mean you’ll get over me,” he muttered.
“You never let me get close enough to get attached. I’m not one of those women who confuse sex and love.” I crossed my arms over my breasts and shook my head. “Look, the others will speculate but they won’t ask questions. In a few months, they won’t even care about what happened between us.”
And maybe in a few months I could look at him and not be angry. I turned and walked quickly to the end of the hall and pulled open the door to the office area. At my desk, I pushed off the high-heeled shoes I’d donned for the party and stared at the blank screen of my computer. It had been just a little over a year since I’d taken the promotion that’d pulled me off the sales floor and into the administration area.
Jane Tilwell, my boss and mentor, had thrown a lot in my lap from the very start, but I was confident that I’d proven myself.
The door opened and the click of high heels on the floor told me that one of the women from the party had followed along to see how I was. I glanced up and smiled softly for Mercy Rothell-Montgomery. She was the director of the gallery and one of my favorite people on earth. Gloriously redheaded, strong-minded, and very pregnant, she looked a little out of sorts.
“What did he do to you?”
My mouth dropped open briefly but I shut it quickly. “What? Nothing.”
“Don’t give me that. You’re sitting at your desk, crying in the dark. He did something.” She crossed her arms and glared.
I wiped at my damp face, startled that I was still crying. “We just don’t work, that’s all. He didn’t do anything to me.” I glanced toward the door as it opened again and Jane came through it. Great, I had my doubts about being able to fend them both off. “I’m all right.”
Jane came to a stop beside Mercy, took off her shoes, and pursed her lips. “He’s at the bar with a scotch neat, and you’re in here in the dark. Sounds like you’re both just doing great. He looks so miserable I couldn’t even lecture him for drinking on duty.”
There were plenty of security guards at the party; in fact, Connor hadn’t planned to work it at all. However, I’d never known him ever to shirk his duty.
Jane waved at me with her shoes as she continued. “Are you crying?”
“No.” I glared at Mercy when she started to speak. “I wouldn’t cry over a man.” I reached down to pick up my own shoes and shook my head. “Look, you guys, I’m fine. If you two don’t go back to the party, your men will come looking for you, and, frankly, if I wanted to be on display I would have stayed at the party.”
“The party is over and the men know better.” She pointed toward her office. “In there, right now.”
Sighing, I stood up and stomped toward her office. “Fine, but I’m not talking about him.”
Being made a liar really sucks. I snuggled down in the overstuffed chair in Jane’s office and sighed. The two of them had spent the last hour listening to me bitch about Connor’s commitment issues, but I hadn’t even skimmed the surface of my real problem.
Jane was on the couch and Mercy was in a chair that matched the one I’d claimed. They both looked irritated, but were at a loss as to what to say to make me feel better. I looked at Mercy’s swollen belly and bit my lip.
“I’m thirty years old.”
“And?” Jane frowned at me. “I’m thirty-two.”
“I’d planned to have a baby by now and I haven’t even come close to marrying a man, much less having a kid.” I stood up from the chair. “Look at me.”
Jane did; her serious gaze took me in. “You look like a living, breathing Barbie doll.”
That was true enough, but I wanted to give her the finger anyway. Being two inches shy of six feet, with blond hair, green eyes, and a set of tits like many women pay to get wasn’t always the advantage that she assumed. “Yes, and that’s how men treat me. That’s how I’ve let men treat me. Well, I’m done with all of that.”
“Nothing wrong with a little harmless sex,” Jane said with a sigh. “You know relationships are overrated.”
I laughed. “So says you.” Picking up my shoes, I sat down in the chair and put them on. “I’m going home.”
“Get a security guard to walk you to your car,” Mercy said as she scooted to the edge of the chair and stood up as gracefully as she could muster.
I nodded, but already knew I wouldn’t ask. The last thing I needed was to spend several minutes in the company of one of the men who worked for Connor. None of them had ever treated me as if they even knew I was fucking their boss; but honestly, I just wanted nothing to do with another man for a while.
Out at my desk, I plucked my coat from the chair and grabbed my purse. One day back on the job and I was already sincerely missing the beach and the pretty boy who’d brought me drinks on a little tray. Now, that’s when looks like mine pay off.
I got all the way down the stairs and halfway to the staff’s side exit before a security guard appeared out of nowhere to escort me. Startled and in an increasingly bad mood, I cast a glare at the man and didn’t say anything as he opened the door for me. Self-preservation must have kicked in, because he fell in a few steps behind me and didn’t say a word.
Being an hour behind schedule, I’d had to park on the second level of the parking deck. He cleared his throat once when I started toward the stairs but followed along dutifully. By the time I was sliding into my car, he was gone again. I wondered if they’d drawn straws to see who had to see me out to my car.
It was probably paranoid and vain to assume that the security staff had nothing else but me to think about.
I made it across town to the small grocery store across from my apartment in record time. However, the moment I entered the place I realized that for the first time in months I was shopping for one again. What a fucking depressing thought. I’m not one of those women who need a man to live. I’m fine without one.
I can take care of my own sexual needs and I certainly don’t need a man’s money. Deciding to break things off with Connor had been difficult and painful. He was a good lover and he made me feel like a million dollars when we were together. Sex has its place, of course, but being at someone’s beck and call for sex had been demoralizing.
So, I’m shopping for one again. It’s not a big deal. Who needs a man raiding their fridge at three in the morning and eating all of the cornflakes? I made my selections quickly, paid, and trucked back out into the night resolved to never wear the shoes I was wearing again. I’m a slave to fashion, but I refuse to be a beaten slave to fashion. Both arches were aching and all of my toes were numb or close to it.
I live in a small building that housed two apartments. The two apartments share a front door and a small foyer. The woman who had lived across from me since I’d gotten the apartment had died, and I’d been waiting a respectful period of time before I approached her family about purchasing it. However, her grandson had moved in a couple of weeks after her death. I’d seen him briefly in passing a few times but I hadn’t gotten a chance to really talk with him. The man, Shawn Tranner, was superfine but since I’d been stupidly invested in Connor, I hadn’t
