Totally Worth It, page 12
“Please. It is so on.” Jesse shook her head with a knowing look. “Well, don’t stand here talking to me. Go get her. She’s looking for you.”
Sure enough, when Meg glanced over, she saw Mia scanning the crowd. When she spotted Meg, one corner of her mouth turned up in the slightest smile.
Meg turned back to Jesse and watched her scan the room. When her gaze stopped abruptly, Meg followed her line of sight and saw where Jesse had stopped: on Lexi, who was gently rubbing Julie’s back as they chatted with the other girls at their table. Meg was just about to comment when Jesse cut her off. “All right, kid. I’m out of here. Merry Christmas.” She put her empty drink down and gave Meg a quick hug, shaking her head with exaggerated disapproval. “Have fun tonight.”
Meg crossed the room to Mia, trying to keep her cool as she indulged in her very own dirty little secret. Right now only three people in the room knew what had happened earlier between them—Meg, Mia, and of course Lexi, who had delighted in each juicy detail. Only, as she got closer, Meg realized that there might be one other person in the know. Standing next to Mia was the baby-faced cop who was with Mia earlier. Dressed in regular clothes, she looked even younger.
Mia greeted Meg unexpectedly with a kiss right on the lips.
“Hey. This is Amanda, my partner,” Mia said by way of introduction.
“Hi.” Meg shook the girl’s hand and realized she was actually kind of adorable. “Come on, my friends are over this way.”
They stopped at the bar before reaching the table. As Mia’s partner purchased a round of drinks for the three of them, Mia laced her fingers through Meg’s and leaned in.
“So, listen. Amanda’s single and kind of shy. Think we can maybe find her a playmate for the evening?” Mia asked, eyebrows raised.
Meg didn’t even have to think about it. “I know just the girl.”
Meg and Mia spent the night flirting shamelessly. Meg didn’t care who knew they were totally into each other. And her intuition had been on the money—Sam and cute little Amanda were hitting it off nicely too.
At one thirty Meg announced from her perch on Mia’s lap that they were moving the party to her house. Right away, Sam and Amanda said they were in.
Meg turned to Lexi and Julie. “What about you guys? My house. Drinks. Keep the party going?”
Lexi whispered in Julie’s ear before answering. “Not tonight, Meg. I think we’re just gonna go home.”
Meg saw the look of acknowledgment on Julie’s face and was genuinely happy for her. Because while Meg had a pretty good idea about the direction her own night was headed, and she saw the probability for Sam and Amanda too, she was absolutely certain what lay in store for Julie.
*
At ten thirty the next morning, as Meg lay alone in bed gratuitously replaying the events of the previous evening in her head, her phone vibrated with a text from Lexi.
I have bagels. You alone?
Yep. Except for Sam sleeping in the guest room, she typed back.
K. Be there in 5.
Pushing the covers back, Meg got up and grabbed a sweatshirt and pajama pants to throw on over the T-shirt and underwear she had slept in. She barely had the coffee going before she heard Lexi open the front door.
“You really never lock any of your doors, huh?”
“I do. Mia must’ve left it open when she left.”
“Can’t wait to hear the whole story,” Lexi said as she placed the brown paper bag full of bagels on the table.
“I want to hear it too!” Sam’s muffled yell came from the top of the stairs. “Where’s a sweatshirt I can borrow, Meg?”
“In my closet, top shelf,” Meg hollered back.
Meg grabbed some stuff from the fridge as Lexi set out plates and mugs in preparation for their debriefing breakfast, which was how Meg had come to think of these sessions that were quickly becoming part of their morning-after ritual. She noticed that the top of Lexi’s head was still wet, but the rest of her hair had begun to curl up at the ends where it was drying, proving that she had showered a while ago. She was dressed in fresh clothes, rather than a reboot of last night’s outfit. Meg figured she must have actually gone home prior to coming over. She was just about to ask when Sam shuffled down the stairs.
“Who went to Wharton?” Sam held out the bottom of the sweatshirt as she read the bold letters printed across the middle of the shirt.
“I did.” Meg met the very surprised looks of her two friends with a smirk.
