by Witt, L. A.
“You sure you’re okay?” she asked. “You seem a little spacy.”
“Yeah. I’m fine.” I shook myself, which hurt my head. Wincing, I rubbed my temples.
Leigh gave a quiet and not terribly genuine laugh. “Had a few last night?”
I shifted uncomfortably. “Just, um, unwinding after a long week.”
She pursed her lips. Leigh knew damn well I never drank myself stupid when I was stressed. A shot of Baileys in my coffee or a stronger-than-necessary nightcap, maybe. But getting drunk wasn’t my style unless I was partying.
Or, as the case may be—
A door closed upstairs.
Leigh’s narrowed eyes slid toward the stairs, and a second later, Natalya appeared at the top, her hair pulled up in a messy ponytail. She was still tugging her blouse into place on the way down, her eyelids heavy with sleepiness and probably a mild hangover.
Natalya was halfway down the stairs when she and my ex made eye contact. She didn’t miss a step and really didn’t seem all that surprised by Leigh’s presence. If anything, her ever-so-slightly narrowed eyes dared Leigh to say something.
Clearing my throat, I squared my shoulders as Natalya joined us on the ground level. “Leigh, this is Natalya. Natalya, Leigh.”
Natalya smiled and offered her hand. Leigh eyed it, then me.
After a moment, Natalya withdrew the offer.
I tried not to squirm between them. Or notice the way they were eyeballing each other like a couple of alley cats.
I fully expected the claws to come out, but then Natalya broke eye contact and turned to me.
“I should go,” she said. “I need to be on the set in a couple of hours.”
“Okay. Yeah. I’ll . . . I’ll be in tomorrow.”
Natalya kissed my cheek and grinned. “See you later.” She winked, and I shivered at the unspoken suggestion of a rematch.
Yes, please.
“It was lovely to meet you . . . Leigh, was it?”
“Yes.” My ex folded her arms. “Leigh.”
“Right. Well. Like I said, lovely to meet you.” Was that sarcasm? Hard to tell, though the thin smile made me think it was.
“You too,” Leigh said flatly.
Natalya kissed me once more, this time on the mouth, and then went out to her car.
As she drove away, my spine prickled.
Cringing inwardly, I faced Leigh. “So, um—”
“Glad to see you’ve moved on,” she spat.
Any other time, I’d have shot back, What did you expect me to do?
But my head was throbbing, and I was exhausted—physically because of Natalya, emotionally because of Leigh. So I just shrugged. “Let’s not do this, okay?”
“Whatever.” She brushed past me. “I assume all my shit’s still out in the garage?”
“Aside from the boxes I haven’t moved out of the kitchen, yes. Where else would it be?”
“Fine.” She threw open the door to the garage and disappeared down the steps.
I caught the door before it slammed shut and leaned in. “Do you need help?”
“No.” The single, sharp syllable dripped with venom. That wasn’t just No, I don’t need help. That was Stay the hell away from me.
Well, all right, then.
She went to work moving her things out. The whole time she was there, I was restless. Couldn’t sit still. Couldn’t get comfortable. The coffee that had brought me back to life was making me jittery now, and the shirt and bra in the living room were making me feel guilty, so I busied myself moving the incriminating clothes to the laundry room.
Maybe I should’ve taken Jeremy up on his offer after all. Though he was probably enjoying the day with Scott, and wouldn’t have been thrilled about babysitting me while I tried to ignore my ex-girlfriend stomping out of the house with boxes in her arms.
I was, however, going to take Levi and Carter up on their open offer to kill an afternoon watching movies. Texting them gave me something to do while I waited for Leigh to finish up, and something to look forward to besides sitting around my quiet, empty house.
And then, without so much as a good-bye, Leigh was gone.
One minute, she was carrying another box outside. The next, her engine turned over, her tires sprayed gravel—lucky for her the Ferrari was safely inside—and she was gone.
