Something About Lorelei(30)
“Easy for you to say. You don’t have to sit and look at him all day.”
Stella sighed.
“I’ll meet you out there in a minute. I’m going to get out of the tub before I turn into a prune. Can you pour us a glass of wine and get those flowers out of here?”
“Of course.” She placed her hand in the water and flicked a bubble at me.
****
Jack
She should have received the flowers by now. Why wasn’t she calling me? I threw my phone across my desk. It rang. I grabbed it. It was Garrett.
“What?” I answered.
“Were you expecting someone else?” he asked.
“Sorry, man. What’s up?”
“I’m on my way over to your place with a pizza. We’re going to sit down and talk about why you needed to send Lorelei flowers.”#p#分页标题#e#
“Garrett, now isn’t a good time.”
“Sorry. What did you say? I can’t hear you. Seems like we have a bad connection.” Click.
Shaking my head, I set my phone down and sank back into my chair. He was going to kill me. It wasn’t too long after he hung up on me that I heard the elevator doors open. I stepped into the foyer only to catch Garrett glaring at me as he took the pizza to the kitchen.
“I’m going to assume that the flowers you sent Lorelei were a nice gesture for a job well done.” He reached into the cupboard and pulled out two plates.
Reaching into the refrigerator, I took out two bottles of beer and set them on the table.
“A job well done indeed, my friend. But no, they were apology flowers.”
“What the hell did you do now, Jack?”
We took the pizza over to the table and sat down. “I was insensitive and said something I probably shouldn’t have.”
“Doesn’t surprise me. But anyway, go on. What did you say?”
“She told me this morning that she hadn’t had sex in seven years since her boyfriend was killed in a car crash. I might have said that it was ridiculous to go that long without sex.”
Garrett shook his head. “Wait a minute. You said that to her this morning?”
“Yeah.” I bit into my pizza.
“And what was she doing here this morning?”
I gulped and shrugged.
“For fuck sake, Jack! You had sex with her?!!”
“Yeah, and then I said that, and she left here all pissed off.”
He set down his pizza and placed his hand on his forehead. “Why for the love of God can’t you keep your dick in your pants? Just once, Jack. This one time was all I asked.”
“Because I wanted her and she wanted me. It was completely mutual.”
“You, my friend, have crossed the line. She’s your assistant. You’re her boss.”
“So what? I like Lorelei. I sent her flowers and told her I was sorry.”
“Did she call you?”
“No.”
“Great. I better start placing an ad first thing Monday morning.”
“Stop jumping to conclusions. She’s not going anywhere. And why didn’t you tell me she lived in Harlem. My God, the area she’s in isn’t safe.”
“It’s not my place to tell you.” He narrowed his eye at me. “Did she tell you anything else?”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. I was just wondering if she told you more about her boyfriend.”
“She just said that she loved him and he was her best friend and she couldn’t see herself with anyone else.”
“That’s terrible that she suffered such a loss. So you’re the first man she’s had sex with since him and you go and open your dumb-ass, rude, insensitive mouth.”
“Yeah. Pretty much. I told her I didn’t want things awkward between us on Monday.”
“You slept with her, so it’s a little too late for that.” He kicked back his beer.
Chapter Twenty
Lorelei
My mom and Nick brought Hope home just as Stella was about to leave.
“Hey there, Hopester.” She high-fived her.
“Hey, Auntie Stella. What are you doing here?”
“Just visiting with your mom.” She bent down and gave her a kiss on the head. “I have to run. I’ll see you soon.”
“Okay.” She giggled and then ran into my arms. “Hi, Mommy.”#p#分页标题#e#
“Hey, baby. How was your day?”
“Good. We had a lot of fun.”
“That makes me happy. Why don’t you go put your bag in your room?”
“Okay.” She smiled.
I looked at my mom, who was grinning at me. “So how did your night go?”
There was no way in hell I was going to tell her what happened with me and Jack.
“The party was a lot of fun.”