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Nara
Ibarely remember leaving the club or getting home.
When I woke up the next day in Brodie’s loft everything was sunny and white, like I was in heaven.
Come to think of it, I definitely had been the previous night when Brodie and I had not only fucked with a fury I’d never thought was possible, but in a public place, too.
I had no idea what had come over me there, but the atmosphere of open sex had been a powerful aphrodisiac. It was so massively empowering. I couldn’t really even think.
All I knew was I wanted Brodie inside me.
Pushing myself up in bed, I realized his side was empty. I got up and peeked over the loft railing. Below, he was having what sounded like a business conversation.
“I mean, yeah. If the investors wanted me in San Francisco, I wouldn’t be opposed to moving there. I love the place. And I have faith that my general manager here in New York could keep things moving forward. It would take me a couple weeks to close up things here, but I could be out there pretty quickly…”
Holy shit? He was leaving New York? And he hadn’t even told me.
Never even mentioned it.
I found my clothes and pulled them on as fast as I could. They were wrinkly from having been stepped all over the night before, but I had no time to go home to change. I had to get to the office to iron out the last of our software issues before our next beta meeting. And I wanted to get the hell out of Brodie’s bed—fast.
Good thing I wore pretty much the same thing every day. No one would know any different.
I heard Brodie coming up the steps to the bedroom, so I ducked into the bathroom where I found a new toothbrush and tidied up. Luckily, I kept a makeup collection at the office, so I could pretty well hide up the fact that I was doing a major walk of shame.
“’Morning, baby. How’d you sleep?” he hollered through the door.
I could hear him riffling through his closet, no doubt planning the day’s master of the universe outfit.
What was up with freaking moving to San Francisco?
But I wasn’t going to ask. If he wasn’t going to volunteer that he was about to hightail it out of town, I wasn’t going to be the neurotic chick who gave him shit about it.
Who cared anyway? I’d only been on a few dates with him. It wouldn’t be the first time someone bailed on me after I put out. I rushed out of the bathroom to avoid conversation. Grabbing my shoes, I ran down the stairs.
Brodie called after me, “Hey, where’s the fire? Nara? Can I have the limo take you home?”
“No,” I called up the stairs. I leaned against the wall to pull on my pumps. “I’ll grab a cab. Talk to you later.”
I let his heavy apartment door slam behind me and hustled down the hall as fast as my heels would let me. As luck would have it, a cab was passing by that I jumped into before Brodie could follow me to see what the hell was up.
If he couldn’t figure it out, to hell with him.
* * *
By the time I arrived at work, my mood had gone from crappy to all out horrendous. How could he not have told me he was leaving town? Jesus, I was an idiot.
“Nara,” Mimi called as I whizzed past her. “Coffee?”
“Thanks, Mimi. That would be great.”
I must have looked like shit, because her eyes widened ever so slightly when I turned to her. Makeup drawer, here I come.
I listened to my voicemail messages while I put my face on. The first was from Becca.
“Nara, sweetie, your mom says you’re not coming back for the reunion. Is that true? I’m so bummed. Everyone is just dying to see you.”
Right. Everyone was just dying to see the class slut. I didn’t think so.
The next message was from my mom.
“Well, Nara, you’ve succeeded in disappointing a lot of people with your stubborn refusal to come home. I just don’t understand it. It’s not like you had a horrible childhood or anything like that.”
HadI had a horrible childhood? Probably not. But a Norman Rockwell childhood it hadn’t been, either.
The last message was from Simon.
“Nara, I’ve been thinking about what you said. I’d like to talk.”
Oh. My. God.
Had we broken past our standoff? Might I finally be rid of him?
Joi popped in and handed me a coffee. “Here you go. Mimi asked me to bring this back. She seemed kind of afraid of you this morning.”
Note to self—apologize to Mimi later. And call the creepy faux husband back.
“Yeah, I arrived in a fury. I’m fine, though.” I forced a smile.
“Mmmm. You don’t look fine.” She leaned onto my desk. “I know you. I know when you’re fine, and I know when you’re not. Spill it.”
Ugh. She was right. I was horrible at hiding my moods, especially from her.
“Well, I spent last night with Brodie.”
Her face lit up with the kind of excitement usually saved for winners of the lottery. The big lottery.
“Ooooh, was it hot?”
If she only knew…
