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Not like I spent a lot of time there, anyway. At least originally.
I pushed the door open as the lock decided to stick again, causing me to wiggle it half a dozen times to get it free. I’d make a mental note to text my landlord next week and get him to spray the lock or whatever it was he did to get it working for another few weeks.
I stumbled into the darkness, tossed my purse on the nearby chair, double-checked I had locked the door, and slipped out of my winter boots as gracefully as I could, which meant without totally falling over. I’d kept one of the curtains partially open, which let a small sliver of light in from the streetlight outside.
Fighting back another yawn, I pushed my heavy winter boots into the closet, hung my jacket up, then closed the closet door. I went into the small kitchen, washed my hands in the sink, and grabbed a small bottled water from the counter. I undid the cap and took a small sip, capping the bottle again and putting it nearby for tea in the morning, then made my way carefully across the room, not having the energy to turn the lights on, because I’d just have to cross the room again to turn them off before I could collapse into bed.
I stripped out of my clothes, yanking the T-shirt off over my head and tossing it to the side where I was pretty sure it missed my armchair and landed somewhere on the carpet. I shimmied out of my jeans, kicked them to the side, then grabbed a nightshirt proclaiming me to be an angel from my top drawer and struggled into the soft cotton garment before falling onto the bed.
I stared up at the ceiling, yawning and fumbling around to pull the blankets over myself.
I had barely my eyes shut when the familiar ringtone from my cell phone still likely in my jeans pocket blared out…
My best friend.
It almost seemed to get louder the more I focused on it in the silence.
A groan escaped me.
It was after midnight,wayafter midnight.
I didn’t want to move.
Nothing could be that important.
The message would still be there in the morning.
With that in mind, I rolled over and pulled the blankets up over my head, falling quickly asleep.
2
Lucas
I’d had the longest day imaginable, booked solid with client meetings most of the afternoon, the last of which had run unexpectedly over by almost two hours. If it had been any other night, I would have gone straight home, got out of my suit, and settled in to watch the NHL game on my TV while I ordered in dinner then fell asleep on the couch.
Really, the perfect night.
Except, here I was watching the game on my cell phone, leaning back in my oversized plush black chair at Mario’s. It was a hugely popular restaurant, and reservations were hard to get on the spur of the moment, so imagine how easy it was to push back the time on one. I’d had to call in one or two favors to change the booking on mine, from six to sometime a little after eight.
With the never-ending meeting,everythinghad had to be pushed back.
Which put me in her good graces even more.
Luckily, I’d kept a change of clothes in my office so I could swap my shirt out at least before getting there.
But work wasthepriority. Clients came first. Social life came second, third, okay, most likely fourth in the grand scheme of things.
Not that I really had much of a social life the last few years. I was solely focused on moving up the ladder at the law firm since I’d passed the bar. I had goals, ambitions, and dreams I wanted to achieve before anything else.
Not that I was a monk.
Proof of that was my current girlfriend, Brooke. Girlfriend was too strong a word—we dated, we hung out, we had fun...but I could already get the Spidey sense she was angling for more.
And more was way out of my wheelhouse.
The waitress brought over my beer not long after we were seated. We’d ordered from the vast menu shortly after and were now waiting for the main course to arrive. I’d skipped the starter, not wanting to fill up on salad, if such a thing was even possible. I’d been dreaming of a well-done steak and baked potato since breakfast that morning, andnothingwas going to get in the way of that. That thought alone had gotten me through the last hour of the meeting with some of our most important clients.
The woman across the table from me was sighing loudly, sipping her red wine and looking less than enthused by the minute to be there.
