Totally Worth It, page 6
“Hey,” Mia drawled out, as she leaned on the railing. Her voice was raspier than before, her crystal-blue eyes bloodshot and heavy.
“I thought you guys left.”
“Without saying good-bye?” Mia nudged Meg’s arm with her elbow.
“Well, I said good-bye to Jesse and the rest of them a little while ago,” Meg offered as explanation.
“I came with Betsy. She’s just in the bathroom and then we’re going.” Mia nodded slightly toward the building. “So it’s pretty much fate that I happened to see you out here.”
Meg raised an eyebrow, playfully suspicious. “I don’t know about fate. We were in the same room all night.”
“Yeah, but you were a busy bee. Flitting around. Running back to your non-girlfriend every five minutes. You had no time for me.” Mia’s tone was so coy there could be no mistaking her intention.
“You weren’t chasing me down, either.” Meg mirrored Mia’s tone.
“How could I?” Mia said, feigning sincerity as she looked directly into Meg’s eyes, doing a terrible job of concealing her smirk. “I didn’t want to get you in trouble.” She dropped her voice another octave as she continued the faux concern. Her crooked smile revealed a tiny scar on the top left side of her lip. Then she made a mockingly grand gesture of looking around before continuing through a wide grin. “So I guess your girl left then? Since you’re finally willing to talk to me.” Her voice oozed confidence.
Meg wasn’t used to being hit on. Truthfully, she was usually the one doing the flirting, albeit badly. In her past relationships, and there hadn’t been that many, she had been the pursuer. Usually she chased someone down, said all sorts of embarrassing things, and then crossed her fingers. Things either progressed from there, or more often than not, they didn’t. This one conversation alone felt more like banter than anything Meg had ever initiated or been direct party to. So while she hardly knew Mia at all, and knew her compliments were hollow, Meg had to admit that this was fun, educational, and utterly refreshing.
So she flirted back. And did so with an ease typically foreign to her. “You know, all this talk about my girlfriend, you kind of sound a little jealous.” She scrunched up her nose and crinkled her brow for effect, wondering who the hell she was, even as she did it.
“You think?” Mia raised one eyebrow as she pushed back from the railing, holding on to it with both hands.
Meg crossed her arms and turned around, so they were more or less face-to-face. “Listen, I’m just saying. You seem awfully concerned with someone that I’ve told you repeatedly is not in any way, shape, or form my girlfriend.”
“Well, good. Then you won’t have any explaining to do.” Mia dipped her chin slightly and started to lean in.
Betsy interrupted them one nanosecond before their lips actually touched. “Wrap it up, Romeo. Some of us have work in the morning.”
Mia threw her head back and laughed out loud, as she straightened up and pulled away. “Okay. I guess that moment’s over.” She laughed again at her own joke before she kissed Meg on the cheek, just at the corner of her mouth. “See you around, Meg.” She whipped around and headed for the door, glancing over her shoulder once to flash Meg one more grin before leaving her alone on the balcony.
Chapter Seven
Meg busied herself with packing most of the day. Monday morning she was off to Sullivan & Son’s London office for international orientation, a week-long drink-fest that passed as training. Because the London and New York offices often worked on international accounts together, it was tradition that the associates from each office made one initial visit overseas in their rookie year to meet the staff and be briefed on local laws and regulations that impacted their work, just in case they were needed on-site down the line. For years as part of the administrative crew, while earning her bachelor’s degree and MBA, Meg had listened to the new hires tell crazy stories of wild nights with the London team.
While she picked out her clothes and packed her suitcase, she replayed the scene from last night over and over in her head. Initially she had been disappointed that she and Mia hadn’t kissed, but as the hours went by, Meg was more and more convinced it was for the best. Mia, while smoking hot, was really not her type. And even though she had been flattered by the attention, she had to remind herself that she had seen Mia spreading her charm all over the room. Meg wasn’t really into dating around, she had always been kind of a one-woman girl. Obviously Mia wasn’t—even Jesse had warned her about that. Perhaps Betsy’s untimely disruption had actually been a saving grace.