“Really?” Lexi’s jaw literally fell open.
“I thought you went to a city college at night,” Sam added, although she clearly was not impressed the way Lexi was. Meg knew she wasn’t being judgmental. Sam simply didn’t believe in name-brand anything. It was one of the few things she and Meg actually had in common.
Meg walked over to the table, carrying butter and cream cheese in one hand and a full carafe of coffee in the other. “I did undergrad at night. I got my MBA at Wharton,” she responded nonchalantly, tossing a look back at Lexi as she depressed the plunger on the French press and watched the coffee grounds sink to the bottom. “You don’t have to look so completely surprised, you know,” she teased.
Lexi shook her head, grabbing a bagel. “Please, I don’t mean anything by it and you know it. You just never mentioned it. Caught me off guard.” She generously applied butter to her sesame bagel. “Anyway, your academic career is not what I came here to discuss.” She paused for dramatic effect, making eye contact with both Meg and Sam. “So ladies, how was your after-party?” Lexi’s emphasis on the word after-party more than implied that she knew exactly how it was.
For a second, no one spoke. Meg and Sam exchanged a glance before Meg said simply, “Good.” Sam nodded in agreement.
“You’re both going to have to do better than that.”
“Not much of a party. We basically had one drink and then went to bed. It was pretty late.” Meg took a gulp of coffee, shielding her smile.
Sam pointed at Meg with her bagel as she fished around for a knife. “Seriously, you two were all over each other. I was shocked that you even made it through your drinks before disappearing into the bedroom.”
Meg swallowed a laugh and shook her head before Lexi added, “Well, Jesus, it had been going on all night. It was like extended foreplay. They must have been dying. It was going on since what, eight o’clock, Meg?”
Sam was still in the dark about the early evening events and she looked blankly between her friends. Although Meg hadn’t planned on sharing that particular part of the story, it felt rude to leave Sam out of the loop, so she rehashed how she and Mia had initially kissed downstairs in the Commons.
Sam’s interest was piqued. “Everything is coming together now. Amanda mentioned something last night but I had no idea what she was talking about. Now I get it.” She nodded her chin. “It sounds kind of hot.”
“It really was.” Meg grinned, her mind drifting back there for the moment.
The three of them were quiet for a second before Lexi noisily stirred some milk into her coffee, clinking along the sides of the cup. “Well, girls. I think a toast is in order.” She raised her mug in the air. “To the three of us. All getting lucky on the same night. Merry Christmas.”
Meg choked down a bite of her bagel, trying hard to get some words out. She swallowed hard, waving her hand in the air. “I didn’t have sex.” She cleared her throat. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, we hooked up. But it was strictly PG.” She paused, cocking her head to the side as she thought about it. “Well, maybe R. I don’t think I really know where that line is,” Meg added as an afterthought. “But definitely no sex.”
Lexi turned to Sam, coffee cup still slightly aloft. “To us, then.”
“Don’t look at me.” Sam shook her head.
“Really?” Lexi and Meg uttered in surprised unison.
“What, do you guys think I sleep with everybody?”
The answer to her question lay in the silence it was met with, before the three of them broke into laughter.
“Look at that. I get no love, no respect,” Sam joked as she wolfed down her bagel. “Anyway, I’m with Meg. We hooked up, fooled around a little. No sex.” Sam shook her head, smiling as she reached for her own coffee. “I say we toast to Lexi and Julie. Finally.”
Meg joined her, tapping their cups together before taking a swig. “So how was it, Lex? Give us the details.”
Lexi obliged but gave them only the bare-bones basics. She fielded a few questions from Meg but gave mostly bland answers.
As soon as Lexi finished, Sam swallowed the last of her coffee and sprang up from the table. “Sorry to break this up, girls, but I gotta go. Haven’t been home since before work yesterday. Meg I’ll get your shirt back to you next time, ’kay?” Barely waiting for a response, she threw on her jacket and headed for the door.
Meg waited until she heard the latch of the outer screen door catch before turning to Lexi. “So, are you ever going to tell me what you and Jesse were doing until nine thirty last night?” Meg said without looking up as she poured more coffee for both of them.
