by Vi Keeland
Drew: Is? Are you texting me from the tub right now?
Emerie: I am.
Drew: You can’t tell me shit like that. I’m in the middle of a deposition, and now I’m going to be distracted picturing you naked in my tub.
I started to type a response, then stopped. Drew was picturing me naked. Tiny goosebumps broke out over my body, even though I was blanketed with warm water. I knew he was teasing me, yet there was still something exciting about it, and I wanted to play back.
Emerie: Do you like what you’re picturing?
Drew: I just had to adjust my pants under the table. What do you think?
I think…I liked the thought of Drew Jagger getting a hard-on thinking about me. My body was reacting to his texts the same way it had reacted to his kiss last night. I attempted to think of something sexy to type back, but before I could come up with something witty, the little dots were jumping again.
Drew: How did things go with Professor Putz last night after I left?
At the mention of Baldwin, the same other feeling I’d had last night hit me like a bucket of cold water: a reminder that Drew was just being his normal crass self. Yet again I’d thought he was serious for a minute.
Emerie: Not much to tell.
For some reason, I left off that Baldwin had asked if he could take me out tonight to make up for canceling on me.
The texts from Drew had been coming in rapid succession, but he went silent for a few minutes. Eventually, the dots started again.
Drew: Have fun. Gotta get back to my case.
I didn’t hear from him again after that. I soaked a few more minutes in the bath, and then went back down to the office. My afternoon appointments were uneventful, and the rest of the day blew by while I caught up on updating case files. Baldwin texted to say he’d made reservations for seven at someplace I wouldn’t attempt to pronounce, so I left the office at five-thirty to freshen up before dinner.
I changed out of the skirt and blouse I’d worn to the office and into a little black dress. It wasn’t necessary to look up the restaurant where we were going; I knew it would be fancy. Unlike Drew, Baldwin didn’t go to underground pool hall bars or eat greasy burgers from Joey’s. The funny thing was, I really had no desire to go to some uppity place tonight. As I fastened small, pearl drop earrings to my ears, I became annoyed with myself for pretending I wanted to be at those places with Baldwin. The truth of the matter was, I had pretended to like some of the same things as him just to have a reason to spend time together.
When Baldwin knocked promptly as seven, I still wasn’t feeling like myself. My normal excitement had been replaced by annoyance. I was annoyed he’d blown me off last night in favor of the latest woman he was screwing, and I was annoyed I’d been pretending to like things for him when he clearly didn’t go out of his way for me. I opened the door and invited him in so I could grab my phone from the charger and change purses. While I was in the bedroom, I heard a cell phone ring from the living room and then Baldwin’s voice say hello.
I listened to one side of the conversation as I returned to the living room.
“Probably about eleven.”
I walked to the kitchen and opened the purse I’d used today to go to work and began to transfer a few things to my small black clutch.
“Okay, yes. It’ll be late, but we can discuss it then.”
I scrolled through my messages while Baldwin finished up his conversation. A text had come in from Drew about ten minutes ago.
Drew: On way back. You still at the office? Have to write a motion when I get back, going to be a long night for me. Ordering Chinese for delivery. You want something?
I started to text back and then stopped when Baldwin hung up and asked, “You ready?”
“Sure.” I picked up my new purse and went to the closet to get my coat. Baldwin—always the gentleman—took my coat and stood behind me to help put it on. “You have to work after dinner?”
“Hmmm?”
“The phone call. I overheard you say you would talk to someone later.”
“Oh. That was Rachel. We both have work events this weekend, and she wants me to attend hers with her after mine. I told her I’d discuss it when I get there later this evening.”
The little bubble of anger that had been threatening finally broke inside of me. Oddly, I wasn’t really angry at Baldwin. I was pissed at myself. I turned to face him.
“You know what? I’m sorry to do this last minute, but I’ve had a headache all day, and it’s just getting worse. I’m afraid I won’t be very good company tonight.”
