by Harper West
“You look sexy,” I said with a grin. “Don’t worry about the rest. But it is getting late.”
“Yeah, I should probably go home,” she said. “Work in the morning and all.”
“I could text Reed and tell him you’re going to be late,” I said, and she laughed.
“Not tonight,” she replied. “But perhaps we could do this again?”
“Sure,” I said. “Anytime you want.”
She gathered her stuff up and headed for the door I escorted out and made sure to call her a cab. There were always cabs waiting around my office, even when it seemed everyone had gone home. I wondered if they were just used to the fact that I would bring women there.
I wasn’t lying to her. I had never fucked anyone over that particular desk before. I had dates, and we had gotten into all sorts of things, but there was something different about it.
“See ya around,” I said as she closed the cab door. She waived and blew me a kiss, and then the cab sped off.
As soon as she was gone, I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone.
I win, I texted Reed. He didn’t answer for a few minutes and I briefly wondered if he was already asleep
Best two out of three? He texted back.
How about best three? I asked and waited for his reply.
You serious, bro? He asked.
Yeah, I think she’d be into it, I said. If you’re willing.
I’m game, he replied. But I’d like to have her one on one first.
Sure, I texted back. She likes office desks.
I had wandered back upstairs at that point, and I sent him a picture of the desk in question. He sent me back an emoji.
Whose desk is that? He asked, with a shocked face.
I don't know, I said. But whoever it is is going to have a surprise in the morning. A white sticky surprise, if you know what I mean.
You’re terrible, John, Reed texted, and I laughed.
That’s not what Natalie said, I replied.
I’m going to bed, he said. Have to save my strength for winning her over.
See ya later, I said and put my phone in my pocket. I paused, briefly wondering if I should clean up the mess or just leave it. Eventually, the good side of me won out and I picked up the papers I had knocked over. I had no idea what order they were in, of course, but I could at least pick them up and put them in a pile. Whatever they were working on could be recognized, and I could pretend I knew nothing about what caused such a disturbance.
When everything was clear, I headed to my office to get the rest of my things and headed to my condo. I had a feeling I would have very sweet dreams tonight.
Thanks for the great time, I texted Natalie. See you soon.
She sent me back a picture of her breasts, still in the taxi. I saved the picture and put my phone away, whistling as I picked up my bag. Reed had done a lot of good things for me over the last few years, but this one was by far the greatest.
Chapter 7
Natalie
When I woke up the next morning, I was deliciously sore in all the right places. I couldn’t believe that last night had happened, and at the same time, it had felt so right. I had never had that kind of connection with someone before. John was perfect, and I wanted to do it all over again.
Except, I knew that probably wouldn’t work. He probably was one of those guys who slept with a different woman every night, just so he could out put another notch in his belt. In some ways, I didn’t mind, but in other ways, it felt so bizarre.
When did I become that girl?
I guess the answer was last night.
When I got up, I felt tired, which didn’t normally happen. Normally, I was the person who bounced out of bed. I guess that I had managed to overdo it last night. I briefly considered texting in sick, but I knew that Reed would know exactly why. I was under no illusions that he didn’t know where I was. He and John seemed to be the type of friends who told each other everything.
There was a text message in my phone, and my heart pounded as I went for it. I wondered if it was John, telling me something sexy about last night. Instead, it was from Ricky, which made me pause.
Ricky had been a friend of mine when we were in undergrad. He seemed like a good guy, and we had dated off and on. However, near the end of the last year, he stopped coming to class and started to lock himself in his room. I couldn’t figure out why, until he told me that summer that he had been diagnosed with an incurable disease that would eventually rob him of his life. It had been a heart-breaking summer, and while I was glad Ricky was still with us, I knew that he hadn’t been doing very well.
Hey, said that text. Could you come see me today?
Are you OK? I texted right away. I knew that wasn’t the best thing to ask your friend, but I was always worried about him.
Yeah, he said. Just want to talk.
Name the time and place, I said. I didn’t care what Reed thought if I called out for Ricky now. Ricky very rarely reached out. He usually was a very quiet person, and he never asked for help. The fact that he asked me to come today made me think the worst was happening.
“Hey,” I called Caitlin as soon as I had dressed. She sounded half asleep when she answered, but I didn’t care. “Ricky just texted me.”
The three of us used to be like the three musketeers, and so she knew exactly what that met.
“Is he OK?” she asked. “Is something wrong?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “He just asked me to come up to see him right away. I don’t know what to make of it.”
“OK,” she said. “OK, we’re going to figure this out. I’ll call off work. I’ll come with you.”
“I mean, I didn’t talk to him,” I said. “But... he didn’t say it was serious.”
“Yeah,” she said. “You know Ricky. I’m coming with you. I’ll pick you up.”
“Thanks,” I said. “I assume that he still lives in the same place?”
“He hasn’t told me anything different,” she said. “I’ll see you soon.”
