Wild Hearts (Forever Wild)

by Vernon, Magan

  But when I reached over to the other side of the bed it was empty. I opened one eye and saw that it was unmade, but definitely slept in. Shit. Did he skip town after seeing Max? Maybe that’s all he needed to realize I was a waste. Maybe he stole my credit card and hopped a plane to Vegas.

  Figures.

  I threw the covers off and walked the few steps to my door, expecting to grab my robe but it was gone. Weird. But not as weird as what was on the other side of the door. The scent of eggs wafted in the air. Paige never cooked and I doubt she had a guy over that cooked. Which left one person.

  I threw the door open and walked into the kitchen. Wes stood over the tiny stove, wearing my white bathrobe. Which he looked way better in than I did. The robe ended not much lower than his butt and showed off his very toned calves. If he moved even a little bit he would have probably given me a show. A show I definitely wouldn’t have minded with how fit the guy was. His body was like something that could have been carved by the Greeks.

  On the stove there was a faint stream of smoke coming from a pan as he pushed something around with a wooden spoon. He did all of this while constantly glancing over at Dexter, who was staring at him from the counter and listening intently as he sang “Wild at Heart” by Stevie Nicks.

  I couldn’t remember the last time I actually had a home-cooked meal and my mouth was watering as I padded into the kitchen. Wes must have heard me because he turned around with a big grin on his face. “Mornin’, darlin.”

  Dexter didn’t give me the same respect and hissed as soon as he saw me. “Aw, Dexy, it’s okay, it’s just Valerie.” Wes looked over at Dexter and the cat instantly started purring. The guy had a way with women and men. Even the feline variety.

  “What are you doing?” I arched an eyebrow, walking the few steps to the stove and leaning up against the fridge. A frying pan full of eggs and other various ingredients I couldn’t identify were simmering.

  He stirred the egg mixture with a wooden spoon before turning off the burner. “I couldn’t sleep last night. I looked for some food in your fridge, but all you had was some leftover Chinese. So I went to the nearest convenience store and picked up some eggs and other stuff to mix with it. Then I figured, it was close enough to morning, might as well make breakfast.”

  “You didn’t have to do that ...”

  “Yeah, but I wanted to.” The large grin on his face was contagious and I couldn’t help smiling too.

  “I hope you didn’t wear my robe to the store.”

  He shook his head. “Naw, I put this on after my shower. I hope you don’t mind.”

  “No, it looks good on you.”

  He placed a quick, chaste kiss on my forehead. “I’m sure it looks even better on you.”

  I heard Paige stumble into the kitchen before I saw her. For being so tiny she wasn’t very graceful, especially before she had her morning caffeine shot. “What the hell is this?”

  I gasped, jumping back like I just got caught making out by my mom as a teenager. “Wes was just making us breakfast. Isn’t that nice?”

  She curled her upper lip, slowly walking into the kitchen and grabbing Dexter off the counter. “What is that shit?”

  She held Dexter tight against her, hiding her giant fake boobs that spilled out of her tank top. I prayed that Wes wasn’t staring at them or thinking that maybe it was time to trade me in for my roommate.

  “Eggs and some leftovers. My Meemaw used to call it a morning scramble. She’d mix together whatever we had in the fridge with eggs and call it good,” Wes said as I grabbed two plates from the cupboard above us.

  “Ugh.” Paige rolled her eyes and turned away, walking the few steps over to the coffee pot, grabbing one of the mugs from the hook above it and pouring herself a cup. “Like that shit won’t stick to my thighs for a week. No thank you.”

  “It’s protein. Maybe it’ll make you a bit happier if you got some meat on your bones,” Wes said, taking the plate that I handed him.

  Paige rolled her eyes. “How long are you going to be here again?”

  Wes looked at me, his eyes practically blasting a hole through me. I didn’t know what answer he wanted me to give, so I gave the truth. “We’re meeting with a lawyer today over my lunch and seeing what happens.”