Baldwin was taken aback, his brow furrowed. “You don’t want to go to dinner?”
“Not tonight. I’m sorry. Can I take a rain check?” I hadn’t intended to, but I realized immediately after I said it that Baldwin had used the same phrase on me when he canceled last night. Can I take a rain check?
After he left, I remembered I hadn’t sent Drew the text I’d began typing out. My finger hovered over the I’m already gone, but thank you for asking message until it started to erase the words.
Screw it.
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.”
I arched a brow. “I’ll gladly put it in your mouth. Open wide.”
She laughed. “You can turn something so innocent into something dirty.”
“It’s a gift.”
I moved my offering closer, and her beautiful mouth opened so I could feed her. When her lips closed around my sticks, I felt it straight down to my cock. I imagined my own wood sliding in, being swallowed by her perfectly painted lips. The taste of the shrimp hit her tongue, and her eyes closed as she appreciated the deliciousness. At that point, I needed to readjust my pants. Again.
I swallowed, watching her swallow. “When was the last time you actually had sex?”
She coughed, almost choking on a piece of shrimp this time. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me right. Sex. When was the last time you had it?”
“You already know my history. I haven’t had a relationship in almost a year.”
“You meant a sexual relationship? I assumed when you said that, you meant you hadn’t dated anyone consistently in that long.”
“I haven’t.”
“You do know that not all relationships need to be more than sexual?”
“Of course I know that. But I need more than just a one-night stand.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. Off the top of my head, I need to feel safe with the person. I need to be physically attracted to them. We need to be able to get along after the act, and I need to feel like I’m not being taking advantage of—that our relationship, whatever it is, isn’t one-sided. If it’s purely sex, that’s okay, but we both need to have that understanding.”
I nodded. “Those are all fair.” By that point, I’d pretty much lost my mind. Which would explain how my next thought made its way from my brain and shot right out through my lips. “How do I apply for the job?”
“The job?” She actually seemed confused. I thought I was pretty damn clear.
“Of sexual partner. I think we should have sex.”
Emerie
“You’re insane.”
“Because I think we should have sex? How does that make me insane?”
“We’re pretty much opposites. You believe a relationship is the period of time people spend together before one screws the other over.”
“So?”
“I believe in love and marriage and making things work.”
“I’m not talking about those things. I’m talking about sex. I know it’s been a while, but that’s when a man and a woman—”
I cut him off. “I know what sex is.”
“Good. Me too. So have it with me.”
“That’s crazy.”
“Do you feel safe with me?”
“Safe? Yes. I guess so. I know you wouldn’t let anything happen to me.”
“Are you physically attracted to me?”
“You clearly know you’re good looking.”
“And if we were both clear on what was going on, you wouldn’t feel like you were being taken advantage of.” Drew tilted his chair back. “I meet all of your criteria.” He winked. “Plus, I have a big bathtub. That’s a bonus. Come to think of it, maybe I should be vetting you better. I’m a catch.”
I couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity.
“See. Another bonus. I make you laugh.”
He wasn’t wrong there. Honestly, in the last two weeks, Drew Jagger had stirred a lot of things inside of me that I hadn’t felt in a long time. I bit my lip. My stomach felt like a dryer with a half-empty load of laundry—bouncing around randomly as things heated up. I couldn’t believe I was even considering what he’d suggested.
“How long ago was the last time you were with a woman?”
“The day before I met you.”
“So only a few weeks ago. Were you dating her?”
“No. I met her while I was on vacation in Hawaii.”
“Did you get to know each other before having sex?” I had no idea why I was even asking the question.
Drew set his container down on the table. “She gave me a blowjob in the bathroom less than a half-hour after we met in the restaurant bar.”
I scrunched up my nose.
“Did you want me to lie to you?”
“I guess not. I think I’d have preferred that not to be your answer though.”
He nodded. “You wanted to believe there was romance and an exotic setting—that it was more than it was. It was just sex between two consenting adults. There doesn’t always have to be more to it.”