With her suitcase zipped up and ready to go, and her mind at ease with the rationalization she had provided to herself, Meg headed next door to Lexi’s for dinner.
The smell of roasting garlic hit her the second she set foot in the house. Lexi was always talking about Marnie’s outrageous meals, but her bragging didn’t do it justice. Everything was so delicious, it almost made her homesick for her own mother’s cooking. It was a good reminder that she owed her parents a call when she got home. The dinner table was loud and boisterous and lively. Lexi’s college-age sister Andrea and two little brothers, Michael and Ethan, were there. They all referred to Marnie as Mom and Chris as Mush. Meg filed that detail away to ask Lexi about later.
As Lexi had warned, her parents did grill her some. But Meg happily answered their questions. She filled them in on how her parents moved to Florida right after she graduated from high school and that she had gone to college for a year down there, but missed New York too much. She told them how she moved back up here and lived with her sister for a while, before scoring her own place in Brooklyn while she balanced multiple jobs and went to school at night. Meg felt so comfortable with this family that she even explained all the details about how she turned a temp job at Sullivan & Son into permanent employment, spending the last four years as an administrative assistant until they bumped her up to consultant status.
“Does that happen a lot?” Chris asked, surprise clear in her voice.
“Not really.” Meg looked down. She was always kind of embarrassed about being the center of attention.
“Wow, you must’ve really impressed them.”
“I don’t know. A lot of it was that I worked there so long on the admin side, I think they were just used to me.” She let out a nervous laugh, still not entirely comfortable in her new position. She shrugged slightly continuing to downplay her promotion. “I would always stay late, so they knew I wasn’t afraid to work. Eventually my boss, well, she knew I was taking business classes at night, so she started giving me little projects to work on. I’m actually pretty good with numbers, so it came naturally to me.” Meg usually stopped at this point, but with this crowd she was relaxed enough to let her guard down. “You know, it’s been kind of weird though, because for so long I was part of the support staff and now I’m an actual consultant, so I used to work for most of these people and now I work with them.” She tried not to sound as bothered by it all as she actually was. “Let’s just say the transition hasn’t been super smooth.”
“For them or for you?” Chris leaned forward.
“Both, I guess. The rest of the associates are mostly Ivy Leaguers. I went to CUNY at night.” Meg fiddled with the edge of her placemat. “Even the admin guys don’t really know what to make of me now. So I don’t really fit in anywhere at the moment.”
Chris looked up, her soft brown eyes revealing the teddy bear underneath her handsome exterior, and Meg suddenly guessed the source of her nickname. “Hang in there, Meg. It’ll work out.” She said it with the confidence of someone who had been through it, combined with the concern of a doting parent.
Meg smiled, relaxed by the sentiment. Lexi’s parents were awesome. Meg loved being in their company. They obviously adored each other. She hadn’t realized quite how much Lexi resembled Chris, who was her biological mother. Perhaps it was because their styles were so dramatically different. Lexi was the very picture of femininity with her thick curly hair that hung almost to the middle of her back, while Chris was decidedly gruffer, her wavy dark hair cut short, accentuating her rugged good looks. But they both had a smooth tanned complexion, big chocolate brown eyes, and the same dimples that popped with every smile. The younger three kids, with their milky white skin and freckles, were all Marnie.
“Lexi said you’re going to London tomorrow,” Marnie said as she piled the dishes in the sink.
“Just for a week. For training.”
“That’s exciting.”
“Yeah, it should be fun.”
When the doorbell rang, Marnie turned to the boys, who were having a hard time sitting still at the table. “Get the door, guys, it’s Aunt Kam and Aunt Mary. Then you can be excused to go play video games.” She turned back to the table and directed her comments to Meg. “Of course you know Kam and Mary by now. They’re practically family.”
“Sure, yeah.” Meg tensed up the second she saw them. She didn’t know what it was but she couldn’t warm to Kameron at all, and she got the distinct impression that the feeling was mutual. She watched as Lexi gave them both genuine hugs, and wondered if maybe she was being paranoid.
