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Neil gave me a please-don’t-start-yelling look. “Well, darling, I’m sure this isn’t the first time anyone has ever…”
He wisely went silent after that.
* * * *
At work on Wednesday, I received a surprising email. I grabbed my phone and forwarded it to Neil then dialed the house.
“Do you have a minute, baby?” I asked when he picked up.
“Do you have a minute?” he asked. “You’re the one at work.”
“Smart ass.” I motioned to Penny to close my door. She did, and gave me a thumbs up through the window. I lowered my voice and turned away. “I got an email from Emir. I sent it to you.”
“Oh?” Neil brightened, and I hated to squash his hopes.
“He needs to see us, but only for drinks. No sex.” I twisted a lock of my hair around my finger. “Do you have any idea what’s going on?”
“Maybe he only has time for drinks,” Neil said, though he sounded unsure. “I’m at the computer right now, let me pull it up.”
While he looked, I switched the phone to speaker and flipped to my email.
Sophie,
I regret that I will not have time to spend with you and Neil while I am in New York on this visit. There is a matter I wish to discuss with you, but our usual arrangement would not be appropriate.
The note went on to suggest our assistants coordinat
e our schedules, but I was hung-up on the not appropriate part.
I heard Neil’s sound of understanding and quickly killed speakerphone.
“What do you think?” I asked, but I already knew the answer.
“I think we’re getting dumped, darling.” His disappointment was evident in his tone. “There’s always a chance that we’re misreading it—”
“He’s our fuck buddy, and he wants to see us and not fuck us. I think that’s pretty clear.” It was a shame. I really liked Emir, and not just the sex. We’d had some good times over the summer when he’d stayed with us for a week. It had been fun to get to know him. I wondered if we would all stay friends.
We set a date for drinks the next night. I chose a sleek blue sheath dress and gold heels, and I kept my hair loose around my shoulders. If we were getting dumped, I wanted to look good.
Neil seemed to have the same idea; despite the size of our closet, we kept colliding with each other and swearing under our breaths as we got ready. He wore a dark gray suit with a crisp white shirt and a powder-blue silk tie with a waffle texture. When he looked over his shoulder at me, he stopped buttoning his silver cufflinks to ask, “You’re wearing gold jewelry? Should I change these?”
“Silver goes with your hair,” I teased. “I don’t know why we’re so tense. We kind of know what to expect coming into this.”
“Look, if he’s ending this thing, I want him to regret it a little bit,” Neil said, checking his hair in the mirror. “Leave a good last impression, so he remembers us fondly.”
“And misses us like crazy.” I stepped up close to him and laid my hand against the lapel of his jacket. “Are you okay, baby?”
“Of course.” He gave me a sad half-smile. “And you?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. On the one hand, we don’t know that he’s breaking up with us. On the other hand, I don’t think I’m as emotionally attached to him as you are.”
Neil went very still.
“It’s all good,” I said gently. “I’m not stupid. You guys shared something special in London. He was your first good Dom. If you feel for him the way I feel for you—”
He raised his head and gazed at the ceiling in his usual don’t-be-silly-Sophie expression. “Well, I wouldn’t take it quite that far.”
“But you had a good experience with him. And we had a good time over the summer. I’m not saying that you love him more than you love me, but maybe you have a little crush on him.” I straightened his tie. “I’m not mad. And I’m going to miss him, too.”
