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I couldn’t help preening. It wasn’t much of an achievement, but I suspected I’d be thrown over a barrel momentously. Might as well take my victories where I could.
Ally gasped and stared accusingly at me. “You. You gave her that last O that was almost as good as pumpernickel rolls.”
For probably the first time in my life, I was rendered mute.
“And so what if he did? So what?” Sage rose and tried to get in Ally’s face, which was impossible since Ally was half a foot taller and much too round to allow such kind of confrontation. “Am I not allowed to have pleasure in my life? You get to have it all the damn time. What about me?”
“I never said you couldn’t have pleasure. Did I? I even offered to buy you that vibrator I liked and you said no!”
“Ladies, this is a place of business.” I promptly stopped speaking when they both glared at me. Maybe when they started up again, I’d just sneak out and shut the door, then have my meeting in the conference room down the hall.
Oh fuck, my meeting. Yeah, they needed to disperse. Like now.
Because this wasn’t already awkward enough, Wonder Twin decided to stroll in, hands in his pockets and a smug expression on his face that indicated he’d probably gotten some in the last hour.
I’d gotten something as well, but it definitely wasn’t sex. Heartburn? Absolutely. A minor case of performance anxiety now that I’d been ranked behind pumpernickel rolls? Practically a certainty.
“Hey, hey now, what’s all the commotion in here?” He paused in the doorway and grinned at the window. “Your lights are crooked.”
“Why don’t you ask your brother what the commotion is? Hmm? Hmm?”
From Ally’s stare, I determined I was supposed to say something. Perhaps declare that I was indeed the one who had shot a bow through Sage’s hymen. However, since I still cared about the fact that this was a business office—despite the crooked lights and loud argument more suitable to the Jerry Springer show—I was not taking the bait.
“This can be discussed at another time,” I said evenly.
“Oh yeah, like when? Tonight?”
“No. We have plans tonight.” Sage pulled off her heart headband and tossed it on my desk. “Or do you want to deny me my Valentine’s Day orgasm too?”
Seth rubbed his temple. “What in the hell are you people talking about?”
“Keep in mind, this is all because of you. You, Alison. You’re the one who insisted he come with me to watch over poor little clueless Sage. And you’re the one who told him I’d sleep with just anyone, Seth. So maybe you got your wishes, both of you.”
No one spoke, least of all me. She’d managed to slot me into the spot I’d been trying to deny since the first day of Vegas. That we’d been born of convenience, the same reason we continued.
It wasn’t true on my end. But how was I to know if it was on Sage’s? From what she’d just said, it sure as hell seemed possible. Whether or not she was angry and defensive, she might’ve also been honest. Sometimes truth was spoken at the most inconvenient times.
And I didn’t want to fucking hear it. Not now. Not ever.
“I have a meeting,” I said, wanting all of them out of my sight.
Including Sage.
Especially Sage.
13
Sage
Instead of having romantic Valentine’s Day sex—or even better, filthy Valentine’s Day sex—I spent that night shoveling in Rocky Road ice cream covered with a thin layer of potato chips.
I hadn’t looked it up on the internet, but I was pretty sure that wasn’t the usual recovery meal from food poisoning by proxy.
Since I’d planned on a late night with Oliver, I’d taken the next day off from work. The way the schedule fell, I got the day off after that as well. It gave me plenty of time to brood about my bad life choices.
Oliver wasn’t the jackass in this case. I was.
I kept telling everyone I was an adult, and to treat me as one, but instead I’d behaved like a child afraid to get caught for breaking curfew. That needed to stop. I wasn’t that person. Just like with the situation with my parents, I’d been reacting to everyone else rather than making clear, decisive choices. I’d let others set a course for me and I’d hidden behind stupid rules to try to keep myself from getting hurt.