After just a few minutes, Meg and Lexi retreated to Lexi’s room to talk, and Meg filled her in on everything that happened—and didn’t—last night between her and Mia. Only by now, her enthusiasm had completely vanished. This whole evening, while amazing, had made her heart ache for all the things she wanted for herself that suddenly seemed so far out of reach. If she hadn’t been sure before, this one family dinner alone was enough to convince her of what she absolutely wanted from life. She wanted to get married. She wanted kids. She longed for the future she had hoped to build with Becca, the one she certainly would not have with Mia.
Now that they were a safe distance from the grown-ups, as Meg and Lexi laughingly referred to them, Meg sought her friend’s opinion on something else that was annoying her. “Do you think Kameron hates me or something?”
“What?” Lexi laughed out.
Meg frowned. “Don’t even tell me you didn’t notice her less-than-friendly greeting toward me before?”
“What are you talking about?” A baffled Lexi shook her head.
“Upstairs. I mean, when they came in, Mary came over and gave me a hug. Kameron barely nodded.”
“That’s just how Aunt Mary is, super bubbly. Very touchy-feely. Aunt Kam’s just not like that. I wouldn’t take it personally,” Lexi offered in defense.
“If you say so. But this is like the third or fourth time it’s happened. I’m starting to get a complex.” Meg played with a loose thread on Lexi’s bedspread. “I mean, last night she was actually kind of a dick to me at the door.” She caught herself and tried to recover. “Sorry, I know they’re like your family. I shouldn’t say anything.”
Lexi rolled her eyes. “Relax, Meg. I don’t care. As for last night, you went to the social with Jesse, right?”
Meg nodded.
“Well, there’s part of the problem, right there.”
“What’s the deal? They hate each other or something?” Meg had sensed the hostility between them, and she had entertained the possibility they could be exes—surely in a lesbian community there was more than one relationship turned sour—but, in her estimation, that didn’t seem likely. For starters there was a pretty big age gap between them, but also their interaction was so frigid, Meg found it hard to believe it had ever been warm, much less intimate.
“It’s a long story,” Lexi started.
Meg waved her on with one hand, waiting to be filled in.
“They were all friends years ago. My moms, Aunt Kam, Aunt Mary, and Jesse. They had this big falling-out.” Lexi shrugged. “Then they weren’t anymore.”
“Way to skip the good parts,” Meg teased. “What happened?”
Exhaling deeply, Lexi continued. “I don’t know really. Nobody talks about it, not even when I’ve asked. But from what I have gathered over the years, I guess Jesse was getting a little too close, or more accurately, trying to get close to Aunt Mary. You know Mary’s a lot younger than Kam, probably closer in age to Jesse. So when the two of them started hanging out all the time, everybody freaked out. That’s when it all fell apart.”
“Did anything actually happen between Mary and Jesse?”
“No way. That I would know about.” Lexi pulled at her long curls searching for split ends. “But the whole thing broke up the friendship. That was it, Jesse was out of the group for good.”
Meg lifted an eyebrow. “And you work for her now. So you’ve gone over to the enemy.” Meg squinted one eye, teasing. “Interesting.”
“Yeah, well, my parents didn’t think it was interesting. They were pretty mad.” She twisted her full lips activating one dimple. “Actually that’s not true. Mush was fine. But Mom, Marnie, she totally lost it at first. She tried to forbid me, if you can believe that. Finally she calmed down. I think part of the reason was she knew I wasn’t going to listen. I mean, this is my career.” She let go of the strands she was holding and pushed her hair behind her shoulders. “Anyway, she’s over it now.”
“Such drama, I love it,” Meg said with a wicked grin. When Lexi didn’t say anything, Meg asked, “So how is it going? With Jesse, I mean.”
“It’s fine. I hardly ever see her.” Meg thought she heard disappointment in Lexi’s voice but didn’t have the opportunity to ask a follow-up. “Anyway, enough about that. You’ll be back for the weekend?” Lexi tapped Meg on the forearm.
