“I was really at the mansion all night,” I said again, praying she would leave it at that.
“I thought that yummy boss of yours had a no staff after seven p.m. rule.”
“He does.”
“Then pray tell what were you doing there all night, and don’t leave out any details.”
I stood up and went over to top up my coffee. “You want some?”
She laughed. “You’re bright red. You slept with your boss, didn’t you?”
I looked away and said, “Of course not.”
Still laughing she said, “Look me in the eye.” I turned slowly and looked at her and she laughed even harder. “Oh my God! You slept with a billionaire hunk! Go Vicki!”
“Stop it,” I said, mortified once again. “It wasn’t like that.”
“What was it like?” she said. “Oh please tell me. I haven’t had a boyfriend in three months and I’ve never had anyone like Alexander Reigns.”
I sat back down and said, “Jason broke up with me yesterday in a text message while I was at work.”
“That snake! I always knew I didn’t like him. Oh Vicki, I’m sorry.”
I tried to smile and say it didn’t matter, but the words wouldn’t come out. Instead, I said, “In his defense, he didn’t really say break up. He said, take a break.”
“Same thing,” she said. “Slime ball.”
“Yeah, I guess. I was really upset and I just lost it and I couldn’t stop crying. Alex…”
“Alex, huh? Cozy.”
“Do you want to hear this or not?”
“I do. I’m sorry, I’ll be good.”
“He saw me and he was so sweet. He fixed us a drink and…”
“A drink?”
“Liz!”
“Okay, okay. Go on…”
“We talked. It was really nice. He’s really just a normal guy. It’s easy to forget they’re human, you know? The elite. The ones we wait on and clean up after. But he really is just normal like any other guy.”
“Alexander Reigns is a God. Ask the cover of any tabloid in the city. And since his wife left him, he’s been seen in the company of more than one model.”
“I know. I’ve seen him in the company of them first-hand. But he wasn’t like that with me.”
“I’m not being facetious now honey but he obviously did talk you into something. Am I right?”
“It wasn’t like that though. We talked and I had two glasses of wine and he was just so sweet. He kissed me and then he actually apologized. He told me he would stop there if I wanted him to. I didn’t want him to…”
“Wow, and you spent the whole night?”
“Yeah, I fell asleep in his arms. It was sweet and romantic though, Liz. It wasn’t sleazy at all.”
“Oh honey of course not. I know you. I’m having a hard time imagining you sleeping with him at all… but I know that you wouldn’t have done it unless there was some real emotion there. I just like to tease. You know that.”
“I know. I’m feeling a little sleazy myself actually and projecting that on you I guess. When I woke up this morning, he was gone. Now I’m scared to death. What if I screwed up my job?”
“Why would he fire you? He came on to you, right? You could easily sue him for sexual harassment.”
“Oh I wouldn’t ever do that. That wasn’t how it happened. It was completely consensual.”
She smiled, “I can tell that by the way you’re defending him. My point is that I really think even if he didn’t want to pursue this any further he wouldn’t be willing to take that kind of risk. The wrong person in that situation could take him for millions.”
“I never thought about it that way. I hope he knows that I’d never even consider anything like that.”
“I don’t know how well your boss knows you, but those of us who do know you well enough know that. I am a little worried about your heart though.”
“Why?”
“You seem awfully sad that he left during the night.”
I shrugged, trying to be nonchalant about it. The truth was, just talking about it brought a deep ache to my chest. “I’m sure he had business to attend to or something. I hope.” Liz smiled and reached over to pat my hand. It’ll be okay, honey. You want some breakfast?”
“No thank you. The coffee was great. I’m going to shower.”
“Don’t worry yourself sick over this.”