Eh, it was probably just as well. A good-bye would have been, in the very best-case scenario, awkward. After that brief encounter between her and Natalya, I decided her abrupt, silent departure really was the best I could’ve hoped for.
Either way, she was gone now. Alone in the house I’d once shared with Leigh, my head still throbbing and my body still aching from the night I’d shared with Natalya, I leaned against the kitchen counter and tried to ignore the sinking feeling in my stomach.
Last night was a mistake, wasn’t it? Too soon. Much too soon. And with a coworker, no less. A coworker who’d just split from her boyfriend.
A boyfriend. I cringed, rubbing my throbbing forehead. How many times had I told myself I wasn’t getting involved with another bisexual woman? It never ended well. Not for me, not for the other lesbians I knew who’d gone down that road. And a bi woman on the rebound? Exactly the same mistake I’d made the first time—thinking she was in it for me and not because some tits and pussy were a good distraction from her ex-man. Or more to the point, that they’d be a good distraction right up until she found the man she really wanted.
What was I thinking?
It was the booze. Nothing more. We’d both been licking our wounds after breakups, and caught up in the heat of the moment, we’d had a little fun to distract ourselves. A one-time thing to escape from the bullshit in our lives.
The only problem was work. Things didn’t have to get weird just because we’d slept together, but that never seemed to stop things from getting weird. If we kept sleeping together, it would get even weirder. If we didn’t keep sleeping together, it would get exponentially weirder.
I took a deep breath and pushed my shoulders back. We’d just have to do some damage control. Nip this thing in the bud and be done with it.
So, tomorrow, we’d sit down and talk. Maybe work wasn’t the place for it, but it was either that or the gym. If we came back here, well . . . there probably wouldn’t be much talking going on.
I shivered. A rematch would be hot but a bad idea. Time for damage control. When I saw Natalya again, we’d talk.
But that wouldn’t be until tomorrow. Natalya was probably one of those women who could bounce back from a night of sex and drinking and take herself to the gym with a spring in her step. Me? Not so much. And I wasn’t going near the gym until this headache was gone. Which meant I wouldn’t see Natalya again until either I called her and asked to see her, or we ran into each other at work.
That thought made me cringe. But sooner or later, we would run into each other at work, and when we did . . .
Well. I’d cross that bridge when I got there.
Chapter 5
“Earth to Anna?”
Levi’s voice jarred me out of my thoughts. He was sitting beside me in his home theater, arm slung around Carter’s shoulders on their plush leather reclining love seat. They both stared at me like I’d just said something stupid. Even Link and Zelda—the former on Carter’s lap, the latter stretched out across the cushion behind their heads—were watching me.
On the giant screen in front of us, credits were rolling.
The credits to . . .
What movie was it again?
Beside me, the guys exchanged glances. Then Carter cleared his throat. “Why don’t I go grab us a couple of drinks?” He carefully moved Link over to Levi’s lap, then stood. “Any preferences?”
I shrugged. “Whatever you’re having.”
Levi adjusted the cat sprawled across his legs. “I’ll have—”
“A Coke. I know.” Carter kissed his forehead. “Back in a minute.”
Link jumped off Levi and trotted after Ca
rter. Zelda watched them go, then yawned, put her chin back down on the cushion, and closed her eyes.
“Well.” Levi scratched her scruff. “At least someone is still loyal around here.”
“If you expect loyalty from a cat, you’re probably barking up the wrong tree.”
“Good point.” He paused, and his eyes flicked toward me. Then he turned off the film, and the background music I hadn’t even noticed until now shut off, leaving us in silence except for Zelda purring behind him.
“So, now that it’s just us,” Levi said quietly, “are you okay?”
I twisted toward him and watched him idly scratching Zelda’s back. She purred louder, no doubt thinking she, not the elephant in the theater, was the center of attention.
“Anna?”
I sighed. “I’m . . .” An idiot. That’s what I am. “Well . . .”
“Hang on, hang on. Don’t tell me.” He touched his temples with his index fingers and squeezed his eyes shut. “My psychic powers say you’re distracted by . . . a woman.” One eye opened. “Am I close?”
