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Chapter Ten
Monday morning’s magazine meeting went off without a hitch.
All right, there were a few hitches, Vicky acknowledged. For all their supposed eternal love for each other, they still bickered like angry cats about light fixtures and magazine advertorial articles and everything else under the sun. The only difference was that this time Cory got his way in an argument by fisting his hand in her hair and covering her still-going mouth with his. And she let him.
She spent the afternoon at the furniture store with Jill, arranging for a few last pieces for the cover photo shoot to be delivered Thursday afternoon
. The Chinese screen and the pair of ornately carved mirrors she’d ordered from another store were due in Wednesday. Not only did she love them, they would contribute to the staged room’s positive feng shui.
Now if she could just feng shui her head, she’d be in business.
“You don’t really like that, do you???
Vicky looked up at Jill’s approach, noting the shock of lavender that now layered through her assistant’s baby-fine blond bangs. At twenty-two, Jill still hadn’t lost her desire to grab attention by any means necessary. She was lucky many people thought interior designers had a little room for creative personal expression or she would’ve had to settle for a more natural hair color. Not that Vicky was that kind of boss. Even if Jill hadn’t been her best friend, she wouldn’t have made her change. Changing was no bueno, except when it came to the one thing Jill sought to change most—her status as a virgin.
That V-card was a boulder on Jill’s back she tried to shed on a regular basis. Vicky wasn’t about to allow such a thing to happen on her watch. If she herself couldn’t have a long-term, stable, normal relationship, she was going to make sure Jill didn’t throw away what should be a special occasion on somebody who wasn’t worthy of her. She could just forget it.
“Hello? You can’t be serious.” Jill gestured at the floral-patterned sofa Vicky had been fondling for five minutes. “That thing is hideous.”
“No kidding,” Vicky muttered, consulting her checklist to avoid Jill’s perceptive blue gaze. “Okay, I think we have everything we need from here. We’ll just stop by Divine Flowers and pick up—”
“What’s wrong with you? You’re acting weird.”
Vicky got the same funny catch in her chest that she got whenever she thought about Cory and their big lie. It usually accompanied a head rush and a sudden urge to remind herself of her coping techniques. “Sorry. I just have a headache.”
“Didn’t you have a headache the night of my birthday party too? Isn’t that why you skipped it?” Jill smirked. “It had to have been bad, if you missed a chance to chaperone me at a place where there’s drinking and body grinding.”
“Oh, it was bad,” Vicky agreed, tucking her list into her purse.
“Yeah, that was the night after you and Cory got caught fucking.” She batted her lashes. “Excuse me. Making sweet love. In a fracking gazebo.”
Vicky walked faster to the checkout counter. “Don’t remind me.”
“But that’s what happens when you’re in love. You can’t control yourself, right?”
Vicky glanced at Jill, her head rush turning into a sinking feeling that submerged her whole body. God, that was truer than Jill knew. More true than even she’d guessed.
“What about all the Christmas stuff for the shoot?” she asked weakly. “You and Lorelie took care of it, right? The tree and ornaments, all the other things we discussed? I called ahead to Value Hardware and they’d arranged to have a lot of it ready for us from their early stock—”
“Dude, I handled all that.” Jill grabbed her arm and propelled her through the miles of sectionals and recliners toward the checkout area. “Which I told you earlier. Weren’t you listening?”
No, not really. She was completely off her game. Cory had thrown her in too many ways to count, from submission in the barn right on down the line. “Just as long as I don’t have to deal with any of that crap right now. I can’t handle Christmas stuff on top of everything else.”
Jill peered up at her, her normally lively eyes surprisingly narrow. “Why? What ‘everything else’ is there? You’re supposed to be happy about being in love, Vic. You’ve been waiting for it for so long.”
“Who says?”
“Me. Your best friend who knows you better than anyone else who doesn’t share a bloodline with you.” Grinning, Jill tapped the diamond starfish necklace Vicky never took off, a present from her mom years ago.
Surprised by a wave of sudden tears, Vicky glanced down just as her cell went off in her purse. She tugged it out, saw Cory’s number, and let it go to voice mail, then listened to his message.
“Honoring your advance notice policy, there’s a thing Wednesday night. I think it would be good for us to go. There are some people I could introduce you to that I think might be beneficial contacts for your business. Let me know.” She could tell he was about to hang up when he added with an audible edge of amusement, “Sugarplum.”
Swallowing hard, she glanced at Jill, grateful to see that her assistant was chatting with their salesperson, finalizing their Thursday deliveries.
God, she wasn’t in love with him, was she? Not all the way. She still had a little bit of an escape route left.
She didn’t agree to go to the shindig with him until Tuesday. It hadn’t been her intention to string him along, more that she couldn’t bear to talk to him. Unsurprisingly, he was not pleased by the lateness of her reply, which she got when he proceeded to be chilly as hell to her Wednesday night at the “get-together” that was really a catered affair with tuxedoed servers, premium champagne, and caviar. So not her scene.
