We organized the girls’ evening three days later instead of waiting for the weekend. Since it was a weeknight, that decision wasn’t taken lightly but more out of necessity.
Tess lacked her usual sparkle, and no amount of macarons brought it back. Isabelle was still in town, but only until tomorrow, and we’d planned to have a girls’ evening ever since we knew she was coming to visit. Per her own admission, Anne was already going stir-crazy with Lindsay gone and asked if we couldn’t organize the evening right away. I gave in, especially because Mom was severely lacking entertainment, so we were taking the party to her place. Josie was coming as well, but Heather couldn’t make it.
Aside from tomorrow being a workday, I had two other reasons that made me look less forward to tonight than usual. For one, I was feeling a little light-headed. And the second reason was that Rob was leaving for LA tomorrow. We’d had other plans for his last evening here (they involved a very sexy nightgown I’d planned to torture him with. He was practically my test subject for new products, and this one was hitting shelves this week).
“I’m torn between letting you go... and chaining you to my bed,” Rob said. His gaze was so intense that I didn’t doubt he’d pull a caveman move again, toss me over his shoulder and carry me to bed. The best part? I was sort of hoping he would. I was currently on my way out of my house.
Tess and I were both staying at Mom’s tonight, because it didn’t make sense to travel at night only to wake up early to head into the city to the store.
“You know, this line of thinking isn’t helping at all. I’m just as torn. If we both give in to our dark side, we just won’t get anywhere.”
“Fuck, Skye, I just don’t want to let you go.” He pushed me against the door, drawing the tip of his nose up and down my neck. The skin on my arms and legs turned to goose bumps.
I playfully pushed him away.
“See you whenever you’re back.”
He’d mentioned he was staying one week maximum. I hoped it wouldn’t be that long.
“Thanks for inviting Anne too.”
“Don’t you worry about her. Between all of us, we’ll take great care of her.”
He touched my cheek, resting his thumb on my lower lip. I swallowed hard, quickly leaving his house before he got dangerous ideas again.
Anne joined me on the train.
“Thanks for adopting me,” she said.
“My pleasure.”
“You really think everyone is going to be okay with it?”
“The more the merrier, trust me,” I assured her.
“And your mom? It’s her place, after all.”
“Mom’s excited to meet you.”
“Okay.” She looked desperately sad, and I just wanted to lift her mood, but I didn’t know her well enough to come up with something that would work.
“I usually read on the train,” she said.
“I know, I’m the same.”
“I recently discovered audiobooks,” Anne said. “Makes everything even easier. I get motion sickness sometimes.”
“What’s the last thing you listened to? I mean, if you recommend it.”
“Nah, the last one was kind of a bore, but I did listen to a very informative one about wealth mindset. I forgot the name of the author. It’s called You’re a Genius at Being Wealthy.”
“I like the title.”
She showed me the cover on her phone.
“Cool, I’ll buy the book. Or you know what? I’ll give audio a try too.”
“I’ll help you set up your account.”