Blogger Girl (20 page)

He was practically beaming at me, but I wasn’t sure if he was trying to make me feel better or convince himself I was more important than I was. As the others focused their attention on me, I felt a flush creep across my cheeks. I wished he’d let it go.

Brian looked at Nicholas with interest and asked, “How so?”

Matter-of-factly, Nicholas responded, “She’s more organized than anyone I know. Schedules all of our meetings, maintains our docket of deadlines since our paralegal is challenged. And most…”

Feeling the need to defend the only other person in my department without an advanced degree, I interrupted, “Hey! Don’t make fun of David. I like him.”

Nicholas gave me a close-mouthed smile. “I like him too, but unlike me, you don’t have to rely on him to get things done.” Turning to the rest of the table, he said, “Not the most reliable kid on the block unlike Kim. But her most important role?” He paused dramatically while his friends looked at him expectantly.

This should be good, I thought to myself praying it was not some ridiculously exaggerated compliment regarding my contribution to the team.
Me thinks Nicholas doth protest too much.

“Keeps the boss in line.” Squeezing my knee under the table again, he smiled at me and said, “Seriously. I love the way you boldly put Rob in his place.”

The group looked at me in admiration, but I got the sneaky suspicion they assumed the only reason Nicholas was dating a secretary was because I had big boobs and probably gave phenomenal head. “Someone’s gotta do it,” I joked.

Nicholas looked at me proudly, “And she does it all while maintaining an enormously popular blog.”

I impulsively kicked Nicholas’ leg under the table.

He stopped mid-sentence and looked at me with a furrowed brow. “You alright?”

I cleared my throat, “Yeah, I’m okay.” Defending myself for daring to support and actually enjoy the “dead” genre of chick lit was not how I wanted to spend my Friday night, especially after my identical conversation with Daneen the day before. I was pretty certain Nicholas’ over-achieving friends were more likely to read Jonathan Franzen and Kurt Vonnegut than Helen Fielding and Candace Bushnell. Desperate to change the subject, I said, “This skirt steak is amazing!”

“What do you think, Sarah?” George asked. “Gotta see what the expert says.”

“I agree wholeheartedly with Kim’s assessment!” Sarah said brightly.

“More wine, Kimmie?” Nicholas asked.

Happy that the topic of my blog had successfully been dropped, I lifted my glass and I said, “Sure.”

***

“Oh God!” I screamed, grabbing the headboard as I came.

“You feel so good,” Nicholas whispered into my ear as his strokes intensified and he fell on top of me.

We remained still for a few minutes breathing heavily until Nicholas flipped over on his back. “You’re amazing, Kim.”

“You’re not so bad yourself,” I said.

“We make a good team.”

“I’m the anchor!”

Leaning on his elbow facing me, he gave me an amused smile, “The anchor?”

“Didn’t you say I’m the anchor of our team?”

Nicholas grinned. “Oh! Yes, I did say that.”

“Did you mean it?” I wanted to add, “because I would have slept with you anyway” but refrained.

“Of course. Although I wasn’t talking about the ‘work’ team just now.”

I nodded. “I know. But are all of your friends so… I don’t know… motivated?”

“Of course! I only hang out with the cream of the crop,” Nicholas said with a laugh.

“And me,” I mumbled.

“Don’t be silly.” He kissed me on the nose and stood up. “Including you, miss big-time blogger. I gotta use the bathroom. Don’t go anywhere.”

I wished he didn’t have to mention the blogging as if it made up for the fact that I didn’t have a law degree or even a masters. “I won’t.” I turned to my side and when Nicholas got back in the bed and spooned me, I pretended to be asleep. But then I turned around so our heads were practically touching. “So you don’t like David, huh?”

“I do like the guy. It’s just his lack of the ‘hustle’ gene made us late for court earlier this week. It’s difficult enough keeping up with my own workload. Constantly following up with David is draining. But I didn’t mean to come across so harsh before. I’m sorry.” Nicholas kissed my forehead and then closed his eyes.

“At least he’s pleasant. Which is more than I can say for Daneen,” I muttered.

Nicholas opened his eyes again. “Yeah, she’s a bit of a snob. But she’s harmless.”

“If you say so,” I said, turning around again.

His arms encircling me, Nicholas said, “I say so.”

“Uh-huh,” I mumbled.

Nicholas chuckled and gave me a light squeeze. “Just try to shrug her off. It’s because of her that I’m not working right now.”

“That’s what I keep telling myself.” I refrained from mentioning my certainty that Daneen wished it was her in the bed with him and not me.

I FLIPPED ANOTHER PAGE
and muttered, “Fuck.” My biggest fear had been realized. Despite myself,
Cut on the Bias
had me hooked. It read like a Lauren Weisberger novel: fast-paced, sophisticated and much to my displeasure, well-written. I hoped her editor was responsible for that part. Or better yet, maybe a secret ghost writer would come out of the woodwork demanding the credit. And the main character, Jacqueline, was actually relatable. I had no idea how a completely unlikeable author could create such a sympathetic and believable main character. “Unless she’s a good writer,” I said out loud to myself as my phone rang. I put the book on my night table and picked up my phone. “Hey Bridge. What’s up?”

