“Dan will be there, right?”
She nodded.
“Oh, goody. You’ll have fun.”
Jessica said nothing, not as Marla got up, or even when she put her hand on her shoulder. It did occur to her that in all the time they’d worked together, it was the first time they’d actually touched like that. Jessica couldn’t help wondering if it was because Marla had changed, or she had.
THE NICE THING about the boat trip was that someone other than Jessica was in charge. Which didn’t mean she could just sit around and drink mai tais, but she wasn’t responsible for the whole gig.
The bad thing about the boat trip was that Jessica wasn’t exactly the warm bubbly woman he’d kissed on his way out this morning. It wasn’t like that first night, when she’d gotten so scared. But she also wasn’t the open book.
For his part, he was pretty determined to get back on track. Not that he wasn’t going to continue to make all that hot monkey love to her, but he was going to refocus on the project.
Once she came back from talking to some
“May I refill that drink?”
He looked up into the pretty eyes of the cocktail waitress. She was the opposite of Jessica in almost every way, from her blond hair to her tall, too-thin body. But her smile was nice and friendly. “Yes, please. And bring a whiskey sour, would you?”
“Of course, sir.” She headed off, but he found her looking back at him twice.
It hadn’t skipped his notice that ever since he’d started this job, women had been coming on to him. A lot. Way more than normal. In fact, he could go weeks, months, without being the recipient of that kind of smile. But every time he was with Jessica, he was a babe magnet. What was with that?
“Hi.” Jessica sat down across from him. She breathed deeply then exhaled as she pushed her hair behind her ear. “That woman is a barracuda,” she said. “It’s like she wants New Dawn to fail. Maybe she doesn’t like cosmetics. Or maybe she just doesn’t like me.”
“That’s absurd. How could anyone not like you?”
Jessica looked at him a long time. In fact, he was getting a little worried when she finally said, “I don’t care.”
“What?”
“I don’t care if people like me. I don’t understand why I even said that. I need them to buy the product I’m selling, that’s all. Or promote it, or whatever else they need to do for me to succeed. Liking me has nothing to do with it.”
He wasn’t sure what brought this on, and decided to keep his mouth shut.
“I don’t want people to hate me, either. What I mean is, it shouldn’t matter. I’m not in a popularity contest. What she thinks of me is no concern of mine.”
“Okay.”
She looked him in the eye critically. “Do me a favor, would you, Dan?”
“Anything.”
“Let’s cut the intimate act when we’re in public, unless Owen is right there, okay? I need to keep my eye on the prize, and that’s not going to happen if I’m dancing with you all night.”
Her words hit him like a blow. All he could do was nod, smile, act as if it meant nothing. As if this was just another day at the office. As if what she felt about him was no concern of his.
Top Five Things Only Women Understand
5. Fat clothes.
4. Cutting your bangs to make them grow.
3. Romantic stuff like mushy cards and flowers.
2. The inaccuracy of every bathroom scale ever made.
1. Other women!!!
Source: Dobhran “Top Ten Things Only Women Understand”
http://www.dobhran.com/humor/
15
JESSICA COULDN’T believe it. Here she was, in the middle of another tremendously successful party, getting raves from everyone from
She’d hurt him, which she hadn’t meant to, but now that it was done, and the repercussions were in progress, maybe she
She looked over at Dan, standing by the bar, toying with his drink. He’d had a few, more than was probably wise, but she wouldn’t dream of saying a word. He’d taken her at her word, and he’d backed off completely until Owen had approached. Then it was as if nothing had changed. Dan had become affectionate, endearing, territorial. She had to admit it had felt incredibly good, which was, of course, the problem.
She’d felt so sure about the plan of hers, to see Dan every few months, wear each other out in the bedroom, then do it again in another few months. It still felt as if that was the way to go. But talking to Marla had put a kink in the works, and Jessica wasn’t quite sure why.
The only way the plan was going to work was if she and Dan didn’t expect too much from each other. It totally depended on the focus being sex. She didn’t want more than that. In fact, she wasn’t even sure at this stage of the game if she could handle that much.
She wasn’t sure why, but sex always seemed to be more than sex for women. Men usually had the right idea, but women wanted more. Romance, security, love, commitment, a future. Why? Why wasn’t it okay to want sex for its own sake?
It would be enough for her, but only if there were no expectations of anything else. No hoping, no plotting, no daydreaming. All her thoughts needed to be on work, and her creativity, too. She wanted to rise to the top of a very competitive market, and to do that she needed focus, focus, focus.
How could she do that when she was worried about Dan’s feelings being hurt? Maybe if she just explained things to him, set it all out like the business proposition she had in mind, he’d sign on, and they wouldn’t have to continue to go through this emotional crap. It was too draining. And too distracting.
She simply wouldn’t worry about him anymore tonight. Tomorrow, when they had some privacy, she’d lay out the ground rules and see if he wanted to play.
“UH, DAN? Is everything okay?”
He looked up from his drink to see Marla standing to his immediate left, so pretty in her sailor dress, complete with a little blue boat pin on the collar. “I’m fine,” he said.
“Not that we know each other that well or anything, but that’s a total lie.”
He had to smile. They hadn’t spent a lot of time talking, but he was enchanted by the way she spoke. “Not a total lie. Just a partial lie.”
“Which part?”
“Just the part before the period.”
“Ah. Anything you want to talk about?”
“No.”
“Oh, okay.”
