing like a madwoman. I refused to let Lex look at my work, even pulling the mannequin and half my sewing stash into my room.

  Nate texted Tuesday from the office.

  I have some ideas for what we could do later

  Me too

  Mine involve leather and cashmere

  Kinky

  I laughed.

  No, seriously. I have to finish the line

  See me tonight

  Tomorrow

  Five minutes

  A quickie. Is that all I am to you?

  Give me the whole night

  I’ll show you

  I could only imagine. Just picturing him sitting there, wanting me, got me hot. It was all I could do not to charge across town and jump him. But I knew if I lost any more time, the girls would freak out.

  Once I’m done you can have all the time you want

  What’re you wearing?

  I snorted. Then sent him a picture, making a couple of wardrobe adjustments first.

  Fuck, Ava

  Are you wearing anything under my T-shirt?

  I let him work it out on his own.

  The celibacy paid off, and by Wednesday I had prototypes ready to show. Since Jordan was sort of part of the team, I invited her for the unveiling.

  “I’m not much for speeches, so … here goes.” I looked nervously at Lex and Jordan as they stood in the living room clutching their glasses. Then I pulled sheets off the new pieces.

  The highlight of the collection was a sexy dress. It was sleeveless, a pencil silhouette reaching mid-thigh. The poppy color and detailing around the neckline made it unique. In addition to the red dress was a pale, long-sleeved, silver mini dress and a nude gown that was simple but dramatic.

  “Wow. Ava.” The vibes coming off Lex were hard to read.

  “Is that a good wow or a bad wow?” I asked.

  “They’re … so different.” Lex’s eyebrows drew together. “Beautiful but a bit over-the-top for day wear.”

  “Right, but they’re not day wear,” I explained. “This is what I’ve been trying to do for three months. Chic and edgy. A little class and a lot of sass.” Not the cotton candy separates we’d produced so far for Travesty. But they were me.

  “We don’t do evening.” Lex still looked confused.

  “Well, we’ve only done one season. We can start doing evening. The same damn people walk around in the daytime and in the evening.”

  “Didn’t you have some other options?” Jordan asked.

  My stomach sank. This wasn’t the reaction I’d expected. Maybe it was just that going almost three nights without sleep was getting to me.

  “Well, sort of.” I gestured to the corner where the original designs were covered on a garment rack. “But we’d need to scrap those. To go in this direction.”

  “Scrap—” Lex looked like her head might explode. I hated when she looked at Jordan questioningly, like she trusted her more than she trusted me.

  Jordan said, “We’re due to show these to Kirsten and the others tomorrow, right? Let’s hold off making any big decisions until then.”

  “This won’t sell. There’s no story to it.” A chic older lady named Barb waved her ring-covered hand in the air as she spoke.

  We were in a small boardroom near Kirsten’s office Thursday afternoon with Team T. Sitting around the sleek black table were a dozen people who’d already helped us, or wanted to.

  “Ava, I’m your biggest fan. But I’m not sure this appeals to your base.” Kirsten looked worried. “It’s an entirely different direction.”

  Jordan’s voice piped up from where she sat on Lex’s other side. “We have another concept.”

  Lex and I both turned as Jordan pulled out a portfolio. She produced drawings of the other items that had been my original concept.

  Where did she even get those?

  My chest tightened.

  The faces around the room relaxed as Jordan passed the dozen or so sheets around.

  “I love this.”

  “Interesting textures.”

  “The lines are clean but fresh.”

  No one noticed me withdrawing from the animated discussion that followed. Thirty minutes later, Team T was gone, leaving the three of us alone around the huge, empty table.

  “How the hell could you do that?” I rounded on Jordan as the door closed behind Kirsten.

  “What exactly did I do? Keep us from losing the faith of this label’s biggest supporters? You hired me to help keep Travesty running,” she countered.

  “You’re supposed to make sure suppliers deliver. Not dictate the creative direction. This is a team, Jordan.”

  “But were you thinking of the team when you totally changed direction without telling your best friend?”

  “Lex doesn’t need you to defend her. And we don’t need you for anything.”

  “Are you serious?”

  “It wasn’t your place, Jordan,” Lex said quietly.

  Jordan lifted her chin. “All right.” She grabbed her bag off the chair and left, muttering under her breath.

  I turned to Lex, wide-eyed. “Can you believe her?”

  Lex sighed. “Ava, Jordan was out of line. But she wasn’t wrong. This was totally out of left field.” The hurt in her voice echoed in the empty room. “You told me we were close.”

  “But I wanted to make things that were new and interesting.” How could she not see that? It was the whole reason we’d started Travesty, after all. To be different.

  “And I love that about you. We’re also trying to make rent.” Her voice was serious. “If we don’t have a complete spring line in a couple of weeks, we’re screwed. We’ll lose credibility and retailers. And if we lose the lawsuit and don’t have a spring line, we might as well pack up and go home.

  “I don’t know what’s going on with you, A. If this is about Nate or something else. But I wish you’d talked to me.”

  “Lex, it’s not like that.”

  “Can we just talk tomorrow?”

  I nodded. I hated seeing my best friend this upset.

  The cab ride back was painfully quiet, and when we arrived home Lex went into her room and pulled the door closed.


  I did the same before collapsing on my back. Too numb to cry, I stared up at the ceiling wondering what the hell had just happened.

  27

  Ava

  The front door closed early in the morning, meaning Lex had gone to the gym. It was something she did when she was upset or needed to think.

  When another sound entered my consciousness just after eight, I figured she’d decided to come back and shower before going into the office. But stumbling out into the living room I heard an urgent knock.

  I rubbed at my eyes, puffy from lack of sleep, as I jerked the door open and stood in front of it in my pajamas.

  Not Lex.

  “Nate.”

  He was dressed for work, complete with his “determined lawyer” expression. I realized I hadn’t responded to him after coming home and crashing.

  “Ava, what happened last night? I didn’t hear from— What’s wrong?” he demanded, his irritation melting into worry.

  “Everything’s wrong.” Without warning, the tears I’d thought wouldn’t come finally spilled over my cheeks.

  Nate’s eyes widened and he looked over my shoulder. “Is your roommate here?” I shook my head and stepped back. He followed me into the apartment. “What the hell happened?”

  “My business just crashed into the ground. So if you’re here for sex, I’m really not in the mood,” I sniffed.

  “I’ll pretend you didn’t say that.” He leveled me with a look before tugging me into his arms. I resisted barely a moment before pressing my cheek against his chest and breathing him in.

  We stood there in the middle of the room, him holding me, for ages.

  “I want to help,” he said into my hair.

  I turned my head, eyes landing on the hurricane of fabric and bad mojo in the sewing room. “Do you know how to finish a spring line?”