  Paige took a sip of her coffee as Dexter jumped down and immediately ran over to Wes, rubbing against his legs and purring. “So, like, he’s just going to stay here and hang out in our apartment until you guys figure shit out?”

  “Would you prefer he do something else? Stay out on the street?”

  Paige opened her mouth to speak, but Wes spoke first. “You know, I can answer for myself, ladies.”

  He looked from Paige to me. “I can leave if y’all really need me to. I don’t want to mess up the roommate dynamic.”

  I shook my head. “No. It’s fine. You’re totally fine staying here. Paige just doesn’t like men around unless they’re carrying a platinum card.”

  “That’s totally not true. I sure as hell don’t care for Max. At least Tex here isn’t as big of a douche as he is,” Paige snapped.

  “Well—”

  I cut Wes off before he could say anything else. “Can we just drop all of this? I need to shower and get ready for work and I know you do too, Paige. We can figure all of this out later. Let’s just get through the morning first.”

  “Fine,” Paige grumbled.

  I looked up at Wes, his eyebrows knitted together like he was deep in thought, but he didn’t say anything. He only shook his head and then went back to humming and plated our food.

  A Couple Hours Later

  My PR firm was right off Michigan Avenue. When I first got the job I thought it was a dream come true, to be along the Magnificent Mile and the world’s greatest shopping. Then reality set in and so did my salary. Which was less than some of the handbags they had at Nordstrom’s.

  The tourists weren’t out yet for shopping, but the streets were still bustling with men and women in suits, staring at their smartphones instead of watching where they were going. I pushed past a few businessmen and made my way into the building. My heels clicked on the tile floor and I was glad that I was running early. The encounter with Max a few hours before made things even more awkward with Wes and I didn’t want to stay around and make small talk. I even had a few missed texts from Max, but I wasn’t about to check them with Wes around.

  Call it whatever, but I didn’t know what was going to happen after the divorce was final, and if a hot hedge fund guy was going to call me, then it was hard to resist. I know it sounds slutty as hell, but big girls like me didn’t get many guys and to have two fighting over me as a prize the night before was one of the biggest highlights of my life. Even better than graduation or my first piece of pumpkin cheesecake.

  I hopped on the elevator between a few other people and pushed my way to the back, finally unlocking my phone and looking through my missed text messages.

  WTF was that? Who the hell was the cowboy?

  I don’t like being stood up, Valerie. It would have been nice to know that you have a boyfriend I should be worried about.

  Coffee today?

  The last text was the one that threw me off the most. Max never wanted to meet in daylight hours unless it was work related. And that was just when he came to my office to drop something off. No one knew we slept together and that was how he liked to keep it. He always said his work was his biggest priority and he wouldn’t be in a relationship that was second best, so our arrangement was the best he could do. Whatever stupid line that was.

  I sent him a quick, one-word text back: Maybe. Then the elevator dinged for my floor and I followed the crowd out.

  When I first started at the firm I expected some luxury office building with mahogany desks, an office overlooking Lake Michigan, and sexy men in suits like on some primetime TV show. But my firm was nothing like that.

  White fluorescent lights beat down on baby blue carpet and made the white walls and beige cubicl
es look even brighter. The whole thing was sterile looking. Sterile and loud as hell. People stood out of their cubes yelling to the person next to them or trying to talk to a client on their BlackBerry. It was nothing like the movies. It was reality.

  I smiled at Mrs. Flowers at the front desk that she always stocked with pretzel M&Ms in a bright green bowl. Any time someone went to grab any, she watched like a hawk with her beady little brown eyes, as if touching them was a sin. It made no sense why the hell she stocked them if she was going to judge anyone who walked by and tried to grab them.

  I strode past her and a few other cubes before I plopped down in my ergonomic chair. Most of my cube mates had pictures of their kids plastering their walls and popped up like Meerkats as soon as I came in to show me their kid’s latest soccer or ballet picture of whatever. My desk was almost the exact opposite.

