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11
daria
My bed wasempty except for me. Not unusual, but it left me feeling more alone than normal. As I rolled my head to the side, a bottle of lube—the tiny one I usually kept in the bathroom cabinet—made me smile at the memories of last night. Now I knew where Tanner got that. I was a bit relieved he hadn’t had KY in his pocket.
My schedule was as empty as my bed. Very unusual. I had a text from Kandace telling me she’d better not catch any hint I was working today. What was I supposed to do?
Alana loved to tell me about all the things she was going to do when she was an adult that were things I didn’t allow. She’d be pretty bummed to know one thing I couldn’t do was call my friends in the middle of the day and saylet’s hang out. Carly was in Italy. Actually, she was probably somewhere over the Midwest right about now, since her plane got in this afternoon.
That meant she’d be taking the rest of the week off. I could snag some of her time tomorrow, but when she landed today she’d want to sleep off the jet lag and time zone change. I’d known Carly forever, and she worked for the same angel investment firm I did. No one was better at appraising a property being considered as part of an investment. She could find the flaws a buyer didn’t want someone to see, or uncover things that weren’t nearly as bad as the lending bank tried to claim, and our firm flew her all over the world to make sure their money was going into the right properties.
I sent her a quick text telling her we should have coffee tomorrow, then called Dustin. I’d passed that point in my life where it was embarrassing to say my brother was one of my best friends, and I liked his partners, too.
“Yellow,” Dustin answered cheerfully.
I could make small talk, but that wasn’t us. “Where are you going for lunch?”
“Are you looking for suggestions? When you’re in Hawaii you don’t have McDonalds. Go find some local hole in the wall.”
I snorted a laugh. “Like youevereat at McDonalds. And I’m not in Hawaii.” The second bit of my reply came out softly.
“What happened?”
“Work. And since the Disneyland thing with Joe… But now work is done.”
“I get it.”
I knew he would. A decade ago, Dustin would’ve given me grief over sacrificing a vacation because work asked, but my circumstances were extreme and his work habits were a lot less healthy than mine now.
“Speaking of…” He trailed off.
“You’re on a tight deadline and working through lunch?” And probably dinner.
“Bingo.”
I smiled at the empty room. “I get it.”
Dustin laughed. “Go take a drive. Head into the canyons and have lunch. Something. Enjoy the time to yourself.”
“Maybe.” The idea sounded fun, but I felt so strange not doing… anything. Come to think of it, I may have struggled to unwind going on vacation by myself anyway. I’d ask Dustin if he wanted to have dinner at any point this week, but he wouldn’t be free and neither would his partners, since they all worked together. “Tell Adrienne and Phillip I saidhi.”
“I will. Don’t work.”
I rolled my eyes. “Byeee.”
I flopped back on my bed. Now what?
Fuck it. I needed to be busy and now seemed like the perfect time to do those little things around the house that were always waiting until I had more time. I made three lists on my phone, one for today, tomorrow, and Friday. I’d start small with replacing the interior doorknobs on the main floor to match the rest of the house, and deodorizing the carpet to get rid of the lingering cheese puff dust I was pretty sure was causing a faint funky smell.
When I stepped into the shower, a large dildo suction cupped to the seat winked back at me. Did Tanner see that? He’d have to be blind not to. At least it didn’t seem to change his impression of me, or maybe it had a little to do with why he came on so strong last night.
I wanted to be mortified, but I’d had his cock inside me, so we were probably past the point of this being TMI. And speaking of… Memories of last night would make any morning masturbation routine pale in comparison, so the dildo was going back in its drawer.
Shower done, hair pulled back, and toy stashed, I was on my way to the hardware store. I never knew where to find the little things here—the way this place was organized didn’t make sense to me. But an hour later, I had what I needed and I was home again.
I finished the doorknob on the half-bath off the kitchen, and was working on the one for the room Colin was staying in when I had the weirdest sensation I was being watched. I looked up and found Colin standing next to me, and my heart tried to leap from my chest. “Holy shit, you scared me.”
“Sorry.” He chuckled. “You didn’t hear me come in.”
