AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Renata sucked her teeth. “You’dbetterbe.”
“And now you’re trying to punk me? I thought we were better than that?”
As she stopped to grab a cell phone from one of the supply carts before she headed back to the consultation office, she tossed me a grin. “Trying, Chad? Pretty sure I did.”
I laughed as she went back into the room with Monica, then took the opportunity to observe while their attention was on each other.
So this is Sandy…
Since becoming friends – before the webcam stuff – I’d considered Sandy beautiful, sight unseen. Call it corny or whatever, but I was easily swayed by an intelligent, driven woman, with a great personality. That shit wasbeyondattractive to me.
Butgoddamn.
This woman was flat-out striking.
I knew better than to think it, but my mind took me there anyway –What the fuck is her husband’s problem?I quickly arrived at an answer though: Stupidity. Not that a woman’s looks made it okay to be an asshole, butshit.Men with good sense didn’t screw over women who looked likethat.
She had dimples.
On her faceandon her ass.
The shit just didn’t make sense.
All that aside… I had a problem on my hands. I could deduce on my own that recommending a specific computer service company had probably spooked her – I wasn’t supposed to know where she was. And in my defense, Ihadn’tknown where she was, until the hacking attempt exposed her IP address and location.
The fact that she was right here in the same city had been news to me too.
Hell, thenotknowing had been part of the appeal of the whole thing – a nice bit of excitement for my everyday life. Still… I’d be lying if I said that seeing her in front of me wasn’t incredible. But it didn’t mean that I was about to reveal who I was.
It was one thing for our friendship to be housed in phone calls and late-night web chats, with the boundary of anonymity and perception of distance firmly in place. Knowing who she was, knowing that we were right here in the city, possibly knew some of the same people… it felt bizarre.
I didn’t know what to do with it, so I did nothing.
Later that night, when I had the urge to shoot her a text, asking if she was okay – normal shit for us, usually – I found something else to do. Same thing the next morning, when I thought about her as soon as I opened my eyes. When Ren asked for my availability for the upcoming week, I gave it to her, knowing it wasn’t something I could put off.
I was going to have to face it.
Before that though, I googled the hell out of her.
Monica Stuart. Thirty-six years old. Graduated Blakewood State University with honors, owner of Vivid Vixen Cosmetics. Married fourteen years to Kellen Stuart, former financial advisor. No children.
“And fucking fine ashell,” I muttered to myself as I browsed the pictures attached to the article I’d found. Apparently, Monica was some sort of beauty icon – a lot of the hits I got on her name were from write-ups raving about everything from her hair to her clothes. There were hundreds on hundreds of pictures of her on red carpets, in photoshoots as the model, candid shots of her directing, shots of her as the client. Knowing these things about her added a whole other layer to the woman I already knew her to be.
What I didn’tsee were many pictures of her actuallywithher husband.
“Yo!” Quentin called out as he barged into my office with Marcus right behind him. “We gonna have to peel you away from that screen, or what?”
Marcus plopped into the chair across from me. “Come on, bruh. You’re not even dressed, and you know the courts fill up quick.”
Sitting back, I propped my hands behind my head, looking at them. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t you own the gym? It’s never occurred to you to just reserve a court?”
“What’s the fun in that?” Marcus asked. “Part of the excitement is wondering if you’re gonna have space or not. What are you doing anyway? In here pretending to be busy?”
Quentin laughed. “That’s what Ren was fussing about yesterday.”
“Ren never thinks I’m working,” I chuckled. “Nah though, I’m just finishing something up.”
“What you working on man?” Quentin asked, and before I could react or respond, he’d turned the screen to face him. I blew out a sigh as a grin spread across his face. “Oh, I see.That’swhat you’re working on.”