I finished my Chinese food and leaned back, folding my hands on top of my full stomach. “While it’s tempting…” I grinned. “…mostly because of that bathtub. I don’t think it’s a good idea. We spend too much time together for it to just be sex.”
Drew’s thumb rose to his mouth, and he rubbed his full bottom lip. “I could evict you.”
“Then I’d definitely want to have sex with you. Because nothing puts me in the mood like being tossed out on the street,” I teased.
Drew came around to my side of the desk and took my empty box and his to the garbage. I felt him come up behind me when he returned. Leaning down, his head over my shoulder, his breath tickled my neck when he spoke. “You change your mind, you know where to find me.”
Even though I didn’t really feel like being alone, a little while after we finished eating, I told Drew I needed to get home to do some work. His text earlier had said he had hours of work to do when he got back to the office, and I didn’t want to keep him from it. Plus, I needed some time to let the discussion we’d had tonight sink in. While the entire proposal was bizarre, I couldn’t honestly deny that the thought of having a sexual relationship with Drew was appealing.
While things returned to normal between Drew and me in the office over the next few days—and by normal I mean he ridiculed the advice he overheard me giving my patients, and I suggested he check up his ass for his missing ethics after the advice I heard him offer his clients—things between Baldwin and me remained strained. I’d heard him open and shut his door yesterday morning, and then there was a knock on my door, so I’d acted very mature and pretended I wasn’t home.
I had no idea why I was avoiding him when he really hadn’t done anything wrong. So the following day, when he knocked again, I took a deep breath and adulted.
“I’ve been worried about you,” he said.
“Have you? I didn’t mean to make you worry. I’ve just been busy with work.”
“That’s good, I guess. I’m glad everything is working out the way you planned with your move.”
Not everything. But whatever.
“Yes. I’m happy with the way my practice is developing.”
“Are you free for breakfast? I was hoping we could talk a bit. Catch up on everything else going on.”
I was, but I lied. Looking at my watch, I saw it was seven-thirty. “I actually have an eight-thirty counseling session, and I’m not finish
ed getting ready.”
“Dinner?”
“My entire day is pretty packed.” I smiled weakly. “I’ll be working late to transfer my notes into the case files.”
Baldwin frowned. “Lunch. We can eat in your office, if you’d like.”
He wasn’t going to take no for an answer. “Umm…sure.”
After he left, I thought better of having Baldwin at the office for lunch and texted him I’d meet him at a nearby restaurant. Not that I was concerned Drew would be upset or anything, but there was no telling what might come out of Drew’s mouth.
It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.
Today, I’d like to say ___________________ to you, and show you I mean it.
After adding the daily quote to my whiteboard, I added it to my website and then began reviewing my case files. I had back-to-back therapy sessions this afternoon, and I wanted to be prepared in case I was late returning from lunch. Baldwin texted earlier that he’d made reservations at Seventh Street Café, a cloth-napkin-type lunch restaurant that could take a while to prepare their elaborate dishes. They didn’t make burgers. They made Kobe beef burgers with fennel seeds cooked in free-range duck fat—something exotic-sounding to justify the twenty-five-dollar price tag.
Half an hour before lunch, I was surprised when Baldwin showed up at the office instead of meeting me at the restaurant as we’d planned.
“I thought we were meeting at Seventh Street Café?”
“I was in the neighborhood, so I thought I’d pick you up on the way.”
I told him to come into my office so I could grab my coat and power down my laptop. Drew had been on an all-morning conference call, and of course he finished up right at that moment. He walked into my office without knowing anyone was there.
“What are you in the mood for? I was thinking dirty-water dogs. Feel like taking a walk up to—” He stopped in place when he saw Baldwin. “Didn’t realize you had company.”
I caught the slight tick in his jaw. He definitely wasn’t fond of Baldwin.
Of course, Baldwin didn’t help the cause. He responded snidely, “Yes. We have a lunch date at a place where they don’t serve dirty food.”
