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“I’m hungry. You can’t honestly expect me to leave all this alone when it smells so good. I’m hungry.”
“My child has better manners.” Emma clucked her tongue and replaced the lid she’d removed earlier.
God, the smell of curry permeated the air, making her mouth water even more. Even so, the banter between the women reminded her of sitting with Mitchell and his friends. That easy camaraderie and comfort with someone.
Within fifteen minutes of her arrival, they were sitting around an oval dinner table not quite as large as the one Mitchell had.
More like the one Mitchell had me on. Repeatedly. She shifted in the chair and squeezed her thighs together. She didn’t need to relive that and become all hot and bothered at girls’ night. Or whatever this was.
“What do we need to know about you, Hope Roman?” Dawson pointed her spoon at her, once she’d pulled it from her mouth, sparkling clean and without a hint of the delectable curry on it.
She swallowed her own bite, picked up the glass, and sipped her Cachaça. “I’m a product of the system.” She shrugged. “Or I grew up in it. Went to college. Got some degrees. Went to college again. Got some doctorates. Fell for the wrong guy and it ended badly. Now I’m focused on my career and traveling the world as a science journalist. I also do speaking engagements here and there.” A shrug. “Not my favorite thing but my mentor always said it was important to give back, that you never know whose life you’ll change by simply talking to them.”
Both women stared at her. Blinked then stared longer. They glanced at each other and then back to her.
“I don’t know where to start with that.” Dawson reached for more wine. “You don’t act like you’re above others because of your brain and accomplishments.”
“I do,” Emma said. “Degrees and doctorates. That’s fucking incredible. But I want to know about this dumb man first, then we’ll get back to all your brain power. Give me a bit more time to come to terms with that. I don’t even have a high school diploma and you’re a freaking doctor!”
Hope looked at Dawson, who merely smiled at her. “We like to talk dirty. One of Emma’s first nights with us we discussed how often she used her vibrators and how fast she goes through batteries.”
Emma stuck out her tongue. “That was B.L.”
“Before Linc?” Hope ventured.
“Exactly. Now, tell us about the stupid man.”
“We were dating and I thought I was in love with him. He’d never been fully okay with my leaving for a job. I suppose he figured I should be around for him whenever he wished. He,” she twisted her lips, “was in his family business. He’d asked me to his house for dinner one night and I foolishly thought this was the night he would propose to me.”
Dawson tapped against her wineglass with a sole fingernail. “This man, I’m going to call him Jackass. I’m guessing he was rich and figured the world owed him everything?”
Hope enjoyed a few more bites of the red roast duck curry with her roti even as she nodded. “Yes. Exactly. He never had to work for much in his life. Everyone was either too scared to tell him no or gave in because they wanted him as a rich friend.”
They nodded in understanding.
“He’d pretty much convinced me to give up finishing my third doctorate. I was going to pull from the program the following Monday.” Disgust with herself reared its ugly head and it took her a moment to swallow it down. “I had plans to tell him that night. Figured it would be my show of commitment to the relationship.”
Neither woman said anything, simply watched her.
When Hope finished off her drink, Dawson topped it up without saying a word or waiting for her to ask for another.
“I got there early and let myself in. He’d given me a key but I’m pretty sure he hadn’t expected me to use it. I hadn’t before that night. I walked in to hear him telling another woman that if she wished to keep the baby, he would move them out of the country because he couldn’t have that tied to him. He had to marry me to continue looking like he was all for equality and supporting minorities. What better way to do that than by marrying a woman of color? Especially when I had not one but multiple doctorates. The fact I had those made it a bit easier to overlook my weight.”
“Bastard!” Emma snarled.
“Rich or not, I say we find him and take his nutsack.” Dawson pushed up from the table.
Despite her reluctance to speak about the man who’d nearly made her give up on her life’s work, Hope smiled. “I have money, but not enough to bail us out.”
