I typed something without allowing myself to rethink it.
Emerie: I’ll take a moo shu pork.
Drew
“Looks like I picked the wrong day to be out of the office.”
Emerie had slipped off her coat, revealing a slinky little black dress. She smiled. Damn. I’d spent the cab ride home last night convincing myself that kiss was for her own good. I was helping her. It wasn’t because she was beautiful and smart and couldn’t play pool for shit, yet didn’t complain once when I brought her to a pool hall. It was because Professor Putz needed a little incentive to make his move. I’d almost convinced myself, too.
But it had been eating at me all day. What if I’d spurred the dope to finally act and then primed the pump for him, too? Emerie had melted into me with that kiss. I felt her body surrender, heard that little sound she made, and knew she felt it like I did. The engine was all fired up and ready to run. For that fucker.
My deposition should have wrapped in four hours today. Yet it took me almost twice that because of my lack of focus. Then tonight, I called Yvette and canceled the date we’d made a month ago. Yvette, the flight attendant who didn’t want a commitment and hummed a sweet tune while she gave a blowjob. The woman was bachelor gold.
“I was supposed to go out and had a change of plans,” Emerie said.
I nodded. “Come eat. Your moo shu is getting cold.”
She sat in one of the guest chairs on the opposite side of the desk. “This looks like a lot of food. Is someone else joining us?”
“You took a while to respond, so I ordered some extra stuff in case you were still here. Wasn’t sure if you liked chicken, beef, or shrimp, so I got one of each. Guy on the phone barely spoke English. When I called back to add your pork, I figured it was easier to just add to the order than try to change it.” I slid a takeout container across the desk to her. “No plates. No forks. Hope you can eat with chopsticks.”
“I sort of suck at chopsticks.”
I thumbed toward the ceiling. “You can go upstairs and get a fork from my place, if you want. But I haven’t eaten since six a.m., so you’re on your own with that.”
She smiled and ripped the paper off the chopsticks. “I’ll deal. But no making fun of me.”
It wasn’t an easy task. The woman had two left chopsticks. She dropped more than she got into her mouth. But the two of us quickly established an unspoken system. Every time she dropped a piece of pork on the way to her lips, I’d smirk, and she’d squint at me. It was as much fun as tossing insults her way, but half the effort.
“So what happened with Professor Putz last night?”
She sighed and sat back in her chair. “Nothing. He asked me to go out to dinner tonight to make up for canceling on me last night.”
I froze with my chopsticks halfway to my mouth. “He bailed on you again tonight?”
“Not this tim
e. I actually bailed on him.”
I shoved a shrimp in my mouth. “Nice. Getting even. How’d it feel?”
A smile spread across her beautiful face. “Pretty damn good, actually.”
“So that’s why you’re all dressed up?”
She nodded. “We were supposed to go to some fancy restaurant for my belated birthday dinner. He came to my apartment to pick me up, and I overheard him talking on his cell to Rachel saying he was going over there after dinner.”
“So you got jealous and canceled?”
“Actually no. I got annoyed at myself. I’ve spent the better part of three years taking whatever scraps I was offered from a man who’s never going to see me as anything more than a friend and neighbor. I deserve better than that.”
I couldn’t agree more. “Damn right you do.”
She sighed. “I need to move on.”
I picked up a shrimp with my sticks and offered it to her. “Shrimp?”
“Okay. But put it in my mouth, or you’ll have a trail of sauce all across your desk by the time I get it in.”