As soon as I got off the phone with her, I dialed Reed’s number. I was almost embarrassed to call off work, but I wasn’t going to let Ricky’s health suffer.
“I’m really sorry,” I said to him, once I explained. “It’s uh... it could be serious.”
“Of course,” he said. “I understand.”
“It has nothing to do with last night,” I said.
“I know,” he replied. “It’s fine. Just keep me posted.”
I didn’t know if he actually believed me, but I thanked him again and then hung up the phone. I was dressed and ready when Caitlin came to pick me up, and I threw an overnight bag into the backseat of her car, just in case.
“I was starting to get worried about him,” she said. “You know, because we hadn’t heard in so long.”
“I’m sure it’s fine,” I said. “Like... he’s just …”
“Except you know that it could not be fine,” she said. “You know that he could…”
“Caitlin, I don't want to talk about it,” I snapped, and she turned her head towards me.
“Sorry,” she said. “Maybe I do.”
I took a deep breath.
“Sorry, it’s not like that,” I said. “It’s just really hard to face.”
“I get it,” she said. “So, tell me about last night.”
“Last night was special,” I said. “Like epic.”
“You slept with him, didn’t you?” she said with a grin and I buried my face in my hands.
“Yes,” I said, and she shrieked.
“I knew it,” she said. “I knew you were going to sleep with him.”
“No,” I cried, even though I should have just trusted her all along. “I wasn’t planning to. But then I went in and the office was empty, and he had champagne, and everything was just... perfect.”
“Aha,” she said, as she drove. “And?”
“And what?” I asked.
“And? Was he any good?”
/>
“Of course, he was good,” I said as I stared at the road ahead. “He’s probably had lots of practice.”
She laughed out loud at that.
“Well, I’m glad you had a good night,” she said. “Because my night consisted of studying.”
“I probably should have done some of that,” I said. “But I couldn’t bring myself to do it after I got home. I took a shower and went straight to bed. If it wasn’t for Ricky’s text, I probably still would be sleeping.”
“You know, maybe we should convince him to move back,” she said, but I shook my head.
“He wouldn’t,” I replied. “All the doctors and hospitals and everything are up there.”
“I know,” she said. “But... he has no friends up there, no support system.”
“I thought he was dating someone,” I said. “At least, last time I talked to him, he was.”
“Was he?” she asked, and I nodded. “Well, that would be good for him.”
Ricky lived two hours away from us, and when we finally got to his apartment building, neither of us knew what to expect. Caitlin rang the buzzer and he let us in. She and I carried our backpacks upstairs, and then pushed open the door to his apartment
I felt guilty that we hadn’t been there in a few months. What kind of friends were we, to just stay away?
When we walked in, Ricky was sitting on the sofa. He looked pale and drawn, and his eyes were red.
My mind went to the worst-case scenario.
He was dying. This was it. He was going to tell us he had only days, and we would have to bury him.
“Hi,” I said and gave him a big hug.
“Hi,” he said, and then reached to hug Caitlin. “Thanks for coming.”
“Of course we were going to come,” she said. “What’s the matter? What can we do?”
“I thought you could help me,” he said. “I want to get out of here.”
“Get out of... the apartment?” I asked. “The planet? Life?”
He raised an eyebrow at me. He looked so tired and yet he still had his sense of humour.
“The city,” he said. “I thought I could move back.”
Caitlin shrieked and turned to me.
“I told you!” she said. “I told you that he wanted to move back.”
“Of course we will help you move back,” I said to Ricky. There was more to this story than met the eye, though. He wouldn’t ask us to come at a moment’s notice and look so tired and sick unless something terrible had happened. “Why?”
“This place has terrible memories,” he said. “And I’d rather forget them.”
Even Caitlin in her excitement picked up on the fact that something was very wrong.
“Ricky?” she asked.
“My... girlfriend…” he stated.
“She broke up with you?” Caitlin asked. “What a bitch. What a horrible…”
“She died last night,” Ricky said and the three of us plunged into silence.
Caitlin certainly had a way of putting her foot in her mouth. She glanced to me, with her face white as a sheet. Her mouth opened and closed but it was clear that she couldn’t get any words out.
There was a lump in my throat so large that it physically hurt to speak.
“What did she die of?” I asked him.
“The same thing,” Ricky said. “She had the same thing I did. She was a bit more progressed, but we didn’t think... we thought we’d …”
“I’m so sorry,” I said to him. “You should have told us.”
“I didn’t know how bad it was until last week,” he replied. “And then I wanted to spend every spare moment with her.”
“Of course,” I nodded. “That makes sense. But Ricky, you whole life is here. You can’t just up and …”
“Of course, I can,” he said. “People move all the time. I can figure out a way to transfer my medical records, and live the rest of my days in the city that I was last happy in.”
“And watch us struggle through our PhDs,” Caitlin said. “We’re really not that exciting. We’re flattered, of course.”
“Of course,” Ricky said. “But you won’t help me.”
