“Of course he is,” Troy says. “He’s a model.”
“Wait. Crazy good or crazy bad?” Alice asks with a wiggle of her eyebrows.
“Crazy bad,” I say, and I know I’m raining on her parade. “He’s a pain in the ass.”
“Again…he’s a model,” Troy says.
“Isn’t his house the size of an outlet mall?” Alice asks.
“More or less, why?” I ask.
“Because if he’s that bad, why don’t you just avoid him? You stay in your wing, he stays in his,” Alice says.
“Oh, trust me, I’d love nothing more than that. But there’s no towels in my wing. Only candles that apparently smell like my you know what!”
“What?” Alice asks.
“Exactly,” I sigh, pinching the bridge of my nose. “I know it’s only been one day, but I am starting to go crazy. He makes me want to pull my hair out,” I say as I pull my hair back from my face and hold it there for a moment. A moment too long…
“What is that?” Troy asks.
“What is what?” I ask.
“On your neck,” Troy says.
“Is that…” Alice trails off before laughing. Then she covers her mouth with her hand. Meanwhile, I grab my phone and turn on the camera, flipping it to selfie mode.
“Shit!” I said a little too loudly. Then I lower my voice to a panicked whisper and say it again. “Shit.”
Here I am walking around the office with my nerves frazzled and my hair a mess from rushing out the door, and those things aren’t even the worst of it. On the side of my neck, right in the same spot Zane was doing oral acrobatics, is a giant purple hickey.
“So…he drives you crazy in a good way too, then…” Alice says, and while I am glaring at both of their smiles, I can’t deny the blush warming up my cheeks.
“I thought physical stuff was off limits behind closed doors,” Troy says.
“No, she told us sex is off limits. She didn’t say anything about fooling around a little,” Alice grins.
“No, no,” I correct her. “That stuff is off limits too. We just…got a little carried away, that’s all.”
“Right,” Troy nods, though I don’t think he believes me.
“It’s not going to happen again,” I say.
“Right,” Alice says, and I look at both of them.
“What? It’s not! Trust me, I don’t want to have anything to do with him. In fact, I think I’m going to move out,” I say. And when neither of them respond I go on. “Seriously. I mean it. I regret all of this. I don’t care about the contract or his big house. I’m done.”
“Ashlyn?” Prudy suddenly appears in my cubicle, her eyes sweeping over the small box with annoyance. “Why is it every time I come over here the three of you are having some kind of block party?”
“We’re fun people, what can we say?” Alice jokes, but Prudy isn’t laughing. Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Prudy laugh.
“Deborah wants to see you,” she goes on.
“Me?” I ask, and she nods. “What did I do now?”
“Now,” she says before walking off.
I grab my purse and pull out some tinted moisturizer, frantically dabbing it on my neck before rushing off to Deborah’s office.