  I had all my folders neatly organized and locked away, a cup with my pencils in it, and the only decorative piece was a coffee mug that my sister Melanie got me for Christmas that said “Gone Crazy, Back Later.” Melanie wasn’t the best with personalized gifts but I told her she couldn’t just give me a Starbucks gift card. At least the hot pink mug added some color to my desk.

  Before I could even log on to my computer, Abbi strode up to my desk and sat down at the edge of it. I knew Abbi’s whole life story: divorce, remarried, two kids. But not because she tried to pound me with it. Abbi actually cared about me and I actually wanted to get to know her. Abbi was assigned as my mentor when I started at the firm and at first I didn’t think I’d like her since she was freaking gorgeous with her strawberry-blonde hair, skinny waist, and designer suits. Then she found me crying in the bathroom on my lunch break after a gym client told me that he didn’t want the new fat chick working his promo. She took me out for cheesecake at lunch and we’d been friends ever since.

  “Hey, lady. How are you this morning? Have a busy night?” She raised her eyebrows expectantly.

  I glanced around to see if anyone was listening. People were just starting to pile in and mostly everyone either headed for the break room or made a beeline for the Starbucks on the first floor. When I was sure no one was listening I leaned in. “Max showed up at my apartment last night.”

  “Holy!” She covered her mouth before she could finish her sentence and then dropped her hand. “Seriously? What happened?”

  I gave her a brief run down, nothing big. Not too many people knew about Max. Paige knew because he only came to our apartment for hook ups, never his. And Abbi knew because she hooked me up with him as a client. She jokingly said she wanted to set us up and after enough pestering about it I finally told her that we were casually hooking up.

  She shook her head, crossing her legs and then uncrossing them. “What did Wes say about it?”

  I shrugged. “Not much.”

  She cocked an eyebrow. “Was he jealous?”

  I sighed. “Abbi, I know you believe in happily ever afters and all that, but seriously this was just a clichéd marriage by mistake. The guy married me for the money he thought I had and now is just happy to be out of the strip club scene for awhile. I wouldn’t be surprised if he wasn’t already trolling for a sugar mama at the Viagra coast right now.”

  “You don’t know that,” she said, fiddling with her bracelet. Even she couldn’t pretend it wasn’t true. Guys as hot as him didn’t go for girls like me for more than a piece of ass.

  “No.” I sighed. “I don’t, but I’m not going to get my hopes up.”

  Abbi gasped, covering her mouth, her eyes wide.

  I looked behind me, hoping that the people walking in weren’t eavesdropping. I then looked back at Abbi. “What?”

  “You’re totally into him! You really, really like him.”

  “I do not!”

  She shook her head. “I thought you really liked Max, but the way your face lights up when you talk about Wes, you actually dig your husband.”

  “Shhh!” I put my finger to my lips and then dropped it, lowering my voice. “Still trying to keep that on the DL.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Oh please. No one cares about your personal life.”

  “Seriously? This is an office. Everyone loves to gossip about everyone else’s business. I don’t want to be the laughing stock of the work place if they find out that I married a stripper in Vegas.”

  “Fine, fine.” She put her hands up. “I get it. But don’t say I didn’t tell you so when you end up looking for houses in the suburbs with Mr. Wild.”

  An Hour Later

  I was busy checking my email, lost in all the junk mail that gathered while I was in Vegas, when my desk phone rang. I deleted my last spam email and picked up the receiver.

  “This is Valerie, how can I help you?” I turned on professional voice. Abbi always joked that I sounded like a phone sex operator when I answered and if that was the case, I thought I’d have a lot more clients.

  “Hello, Valerie.” Max’s voice was smooth as silk on the other end. Even those two little words made everything heat up between my thighs. The guy oozed sex appeal.

  “Hello, Max, long time no talk.” Max never called me at work, except for the first time we set up a client meeting at his office. That was when I ended up giving him a blow job under his desk. Ever since then it was all text messages. Usually in the middle of the night.