“Of course we’ll help you,” I shot Caitlin a look. “It’s just... we want you to be alright, Ricky. And this is such a spur of the moment decision.”
“Could you stay here?” he asked, searching our faces. “Either of you? If something like this happened?”
Neither of us could answer the question. It was so unexpected and so harsh that I felt like my soul was going to drop out of my body.
“Natalie?” he asked. “Have you ever even been in love? Do you even know what that is like? And Caitlin, have you ever stayed with a man for more than one day? Do you know how it feels to go from talking to someone every day to just... nothing?”
He didn’t mean to be harsh. I knew he was just hurt and that he would regret his words later. But for the moment, they stung like little razor blades.
He was right, of course. I didn’t know what it was like to be in love. I didn’t know what it was like to have someone gaze into my eyes and feel my soul explode.
I didn’t know what it was like to plan my life with someone. Ricky did, and he had lost it. And here I was, standing here sleep deprived because I had been fucked over an office desk last night.
I didn’t want to waste one more moment of my life. I didn’t want to know what being alone felt like anymore.
“Of course we’ll help you,” I said. “And we’ll do it now, if you want.”
“Thank you,” he said. “I knew you were always the reasonable one. I’m sorry I’m being a jerk. I just…”
“No, it’s fine,” I said, thinking of last night. “You’re right. We don’t know what it is like to love someone and then lose them.”
“And I hope you never do,” he said. “I hope you two fall in love and live happily ever after.”
“With each other?” Caitlin asked, and Ricky smirked.
“If it makes you feel better,” he said, and I laughed
“I don’t think Caitlin is the love of my life,” I said, “But let me tell you about my new advisor at school Because I could live happily ever after with him.”
Chapter 8
Reed
When Natalie came back to work the next day, she looked absolutely exhausted. I was worried that something terrible had happened, and so, when there was a quiet moment during the day, I reached out for her.
‘Everything OK?” I asked softly. All the students had left for another class, and she and I were alone in the office. “How did yesterday go?”
“It went OK,” she said. “My friend... he uh... his girlfriend died. So, he wanted to move out of the city, and he wanted to do it right away.”
“I’m so sorry to hear that,” I said. “I couldn’t imagine.”
“Yeah, so it was a tough day,” she replied. “And there’s still a lot of complicated things to deal with... but we just packed up as much as we could and brought him here. He’s staying in my guest room for now.”
“You have a guest room?” I asked her. She smiled
“Well, he’s staying in my bedroom and I’m sleeping on the couch,” she said. “That’s the guest room.”
“Oh,” I said. “That sounds... cramped.”
“It’s what you do for friends,” she said with a shrug. “Hotels in this city are insane, and neither of us could afford to do that for more than one night.”
“He could stay at my place,” I said. She paused.
“Seriously?”
“Yes.”
She shook her head, “No. no. That’s like totally taking advantage. You don’t have to feel obligated to offer that.”
“I don’t feel obligated, and I don’t offer things flippantly. If I say it, I mean it.” I kept eye contact with her, and she blushed, her breath picking up under my stare.
“You would really do that? For a stranger? No, like a friend or a stranger?”
“No, but
I’d do it for you.” I realized how intimate that sounded so I added, “You’ve been at school here for a long time, and you’re responsible, intelligent, level-headed. And you work for me, so If something went south, I could always send him back your way.”
She looked at me from under her lashes and tucked a stray pink strand behind her ear, “How big is your place?”
“It’s uh... it’s pretty big,” I said. I don’t know why I offered it, because I usually didn’t like anyone in my house for an extended period of time. But Natalie was different, and I wanted her to understand I was more than just a professor.
And maybe, just maybe, I was hoping she’d say yes, and she would realize what wealth I had. I didn’t want to brag about my money, but I did want her to realize that I was more than just a poor professor.
“There’s a lot of spare rooms,” I said, when she said nothing. “I bet you he’d be pretty comfortable. I’ll show you a picture.”
I had pictures on my phone from when I had briefly considered listing the house on Airbnb. Her eyebrows shot up through her bangs.
“That’s your house?” she said. “It looks like a movie star’s mansion.”
“Yep,” I said. “I uh...you know. Family money.”
“What?” she asked. “Why do you teach if you can afford something like that?”
“I like to keep things different,” I said. “And I wanted to make my own way in the world. I bought the house, yes, and the car, but those are the only two things I use the family bank account for. Otherwise, I’m just a regular old professor.”
“Who lives in in a palace,” she said. “Yes, Ricky would be ten times more comfortable there. That’s awesome. Are you sure?”
“Maybe,” I suggested. “You should come and see it, and then you’ll know for yourself that everything is OK.”
“Sure,” she said. “I can come tonight, if that works for you?”
“Tonight, is perfect,” I said. “We could maybe make a night out of it?”
Natalie paused, and I briefly wondered if her one-night stand with John had made her think about him more than she should. But then, she smiled.
“I’d love to,” she said. “Thank you again.”