“Working.”
“Until nine thirty? The night of the biggest party of the year?”
“We went to dinner.”
Meg nodded in acknowledgment. “Yeah? How was that? All work, right?” Meg said skeptically, answering her own question.
“No, actually.” Lexi’s voice softened as she drew lazy circles with her middle finger on the ceramic cup. “It was nice. She’s nice.”
“She is,” Meg agreed with a lilt in her voice.
Lexi’s big brown eyes pleaded with Meg. “Don’t. It’s not like that.”
“Are you sure?” Meg matched Lexi’s serious tone.
“Yes,” Lexi said emphatically, staring squarely at Meg. Seeing that Meg was not convinced, she broke eye contact and pushed around the crumbs on her plate. “Look. You obviously know that I think Jesse is hot, and yes, I guess I have, like, a fantasy crush on her or whatever. But nothing is going on. She’s my boss and I’m working on a case with her. That’s it. I swear.”
“Okay.” Meg finished her coffee. “Just one question, Lex. What are you doing with Julie?”
“What do you mean?”
“Come on.”
Lexi pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs. She rested her head on the back of the chair as she searched the ceiling for an answer. “I don’t know. I like her.”
Meg could hear the defensiveness in Lexi’s voice and decided to press her a little. “Yeah?”
Lexi methodically wiped her hands with a paper napkin. “Yes. I do. She’s sweet and nice and obviously patient,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Plus my parents like her. She’s good for me.”
“Sounds like you’re trying to convince yourself,” Meg responded, not sold.
“I thought you would be happy for me this morning,” Lexi implored.
Meg shook her head. “I am happy for you, if you’re happy. I’m just not sure you are.” Lexi just looked down at the table and didn’t say anything, so Meg continued. “Thing is, Lex, you don’t really seem that happy. I mean, you waited three months to sleep with your girlfriend, which is nice and noble and everything. But I would think if it was important enough to wait that long, you would be ecstatic about it. Unless of course…” Meg stopped, tilting her head as she entertained a thought.
“Unless what, Meg?” Lexi bit, some levity creeping back into her tone.
“Unless you slept with Julie out of guilt.”
Lexi crinkled her brow.
“You know, because you feel bad that you totally want to fuck your boss,” Meg finished with a devilishly knowing grin.
“You’re a jerk.” Lexi laughed and threw her wadded-up napkin at Meg.
“I know. But I’m right, aren’t I?” Meg nodded, proud of herself for uncovering what she believed to be the absolute truth.
Lexi huffed out a small laugh. “Look. I can fantasize about Jesse all I want, and I’m not saying I do—”
“You so do.”
“Whatever. Either way, there’s nothing going on. Julie is my girlfriend and she’s the girlfriend that it makes sense for me to have.”
Even though that statement made no sense at all to Meg, she let it go. She had made her feelings known even if she had made light of it. Lexi had let her get away with saying some pretty bold things, but Meg didn’t want to push it further.
“So what’s the deal with you and Mia now?”
Meg laced her fingers behind her head and shrugged. “Don’t know really.” Frowning, she added, “I think it’s like a whatever kind of a thing. Whatever that means.”
“And you’re okay with that?”
“Yep,” she said with a nod.
“Well, good for you. I didn’t really think that was your thing.”
“It’s not.” Meg kicked back in her chair. “But the relationship route hasn’t really panned out for me, so what have I got to lose?” She rose from the table, walked to the sink, and filled a glass with water. “The way I figure it is this. What I was doing before wasn’t working, so maybe I just need a change. Shake things up a bit. Have some fun, like Sam said a few months back. That really stuck with me. And, you know, Mia’s hot, she’s nice. And she was fun to hook up with. Truthfully, I don’t care if she goes out tonight and hooks up with someone else. There’s no pressure, no commitment. And therefore, no chance of getting hurt.” Taking a long drink, Meg let out a big sigh of relief.
Lexi opened her eyes wide and raised her eyebrows. “Well, this has disaster written all over it.”
About to take another sip, Meg laughed into her water, spraying it all over. “As opposed to your rock-solid plan. What was it you said, Julie is the sensible girlfriend. Yeah, that’s gonna end well.”