“Yep.”
“Good. Let’s go out. I’m thinking The Kitchen. Give us both something to look forward to.”
“It’s a plan.”
*
Meg’s week of training in London turned into twelve days, and she missed the weekend altogether. For years as a staff assistant, Meg had heard stories about the London / New York exchange. It was party after party, pub after pub. There was little, if any, work involved. So when Meg was bombarded with projects the minute she stepped off the plane, she half wondered if it was some kind of practical joke. After a few days and nights of intense work on accounts she was completely unfamiliar with, Meg stopped looking for the hidden cameras. Instead she concentrated on actual problem solving for two high-profile clients.
She did get to know the London consultants, all of whom pitched in on the projects. The only person who was markedly absent was the one person Meg had been wanting to meet. Well, perhaps that was an overstatement. What she wanted was to get the meeting over with.
She and Sasha Michaels had started work at Sullivan & Son on exactly the same day. Although they were in different offices nearly three thousand miles apart, Meg got an earful regularly from pretty much everybody about how brilliant and innovative Sasha Michaels was. It had been mentioned on more than one occasion that she had gone to Oxford and graduated with honors.
Meg was certain Sasha had heard about her as well—they were the only two new hires in the last six months. But she was also pretty sure no one in London, or New York for that matter, was gushing about Meg’s rise from being the girl who proofread their proposals to an associate consultant with clients of her own. The whole situation made her feel embarrassingly inadequate; she just wanted to get the fucking introduction over with and move on.
When, on the day she was getting ready to fly back to New York, Meg finally got the nerve to ask Nigel—seriously, there was a Nigel—where Sasha was, the nice young man just shrugged his shoulders. “Don’t know, mate. Fucking weird though. Just took off last week. These are her projects we’re doing.”
It probably was weird, as Nigel said, but Meg just found it irritating. Knowing they were Sasha’s clients made her feel more nervous than before. It was like she had some new standard to live up to. Plus, she was certain no one in New York was doing her work for her while she was gone, so she couldn’t help but wonder why she was being forced to pick up superstar Sasha’s slack.
Stressed out and annoyed, her only entertainment came in texting Lexi, using totally over-the-top British jargon. Today’s message read: Bollocks. Been here nearly a fortnight. Coworker still off on holiday. Blimey. She laughed at her own joke as she wondered if Lexi found it remotely amusing at all.
Chapter Eight
Lexi smiled to herself as she read Meg’s latest text. Sitting at the front desk in Stanton Ducane’s main reception area, she inwardly chuckled at Meg’s crazy wording and shot off a reply, telling Meg to meet her at the softball field in the morning for Julie and Sam’s game.
Lexi was already looking ahead to tomorrow’s plans because focusing on tonight was stressing her out. Julie had specifically set up one-on-one time for them and had been making a big deal about it all week. Lexi knew what the fuss was about. She and Julie had been dating exclusively for a few months now and things had yet to progress physically to the level Julie wanted them to be at.
Logistics were part of the problem, Lexi reasoned. They were rarely alone; someone was always around. Between Julie’s roommates and Sam, who crashed on Julie’s couch more often than not, Lexi felt like there was a constant audience outside the bedroom door. It made it difficult for her to relax and had provided a plausible excuse on more than one occasion. But tonight Julie had made a point of clearing the house so it would be just the two of them. The gesture was not lost on Lexi and it made her nervous in a way she couldn’t explain.
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to do it. She was hardly a prude. Truthfully, on several occasions when they were alone together, Lexi had found herself so caught up in the moment that she’d almost given in to her urges. But something stopped her every time. She hated to admit it, but Julie’s feelings were much more intense than hers and her instincts told her they always would be. The imbalance made her uncomfortable. Somehow, it felt like a lie.
She had been dwelling on this all day. Usually her days at Stanton Ducane afforded her little, if any, spare time. The warnings about Allison Smith were true. She had high expectations and she wasn’t overly friendly. But if her instructions were followed and timelines met, she wasn’t the ogre she was made out to be.
