Chapter 10
James
I like my job. I really like my job. And I seem to be pretty good at it, because rumor has it that I’m up for a promotion.
But today?
Today I can’t concentrate for shit.
And I’ve become a clock-watcher. As in, I’ve become one of those sad day jobbers who look at the clock constantly, only to realize in outrage that just five minutes have passed since the last time they looked.
Except most people are anxiously awaiting five o’clock. The hour when they can jet to happy hour or yoga, or just get the hell out of Dodge.
Five o’clock means nothing to me. I need it to be eight o’clock.
The time when I’m going to see Nadine Lustre naked.
The thought should fill me with dread, or at least panic. She’s my best friend. It should be…wrong.
But after that kiss, I’m pretty sure the only thing wrong is that we haven’t thought of this before.
No-strings-attached sex with the hottest girl I know, who I won’t be dying to get rid of after?
Hell. Yes.
I try to turn my attention back to my computer. I’m a product manager on the e-commerce team, one of a half dozen assigned to the men’s golf section.
I fucking love it. I know it’s not cool to get all geeked out on a day job, and I certainly never expected to, but it comes pretty easy considering I didn’t know much about websites before I started here, and knew even less about golf.
My days are made up of brainstorming enhancements for the section, writing the requirements documents for those enhancements, then testing them, et cetera.
There’s something very satisfying about managing the entire life cycle of something, and it’s hard not to pat myself on the back for trusting my gut and not going to law school.
Even if it did put me at odds with the old ’rents.
“Wanna grab a burrito?”
Quinito has his palms resting on the ledge of my cube wall, chin resting on the backs of his hands as he gives me a pleading, hungry look.
I glance at the clock. “It’s 11:07. I’ve barely finished breakfast.”
“Exactly,” he says. “We can beat the lunch rush.”
I open my mouth to argue, then close it, shrugging as I lock my computer. Why the hell not? It’s not like I’m getting anything done. Not with guaranteed sex on my calendar for later tonight.
Quinito's right about Burrito King—and yes, it’s called that—the line takes us two minutes instead of the usual twenty. “Let’s eat it here,” Quinito says as we wait for our number to be called.
“Avoiding Sandy?” I ask.
Quinito's grunt tells me I’m right.
I shake my head as I fill up my cup with Coke. “I told you, dude. You have got to stop hooking up with girls you work with.”
“How else am I supposed to meet women? Not all of us can just walk into a bar and emerge with twenty phone numbers.”
I ignore this.
“You know, I wouldn’t have this problem if you’d let me ask out Nadi—”
“Nope,” I say, before he’s even finished the sentence.
“But she’s single now.”
“How do you know?”
“I ran into her at Starbucks the other day. I think she was giving me hints.”
“Trust me. She wasn’t.”
Nadine thinks Quinito's a total tool, and I can’t blame her. The guy’s one of my better work friends, but he’s got a bad habit of talking to women’s chests. He’s also got a knack for spending an hour chatting up a woman at a bar, only to get her name wrong at the end of it. And he wonders why he doesn’t get any phone numbers.
“Hey, speaking of Nadine…” Quinito says.
I whip my head around in the direction he’s indicated. No Nadine, but it is her BFF Mika.
She seems to sense our gaze, and her face lights up in a smile as she beckons us over.
“She’s so hot,” Quinito mutters under his breath as we make our way toward the gorgeous blonde.
“Hey, join me!” she says, gesturing toward the empty chairs at her table. “I skipped breakfast today and was starving but couldn’t talk Nadine into an early lunch.”
She’s talking to both of us, but her eyes never leave mine, and I’m struck by the weird realization that this is one of the first times I’ve ever been around Mika without Nadine.
Quinito and I both sit down, he a bit too close to Mika, but she’s cool and doesn’t seem to mind.
But ten minutes into our lunch, I’m getting distinct vibes of weird. Despite Quinito's very dedicated attempt to draw Mika into conversation, she manages to shift everything back to me.
“Were you at that concert, James?”
“James, doesn’t that remind you of the time that we…”
“I’m not sure what I’m doing this weekend. James, do you have plans?”
Mika's always been flirty. I guess I’d always thought it was just sort of her personality.
Now, without Nadine around to redirect conversation, I’m wondering if it’s not a little bit more than that.
I finish my burrito and lean back in my chair. Quinito is rambling on about how his uncle has a shot at getting Super Bowl tickets.
I glance at Mika—how can you not, when you feel someone’s eyes burning into you?—and she gives me a shy, private smile.
I smile back, reflexively, but one thing is abundantly clear: Nadine and Mika's Monday morning gossip session hadn’t included the little arrangement Nadine and I made.
Mika and Nadine are tight, and even though Nadine and I aren’t a thing, there’s no way Mika would be giving me all sorts of blatant hints if she knew that I was about to see her best friend naked in, oh, eight hours and ten minutes.
Not that I’m counting or anything.
“Yo, Reid. Where’d you go?”
I glance over at Quinito, who’s giving me an impatient look.
“Sorry, what?”
“I was just saying that the four of us should go try this karaoke place my cousin told me about on Friday. Mika's free, and I’m sure you can talk Nadine into it. You in?”
He gives me a look that informs me bro code demands I say yes, and I have to bite my tongue to keep from asking which girl’s going to be the object of his slobbery affection on Friday night.
Still, I’ll confess that I do love a good round of tipsy karaoke, and he’s right—I can definitely talk Nadine into it, because she also loves karaoke. Give her a glass or two of champagne, and you’ll be fighting her for the microphone.
“Sure, why not?” I say.
Mika's smile turns into an all-out beam, and I have the first stab of awareness that my arrangement with Nadine has the potential to get a tad more complicated than we thought.