Lexi doubled over in laughter. “I think we’re both screwed.”
Meg toasted with her water. “Well at least we’ll have each other.”
“Thank God for that.”
Chapter Thirteen
In January alone, Meg traveled to London three separate times. It was beginning to feel like her primary office. Sometimes she absolutely hated it—living out of a suitcase and doing double work was getting to her. Yet at the same time, Sullivan, London, had its perks. For starters, when she was there, she wasn’t constantly worried about proving herself to everyone. There wasn’t time. Practically every time she landed at Heathrow, she was whisked directly to the office to deal with some emergent crisis with one of Sasha’s clients. It was annoying. But if she was being honest, all the extra time and work did have its benefits. Meg realized that she had done more in the last six months than any new associate she had ever seen come through the doors at Sullivan, New York. She probably owed a debt of gratitude to Sasha Michaels for being solely responsible for accelerating her learning curve.
What little she knew of Sasha’s situation was she was dealing with some kind of family problem, whatever that meant. No more details were given to her, and Meg didn’t ask any questions. She had been part of the Sullivan team long enough to know that the company really was a kind of family. For Meg, that had always been part of the allure of Sullivan, not that she’d really had a choice. Unlike her peers, Meg hadn’t been recruited out of college. Solely based on her years working as an administrative assistant, Sullivan & Son had covered her tuition to business school, and for that she owed them the next five years of her career. But from being around the business and dealing with other consulting firms, Meg had learned that in the other big agencies, an associate at her level was just a number, but at Sullivan, the principals and partners knew you, they knew your spouse, your kids. So it made sense that if Sasha was having a family issue, Meg and the rest of the staff should and would pick up her slack. It was just how things worked around here.
The only thing that really bothered her about being away so much was the timing of it all. At home she was finally in a groove—she had new friends and even some romance action happening. Since Christmas, Lexi and Julie had been in a kind of honeymoon phase, which meant they were constantly up for hanging out, having parties at Julie’s, and going out in the city. Being overseas, Meg lost out on entire weeks of socializing. Just as importantly, she missed possible hookups with Mia.
Meg had seen Mia exactly twice since the Christmas party. They had first crossed paths at The Kitchen the weekend after New Year’s. At the time they had deliberately not coordinated their plans, although each had known that the other was going to be there. Meg was trying to appear cool and aloof while acknowledging Mia actually was cool and aloof. Meg was still trying to wrap her head around this kind of spontaneous relationship. She wasn’t really sure of the ground rules and she didn’t want to screw it up by being, well, herself.
But since that uncoordinated meet-up, Mia had been texting Meg regularly. Meg loved getting Mia’s messages. Whenever she saw her name pop up on her phone, she felt a little spark of excitement shoot through her. True, not all the texts were bawdy—much of the time they were just normal messages any friends might exchange—but a number of them were. The best part was the timing. Mia typically worked late shifts and had taken to texting Meg on her way home from work. Meg had been in London most of the month, so with the time difference, most mornings the texts served as a wake-up call in her hotel room.
It was a remarkably pleasant way to start the day—playfully flirting back and forth with Mia as she got ready to go into the office.
Then on a random Wednesday night in mid-January, when Meg was supposed to have been in London, she received one of those very texts from Mia wishing her Good morning across the pond. When she responded that she was actually home, unpacking and doing laundry, Mia spontaneously asked if she felt like having company.
Exactly twenty-two minutes later, Mia was inside Meg’s house, laughing and talking easily like no time had passed at all since they had frantically groped each other in the cab of Mia’s truck, two weeks earlier. Mia sat on the couch and watched Meg fold her clothes, teasing her as she offered to help with the underwear only. When Meg swatted at her with a shirt, Mia caught the end of it and used it to pull Meg down onto her lap. They moved quickly from kissing on Meg’s couch to complete nakedness in her bed. There were no questions from either of them asking if this or that was okay or if any of it was going too fast. After all, Mia had invited herself over at twelve thirty in the morning. Meg had welcomed her in. There could be little confusion over where the night was headed.
