I typed out a text, attaching the photo of Tallulah on her back.
Reese: Pretty sure her twin is a Butterball in a grocery freezer somewhere.
It had been less than a minute when my phone buzzed with an incoming text.
Chase: I flipped my phone around a few times before I realized what I was looking at. That is seriously one ugly pussy.
Reese: LOL. Who has taken over half my bed. She’s also very demanding and keeps pawing me in the face if I stop scratching her.
Chase: Just you two sharing that big bed tonight?
He knew I’d been meeting Bryant after I left the office.
Reese: Yup. Just me and my ugly kitty.
Chase: Good to know.
Reese: Well, sweet dreams.
Chase: You can count on it now. Night, Buttercup.
***
My best friend Jules and I met for coffee the next morning before work. It had been the longest I’d gone without seeing her since we both started at Fresh Look on the same day seven years ago.
“The place sucks without you,” she pouted as we sat near the window with our coffees.
“Of course it does. You have no one to gossip with.”
“I had lunch with Ena from media relations the other day and told her about a new vibrator I bought. I’m pretty sure I scared her away for life.”
“Some people are uptight about sharing that type of information.”
She shrugged.
Jules was the most open and non-uptight person I’d ever met. Her parents were actual hippies, and she grew up with the share the love vibe in her house. Once she told me her parents had separate bedrooms for when the other had company. Sharing highlights about your new vibrator purchase seems tame when you grew up with your parents sharing partners.
“Well…not that you need it since you have Bryant now, but Lovehoney just came out with a new triple-whammy Jessica Rabbit, and it’s seriously better than my last two partners. It actually finds your clit.”
“I’ll have to check it out.”
“Don’t tell me Bryant’s a dud?”
I sipped my coffee. “Wouldn’t know. Haven’t slept with him yet. But he’s pretty attentive in general. So that’s a good sign, I suppose.”
“Just not feeling it with him, or is something else going on?”
The fact that my mind immediately went to Chase made it clear it was more about something else than it was about Bryant. Someone else, actually. “He’s great. He really is.”
“But…”
“I don’t know. Something has been holding me back from taking our relationship to the next level.”
“Something or someone?”
Jules knew me too well.
“Remember that guy I told you about who I met at the restaurant on my date with Martin?”
“The hot one who made up all the stories?”
“That’s the one.”
“I sort of ran into him again.”
“Sort of?”
“Well…I’ve run into him a few times.”
“Where?”
I hesitated and then responded with a question, as if I were trying out the response. “In the office?”
Jules put her coffee down on the table between us. “He works at the new office? You’ve got to be kidding me. You know what happened last time you had sex with a co-worker.”
“Chase isn’t exactly a co-worker.” Just as I said the words, my boss walked into the coffee shop. Well, technically he wasn’t my boss. He was my boss’s boss. I wasn’t sure if that made it better or worse. Worse, I’m sure.
Jules and I were in the corner, so I hoped maybe Chase wouldn’t see us. Not that I didn’t enjoy looking at the man every time an opportunity came my way, but I knew Jules wouldn’t be discreet. He walked in, stood in line, and within seconds turned and scanned the room. I briefly wondered if he was looking for me, although I didn’t have time to deliberate long because suddenly he was heading right toward us.
Unlike my first day when I’d run into him here, this morning he was already dressed in a suit. And, shit—he looked even hotter than usual. His hair was still wet and mussed in that way that said he didn’t give a shit, and it worked for him by setting him apart from the other suit-wearing, slicked-back-haired men. He had on a French blue dress shirt and a tie of the same color, only darker. It hung untied around his neck like he’d thrown it on and run out the door in a rush. There was zero doubt in my mind that his shirt was custom made, the way it stretched across his wide chest—fitted, yet not too tight. It hinted at the carved lines I knew were below, but didn’t flaunt them on full display.
While I was discreet in checking him out as he walked over, Jules’ eyes lit up, and she openly ogled.
“Morning.” He smiled at me and nodded to Jules. “How’d you and Ugly Kitty make out last night? She let you get some sleep?”
“She did. Might have to keep her as a bedmate.”