AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Talking about it made me realize I was glad I hadn’t resigned. I wanted to go back on Monday and see if he’d give me the interns he'd promised.
Mel and I started talking about the Instagram accounts we followed. I hadn’t had much time to post on my channel and decided I would get back into it. We ordered another bottle of wine, after which Mel confided in me about her personal life.
“I haven’t been out on a date, in like, years.” She looked quite despondent. “I sometimes feel like it’s never going to happen.”
“What about Jamian? I thought you two had gotten together?”
“We hooked up once, but I don’t know. He didn’t seem that interested afterwards.”
Mel was attractive and bright, with a lively personality. I couldn’t imagine that she struggled to find a boyfriend.
“You wouldn’t believe how many losers are out there,” she told me. “Guys living with their parents, not having jobs, smoking weed all day and playing videogames and thinking that’s real.”
She rolled her eyes.
I thought of Dax and his dreams of making it big in the music business, working the occasional shift as a bar man to make enough money to get by, living in his parents’ basement. Then there was Matthew, but I wouldn’t even allow myself to think of him.
He was certainly not boyfriend material.
Even though he was so handsome and successful. With a fantastic job and more money than he knew what to spend it on. Of course, he was still living with his mother. And he was an asshole, I had to remind myself. The kind of guy who dumped me for no good reason, or the first thing that popped into his head. Massive trust issues. Huge emotional baggage, like bags and bags of commitment phobia and separation anxiety and who knew what else. The kind of guy who would try to break a girl he once supposedly cared about by throwing insane amounts of work at her, seeing if he could crush her spirit. He was the kind of guywho’d make therapists very rich and happy, I was sure of it.
What was I thinking? But I knew what I was thinking. I was thinking of his naked body, the way he’d tasted of cinnamon and sugar when I’d kissed him, the delicious feeling of his hands running down my sides, feeling every contour, caressing every crook and indentation on my body. The way that man touched my body, making it come alive in ways that made my skin tingle just thinking about it.
“Earth to Lauren!” Mel called out to me, snapping her fingers in front of my eyes.
I laughed and shook my head.
“What were you thinking about?”
“My mom’s got this new boyfriend,” I said, leaning forwards, slightly tipsy, “And he’s really hot!”
“What??” Mel squealed, delighted.
I was exaggerating of course, but I wanted to distract myself, and Mel. I’d met Vic briefly that morning when he came to pick up my mother for a visit to the market. She’d said very little to me about him, but I could tell by her skittish behavior that she was into him.
“He’s got this bushy moustache.”
“Oh, no, I hate moustaches,” giggled Mel.
“It really suits him,” I laughed, insisting on trying to convince Mel.
It also helped to get my mind off Matthew. By the time we headed home, I had laughed enough and had enough wine not to care about Dax or Matthew. I just wanted to go home and crawl into bed. Alone.
Chapter 10
Matthew
“I’ve been thinking,” Taya said.
“Yes?”
“Maybe getting married isn’t a bad idea.” Her voice was non-committal, casual, as if we were talking about our plans for the day, not the rest of our lives.
“What?”
We were standing next to the swimming pool at an East Hampton’s mansion. The sun was out, and it was a lovely day for a party, even if it was a little girl’s seventh birthday party and most of the guests were adults from the father’s social circle. It was Eric Dalton’s third marriage and at the age of 66, he seemed to be taking a bigger interest in the child from this marriage than his other children. I had spotted Sharon, his daughter from his second marriage, as well as his son Gregory, who was working for him in the family real estate business. We’d been invited to spend the weekend and my mother had come out for the party as well. She’d rented a house for us for the weekend, as she didn’t like to stay in other people’s houses. My mother was particular like that, but in this instance, I tended to agree with her. I liked Eric but I couldn’t imagine spending a whole weekend with him and his family. I had been looking forward to the weekend away from the city, but Taya’s words spoiled the mood. Instantly.
She turned to me and smiled.