“Ass.” I laughed and smacked his arm. “How exactly does Carter put up with you?”
“He likes my cats, my house, and my dick. Not necessarily in that order.”
“You’ve really thought that through, haven’t you?”
“Maybe. But you’re changing the subject.” His expression shifted, and playful Levi’s boyish grin faded in favor of concerned Levi’s creased brow. “Seriously. What’s going on?”
I sighed and leaned back against the cushy love seat. “So, I hooked up with someone.”
“Did you?” He tilted his head slightly. “You don’t seem happy about it.”
“I’m . . .” There was no point in trying to get anything past Levi, no matter how much I didn’t want to talk about it. I sighed, my heart sinking deeper as I faced the subject head-on. “I’m kind of wondering if it was a mistake.”
“Why?”
“Well, it was someone from work.”
“What?” He clutched his chest. “I can’t believe anyone would hook up with someone at work.”
I managed to laugh, but it was halfhearted, if that.
He put a hand on my arm. “You’re worried it’s going to blow up in your face, aren’t you? That one or both of you will regret it, and it’ll make things weird on the set?”
“Basically, yeah.”
“Or are you worried it’s too soon to be hooking up with anyone after Leigh—”
“Oh, pfft.” I gestured dismissively. “Pretty sure that relationship’s mourning period ended before the relationship did.”
“Hmm, yeah. I can’t argue with that. So someone from work, eh?” He chuckled. “And you thought Natalya was straight.”
I blinked. “How the hell did you know it was Natalya?”
“Because you just admitted it.”
I rolled my eyes. “Okay, but how did you know before I said something?”
“Well.” His eyebrow arched. “Who else would it be? You said you hooked up with someone from work.”
“Fine. I can’t argue with that.” I fidgeted, hoping he wouldn’t notice, but the squeaking leather cushions probably gave me away. “Well, I mean . . . there are plenty of women at work besides Natalya.”
“There are.” He ticked options off on his fingers. “All the directorial assistants are terrified of you. Paula in costuming is as monogamous as the day is long. Kendra in makeup—”
“Okay, okay. I get it.”
He lowered his hand onto the cat and absently stroked her back. “And Natalya is the only woman on the set who makes you tongue-tied just by walking into the same room.”
Heat flared in my cheeks. My God, yes. She does. And it’s only going to get worse now that I’ve— “You, um, noticed?”
“Anna. Please.” He shot me a pointed look. “I know you.”
“Humph. Can’t get anything past you, can I?”
“Nope. Not sure why you bother trying.” He winked and chuckled, then turned serious again. “So is the coworker thing the only reason you’re not happy about what happened? Or was she disappointing or something?”
“No, definitely not.” I shifted around to hide the shiver that was working its way up my spine and lighting up all the places Natalya had kissed, licked, touched, bitten. “It was . . . yeah, not disappointing. But . . .” How much did I want to out Natalya? On the other hand, he’d known about her boyfriend, and he knew she’d hooked up with me, so it wasn’t like he hadn’t put the pieces together that she was bi. I wrung my hands in my lap. “If you weren’t with Carter, would it bother you to date a bi man? Or would it bother you if Carter were bi?”
Lips quirked, Levi glanced toward the door Carter had gone through. “I can’t say I’ve really thought about it, to tell you the truth.” He turned to me again. “I don’t think it would bother me.”
“Not at all?”
“Well, if Carter were bi, I mean, it’d be a moot point. I trust him. End of story.” He shrugged. “I trust him not to sleep with other men, so why would it be any different trusting him not to sleep with women?”
I shifted uncomfortably on the plush seat. “Except you can’t really compete with a woman, you know? If he were attracted to women, that’s a need that you can’t fill. If that makes sense.”
Levi furrowed his brow for a moment, then shook his head. “I still don’t think it would bug me, honestly. If someone makes a commitment to be exclusive with a person, then it’s understood that they’re giving up whatever they might get from other people.” He tilted his head. “Does her being bi really bother you that much?”
