Chapter Thirteen

August

Lauren was admittedly in a bad mood this morning, but she figured that after the night she’d had she was more than entitled to be pissy. She was in such a foul mood, in fact, that not even the two extra sugar packets – on top of her usual four – that she’d dumped into her coffee, nor the jumbo sized cinnamon roll with extra icing, had helped one damned bit to make her feel better.

And the weather in Manhattan was back to being hot and muggy this morning, which only added to her crankiness. She couldn’t even wear shorts to the office any longer, thanks to Ben’s little lecture last month about “appropriate” attire, and she refused to give him the satisfaction of actually wearing a skirt or dress. Her white cropped jeans, dark blue racer-back tank, and flat brown leather sandals were cool enough, she supposed grudgingly, and certainly covered up a lot more than the outfit she’d worn last month that had triggered Ben’s outcry. Given the rotten mood she was in this morning, though, she really didn’t give a shit if her clothes met with his approval or not.

Ever since that cocktail party last month – where some wicked impulse had compelled her to dress up like a sexy secretary simply to get a reaction from him – Ben had been – different. His behavior had been more formal and businesslike, definitely more distant, and she had no idea why the change had occurred. She suspected that Elle might have had something to do with the change, for it had been glaringly obvious that Ben’s live-in love didn’t like her one bit.

‘Girl couldn’t take a joke if her life depended on it, could she?’ Lauren grumbled to herself. ‘And what in the world do she and Ben have in common anyway? Elle looks and acts like she should be dating a count or a duke or someone else with a stuffy title like that, while Ben’s type is more like - ’

She stopped herself before she could tack the word “me” onto the end of the sentence. She didn’t permit herself to daydream about Ben, refused to even entertain the fantasy about someday getting back together with him. For one thing, Lauren had rarely if ever indulged in fantasies or girlish daydreams, had never been a silly romantic fool like Julia – who’d staged Barbie doll weddings as a child, and designed her own wedding gown as a teenager when she’d been head over heels in love with Sam. Lauren dealt strictly in reality, and the reality nowadays was that Ben had a girlfriend and Lauren was merely one of his employees.

It shouldn’t bother her to accept that fact, and it definitely shouldn’t make her heart ache to realize that what she’d had with Ben was well and truly over. She was still young – twenty-six in October – had her dream job, the best family anyone could ever wish for, good friends, and pretty much had her whole life ahead of her. Ben Rafferty had been a one-time summer fling, and she needed to close that chapter of her life and keep it shut from here on end.

She popped into the Starbuck’s half a block from the office and ordered another coffee, eyeing the glazed donut that was beckoning to her from the display case. Unfortunately, her belly was still full from the cinnamon roll – not to mention a tad queasy from all the tequila shots she’d taken last night on top of a rather greasy pizza. It had been a lot of booze, even for her, but Lauren figured she’d more than earned the right to get a little drunk given the disaster of a blind date she’d idiotically agreed to go on.

It was because of that blind date – and its horrific outcome – that she was very intentionally delaying her arrival at the office. She knew there would be a confrontation, was not so naïve as to hope that the news hadn’t already reached its target, and really wasn’t in the mood to deal with it.

But deal with it she must, and when she couldn’t delay her arrival a minute longer, she walked inside of her office building and got in the elevator. And before entering the conference room where the others would be waiting for her, she assumed her very best badass attitude, strutting inside like she owned the place.

“Sorry I’m a little late,” she said breezily, intentionally not making eye contact with anyone as she dumped her bag and coffee cup on the table.

On the other side of the room she could practically feel the steam rising out of George’s ears, and it didn’t take a rocket scientist to guess his cheeks would be flushed red with anger, or that his beady little eyes were ready to pop out of their sockets.

“What the hell happened last night?”

Very casually, Lauren glanced over at George, who looked ready to bust a vein. Any hopes she might have harbored that he hadn’t yet heard the whole sordid tale were immediately dashed. To make matters worse, Karl, Chris, and Ben were all gazing at her expectantly, and she was left to wonder how much George had already told them.

She decided to play it cool, an attitude that had gotten her out of far worse situations than this one many times before. “What happened was the worst blind date of my life,” she replied matter-of-factly. “And it’s the very last time I let you set me up with anyone, George. I should have known that any friend of yours would be a big ole loser. He might as well have had a capital L tattooed on his forehead.”

“Loser?” George was sputtering now, and a little vein near his right temple began to throb. “Daniel is a multi-millionaire! He’s the co-owner of one of the top ten venture capital firms in the country, and was voted one of the most eligible bachelors in Manhattan three years in a row. How does that make him a loser by any stretch of the imagination?”

Lauren shrugged, taking a sip of her coffee. “Then I suppose you’ve got a piss poor imagination. And – news flash, Georgina – there’s a lot more to being a real man than how much money he has. Because from where I was sitting last night, that’s about all Mr. I’m Wearing Too Much Stinky Hair Gel has going for him.”

George glared at her darkly. “So you broke his nose because you didn’t like the way his hair gel smelled?”

She scoffed, very aware of the three male stares directed her way. “Of course not. And for the record, I did not break the whiny little crybaby’s nose, it just bled a lot. Trust me, if I’d wanted to break his nose he’d be holding the pieces together with duct tape right about now.”

Chris guffawed, while Karl winked at her, and Ben looked as though he was torn between laughing and shaking his head in exasperation. George, meanwhile, just kept getting angrier and angrier.

“You do know that my brother-in-law was this close to sealing a deal with Daniel, don’t you?” demanded George.

“I believe you mentioned that four or five times when you kept trying to talk me into this ridiculous blind date,” Lauren replied with sarcasm. “And if this guy is such a stud, then why the hell did he have you acting like his pimp? Couldn’t he get his own date?”

George slammed his fist down on the table, then winced from the pain. “You know all this, Lauren,” he hissed. “Daniel saw a photo of you on my phone, thought you were hot, and threw out all sorts of hints about sealing the deal with Ted if I could arrange a date with you.”

Ted was married to George’s older sister, and George practically idolized his brother-in-law. Personally, Lauren thought it was a rather unhealthy case of hero worship, especially since Ted sounded like a huge dickhead from what she’d been able to surmise. But George had been all too eager to please Ted, and had gone on an all-out campaign to convince Lauren to go on a blind date with Daniel, something she typically refused to even consider.

George had made her all sorts of promises, everything from buying her lunch for a month to persuading Nadine to book her nonstop flights for the next year. Lauren had driven a hard bargain and demanded both, and George had practically wet himself with eagerness when she’d finally accepted.