“I don’t think that the rules apply to your industry as well as mine.”
I shrugged. I wasn’t lying, but I still felt the need to apologize. “Sorry.” He sat up and tried to run a hand through his hair, forgetting that it was short now. My god, he looked good. Really the makeover had elevated everything about him. The rest and relaxation today that he was definitely unaccustomed to probably had something to do with it too. His eyes seemed brighter, his demeanor more pleasant and even his skin seemed more radiant. He was still naked as well which was a bit of a distraction.
“Okay, you have no time for romance. How about some no strings passionate fucking?”
I shook my head, laughing. It was such an inappropriate question asked so innocently that the contrast set me off. He looked at me like he couldn’t imagine what was so funny.
“Come on, our session is over. We have to get out of here.” I picked up my clothes and started getting dressed. His question still hung in the air, unanswered, and shockingly, I was considering it. The way he presented it, it was hard to fight. The truth of the matter was that his idea sounded very good, in fact, too good to me. As wrong as it was, I didn’t want to have to say no, but I was protecting myself and my newfound peace in New York City by refusing to engage with him. Right, but how long exactly was my vow of celibacy supposed to last?
Obviously, it had been broken already, but that was not the point. How long was I going to abstain from romantic relationships in general? I hadn’t put a timeline on it, because in my head, the embargo was indefinite. There were finally more important things going on in my life, the thought of romantic relationships had just fallen by the wayside a little bit.
Now, they were front and center.
17
Easton
He was staring at me, I could feel it.
“What do you want?” I turned fast enough to see Toby’s startled jump when I caught him looking.
“I swear to God, if I was behind you, I would think you were a different person.” Toby was still getting used to the new look. It had been a little while since the spa day with Missy and I had stopped getting confused every time I looked in the mirror and saw myself. The new look was starting to feel not so new anymore. I had been shaving every day too, shockingly, so my face was still smooth. The day after the makeover at the spa, Missy had sent over a bunch of new clothes. I thought it would be mostly suits since that was all we had tried on but the package was so much bigger.
She had sent me suits, T-shirts, jeans, athletic wear, all kinds of different shoes, and even underwear. A literal wardrobe overhaul. I had never bought so many clothes at one time. The delivery person had asked if I had just moved in seeing the amount of clothing that had been sent to me. No, I hadn’t. I had just had my entire old wardrobe deemed inappropriate by a posh fashionista from across the pond.
“This way, you have no excuse if I ever catch you looking the way you used to,” she had said to me when I asked why there was so much stuff. It made sense, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t a little bit inconvenient at the same time. Now I basically had two closets worth of clothes and one of those I wasn’t supposed to wear anymore. I knew that Missy expected me to donate, no probably to just throw out all my old clothes but I hadn’t done that. It sounded dumb, even to me but it felt like a big step actually getting rid of all my old stuff. I didn’t know that I was ready.
Today, I was wearing khakis and a gray button-down. Not a suit, but still formal enough for work while being pretty comfortable at the same time. Along with all of the clothes, she had sent me outfit suggestions. Ideas for what I could pair together because, as she said, just because I had a collection of nice clothing now, didn't mean I had magically developed a fashion sense at the same time. A little insulting, but also true. I had dressed myself for the past few days based exclusively on her suggestions and I was about to run out.
“Get used to it, unless you want me to go back to the way I used to dress.”
“No, no, don't do that. I'm finally not embarrassed to be seen out in public with you.”
“Thanks,” I said rolling my eyes. All of this had been his idea, and more or less for his sake too, of course, he loved it. He owed me for this. One day I was going to collect, and it was going to be big.
“No, seriously. You look good. Good enough to join me in a meeting today.”
I did not want to do that. The only kind of meetings I was interested in were the kind with Artemis and the ones in which she was naked. Many of the meetings I had had with her I would also choose to skip out on.
“I'll pass.”
“No, you're coming. This was the whole point of getting you into some real clothes. The meeting is with a functionary from the federal government. They want to discuss a fleet of drones. Who better to have in the meeting then the designer of said drones.”
“I said I'll pass.”
“This is going to be huge, Easy. Come on. Suck it up. You've done so well until now, don't mess up your progress.” The way he talked about me, you would think I was someone trying to come back from an injury or something. I wasn't incompetent at my job, I was simply aware of my challenges and stayed in my lane. I did the behind the scenes stuff, so the drones actually got made and Toby sold them. That was why there were two of us. Why did he want to fuck up the flow?
“Toby, come on.”
“I'll see you at three.”
He patted me on the shoulder and walked out. Perfect. He had said it in person rather than sending me a message so I couldn't even pretend that I hadn't heard him. I distracted myself until it was time for the meeting. This was part of the process of owning a business. I was going to have to get used to it. I couldn't just have the money and the freedom of being a business owner, without any of the grunt work.
Toby ended up sending me a few more messages about the meeting like he knew I was contemplating a way to skip it. When I came up to the meeting room, he was already in there with the Fed. He introduced me as I walked in and the Fed, who said his name was Alex, stood up to shake my hand.
“And here is my partner that I was talking about,” Toby said.
“Wonderful to have you both here. It's always a pleasure to interview an artist about his work.” The guy smiled, looking way too cheerful for it just being another Friday. I didn't like him for some reason. I didn't like this entire situation, but luckily for me, Toby carried most of the meeting. I just vaguely addressed some questions here and there, dumbing down my process as much as possible while still ensuring it made sense. It didn't take very long, from the time I sat down until the meeting was over was only about thirty or thirty-five minutes, but it felt much longer. When it was finally over, we were shaking on a deal.