I avoided his eyes. “Dating bi women hasn’t ended well for most women I know. Myself included. The last bi woman I dated was in the same position as Natalya. She’d just broken up with some asshole, so we started seeing each other, and then . . .” I exhaled, letting my head fall back against the cushion. “Then a guy came along who was everything she’d ever imagined, and she had no more use for me.”
“Ouch,” Levi said. “But bisexuals don’t exactly have the monopoly on dumping people because they think some other grass is greener.”
“No, but they have twice the options. And I don’t know about bi guys, but most bi women seem to ultimately want a man.” I fidgeted under his scrutiny. “Being in a same-sex relationship isn’t nearly as easy as being in a hetero one. You know that as well as I do.”
“Yeah, I do,” he said quietly. “Except we were both miserable when we dated each other because it wasn’t who we were. On the outside, yeah, it’s easier to be straight, but she’s probably got a grasp on who she is and who she wants.”
”Except every bi woman out there . . .” I blew out a breath and stared up at the dark movie screen, since it was easier to look at than him. “They’ll date women for a little while, but they all seem to want men eventually. After the novelty wears off. It seems like being with a lesbian is . . . Hell, it can be a rebound thing, or an experiment, or just something they do for fun.” I turned to him again. “But it’s never permanent.”
He arched his eyebrow, skepticism etched all over his creased forehead. “Never?”
Squirming uncomfortably, I broke eye contact again. “Not when it comes to any women I’ve ever known.” I chewed the inside of my cheek. “Or maybe I’m overthinking the whole thing. Hell, maybe it is too soon, you know? Not . . . not too soon to be fooling around. And if that’s all it is, then great. But what if it isn’t? I don’t know if I’m ready for anything else. I’ve kind of been enjoying the single life.”
He was quiet for a moment, as if debating calling me on the subject change, but instead, he asked, “Has she said she wants more than just a hookup?”
I pursed my lips. He had a point. “Well, no. See? I’m probably worrying about nothing there, too.”
“You? Never.” He chuckled cautiously and patted my arm. “I really do think you’re overthinking all of this. The timing and also her sexuality.”
&nb
sp; “But there’s the fact that she’s a coworker.”
“I think you’re overthinking that part too.”
“Am I?” I shook my head. “Come on. Dating someone at work is just asking for disaster.”
“You’re a professional and so is she.” He shrugged. “You could make it work, couldn’t you? Dating and working together?”
“This from the man who very nearly let Carter slip through his fingers because he didn’t want to date a coworker?”
“Well, that wasn’t the only reason, but thanks for proving my point.” He gestured in the direction his fiancé had gone. “Obviously dating coworkers can and does work.”
“It can and does blow up in people’s faces too.” Come on, Carter. Come back so I can change the subject. But he was still gone, probably taking his sweet time in the kitchen so he wouldn’t trip over the cat and break his neck. When he didn’t show up and offer a distraction, I sighed. “Let’s not forget that Natalya technically works for me.”
Levi seemed to mull that over for a second, then slowly released his breath. “I guess that could complicate matters.”
“Just a bit.”
“Still, stranger things have happened.” He smirked. “And if you’re worried about people finding out, I don’t think they’d be all that surprised.”
“What? Why not?”
He studied me, then glanced at the theater door as footsteps came down the hallway. “You have any objection to Carter knowing about this?”
“If I did, I wouldn’t have told you.”
“Oh, ha-ha.” He rolled his eyes and gently swatted my arm. A second later, the theater door opened, and Carter came in, balancing three Coke bottles.
As Carter gave us each our drinks, Link leaped up onto the love seat and waited for him to sit. Tail up, purring like mad, he watched Carter intently until Carter sat beside Levi again. The instant Carter hit the cushion, Link was on his lap.
“Traitor,” Levi muttered.
“Aww, don’t listen to him,” Carter said, ruffling Link’s fur. “He’s just jealous.”