  “It has been too long. I thought we could go grab some coffee. Maybe we can talk about some new publicity for the firm?”

  I hoped ‘the firm’ wasn’t code for his dick. Any other time I would have gladly jumped on it, but not now. I wouldn’t do that to Wes. So we got married by mistake. That didn’t mean I was going to cheat on him.

  “Yeah. I can do that. Where and when?”

  “How about twenty minutes? Pierrot?” He didn’t ask it as much as he told me. As if there was no way I could say no.

  “I’ll see you there,” I replied.

  ***

  The Pierrot Gourmet was an upscale restaurant on the Magnificent Mile. It was located at the ritzy Peninsula Hotel and was supposed to have a European cafe feel with its French doors opening out onto Superior and round tables sitting under yellow awnings, perfect for watching tourists while you enjoyed your fancy coffee.

  Spring in Chicago could be anywhere from the 40s up to the 70s, which meant that no one knew how to dress for the weather so they would be in shorts at the first sign of the sun after winter. I was dressed in a black wrap dress with black leggings and some killer red boots. I may have hated how my body looked in clothes, but I had the perfect size feet for all of the best shoes. Even if they did kill my feet and I always spent way too much money on them.

  The heels of my boots clicked on the sidewalk as I approached Pierrot. Max was already sitting at one of the outside tables. He was dressed impeccably as always in a dark blue suit, tailor made for his slim build. He wasn’t skinny, but the guy didn’t have an ounce of fat on him, which always made me hyper aware of how I looked.

  He had one leg crossed over the other as he took a sip of his double cafe latte (the same thing he always ordered). His brown eyes met mine as soon as I approached and he stood up, a broad smile on his face. He never looked this happy to see me.

  “Valerie, so good to see you.” He held his arms out as if he was waiting for a hug.

  I didn’t want to leave him hanging, especially since a few women at the tables around us were already staring at the dapper gentleman and the big girl, so I reluctantly went in for a hug. To my surprise he placed a very chaste kiss on my cheek before pulling out my chair behind me. I sat down, raising an eyebrow as he went around the table and back to his seat.

  “I ordered breakfast for both of us, I hope you don’t mind.” He had the cockeyed grin on his face that usually made my panties drop. I had to swallow hard so I wouldn’t grin like an idiot.

  “Oh, I already ate. I thought this was just a quick chat over coffee,” I said, my eyes flitting down to the linen tablecloth.

  When
I looked back up his smile turned into a grimace. “I see ...”

  I rolled my eyes. “Okay, I’m not stupid. You obviously want something, so spill it. We both have work to get back to.”

  He smirked, taking a sip of his drink before setting it back on the table. “I guess nothing gets past you.”

  “Don’t dance around the question, Green.”

  He sighed, steepling his hands in front of his face. “Fine, what’s with you and the guy who was at your apartment? Have you been dating someone this entire time we’ve been ...” His words trailed off like he didn’t know how to categorize us, even though he was the one that said he didn’t want to date anyone, just have some fun.

  “The entire time we’ve been screwing around?” I asked just as a slim waitress with bright red hair and way too big of boobs sat a latte in front of me. She quickly skidded away, making an ‘I’m sorry’ face as she gritted her teeth like she was embarrassed that she just interrupted our conversation.

  Max’s smirk turned into a small smile as he dropped his hands to the table, his fingers tracing the rim of his cup. “You’ve always been straight to the point, Val. So tell me, are you just screwing around with the cowboy or are you actually seeing him?”

  “Does it matter if I am or not?”

  He shook his head, a low, sexy growl coming from his throat. “Dammit, just give me a straight answer. You leave for a week in Vegas and then I show up at your place and some tattooed dude is hanging out in his underwear in your apartment.”

  He blinked, a look of recognition crossing his face as his eyes widened and he stared at me. “Did you pick him up in Vegas? Did you have one of those clichéd, one-night stands that you woke up married?”

  I sucked in a deep breath. How did everyone know that?