“You sound sad. Should I be asking you that question?”

“No, I’m fine.” Better to get my mind on something else than continue to bash Hannah’s writing skills when the worst thing I could say about
Cut on the Bias
so far was that her supporting characters could have been fleshed out a bit more. I probably would have given them more distinctive personalities and maybe included additional information about their lives. “How are you?”

Bridget let out a deep exhale. “I made an appointment with Jonathan.”

“An appointment?”

“I thought about what you said and decided I wanted to be alone with him and see what happened. But I didn’t want to ask him on a date. That would be too weird.” Bridget giggled, sounding a bit embarrassed. “So I asked if he had some time to talk to me about expanding my business. He’s an entrepreneur too, but he’s been at it a few years longer than me. I thought it was a good and believable excuse.”

“And what did he say?” I held my breath.

“He said ‘absolutely’ in that laid-back stoned voice of his,” Bridget said with a giggle. “Anyway we’re going to meet at Two Little Red Hens Bakery tomorrow afternoon.”

I smiled to myself. “Great!” It was nice to see Bridget excited about a guy for a change, even if the guy
was
my first boyfriend and backup shag. It sounded like a plot line of a chick lit novel. Although we’d probably get in a big fight over Jonathan if this was a book. “So what’s the plan?”

“There is no plan. I figured I’d play it by ear and see if we have chemistry first.” Bridget stopped talking for a beat. “Why? Should I have a plan?” She sounded nervous.

“No, I was just wondering if you did, that’s all.”

“Nope. No plan.”

“Well, no plan sounds like a good plan to me.”

“Good,” Bridget said, sounding relieved.

“Let me know how it goes, okay?”

“Of course. I’m nervous. Do you get nervous around Nicholas?”

I sat back against my headrest and closed my eyes, thinking about Nicholas. “I used to big time, but not anymore. Sometimes, when we’re talking and I watch his face muscles move, I feel like all of the air has been sucked out of the room and I want to kiss him so badly, it hurts.”

“Aw. That’s precious, K.”

“Yeah…” I heard a beep and looked at my phone as a text message popped up from Nicholas. “Working late with Daneen and the slow paralegal who shall remain nameless. Could really use some secretarial support here.”

“Speak of the devil. He’s working late with
Daneen
tonight.”

“Sorry Kim. It’s just work.”

“I know. And David the paralegal is with them so there is no danger of unkosher behavior.”

“I hate to break it to you, but it’s called a three-way,” Bridget said, laughing.

Cringing at the thought, I said, “That’s a visual I didn’t need. Thanks, Bridge.”

“Ha ha. Sorry. Besides, you said Nicholas doesn’t even like David.”

“Which means he’d spend more time on Daneen. At that unpleasant thought, I’m out of here.”

“Bye!”

I texted Nicholas back. “What kind of support were you thinking? Need assistance inserting documents into the scanner?”

Less than ten seconds later, he responded, “Oh, I’ve got a document to insert in your scanner if you know what I mean ;)”

Giggling, I responded, “Only if it’s a large document.”

“Oh, it’s very large, babe. Getting larger by the second.”

I shook my head and started laughing. I only hoped Daneen was looking over his shoulder as he was texting me. I bet she wished Nicholas would insert his document in
her
scanner.

***

The following morning, I was reading
Cut on the Bias
at my desk. I was waiting impatiently for the book to jump the shark so I could write a genuinely unfavorable review. I still thought Hannah could have better distinguished the secondary characters and if I was her editor, I probably would have cut out a few unnecessary scenes, but as it stood, the book was at least 4 flutes-worthy. I was relieved it wasn’t flawless but it was pretty darn good, especially for a debut novel.

“Ahem.”

I lifted my head from the book and into the tired eyes of Daneen. It looked like she had tried to compensate a lack of sleep with extra makeup, but I could still see dark circles. Adopting an annoyed tone to match hers, I said, “Yes?”

“Rob wanted me to ask if you were busy.”

“Um…” I tried to stall while I figured out what she wanted.

Daneen cocked an eyebrow. “He said if you were doing something for your book hobby…”

Interrupting, I said, “You mean my blog?”

Brushing me off, Daneen said, “Whatever. Yeah, I guess. Anyway, he said if you had time, you should go to Starbucks and pick up coffees for us.”

My face burning, I narrowed my eyes at her. “There’s free coffee in the pantry.” And Rob had never, in close to three years, asked me to fetch coffee for him.

Daneen shrugged. “We were hoping for something better than the firm’s crappy coffee. And stronger. I was here practically all night with Nicholas.” She stopped talking and looked me dead in the eyes as if inviting a reaction.

I was dying to tell her I knew David had been with them too, as well as mention the string of dirty text messages Nicholas and I had exchanged while they were supposedly working so hard. Instead, I stood up and walked into Rob’s office. I felt Daneen follow but gently shut the door behind me before she could enter.

“Really, Rob?”

Rob raised his head from the stack of documents he was reviewing. “Wha—”

“You want me to fetch you guys coffee from Starbucks? What’s next? Picking up your laundry? Or worse,
doing
your laundry?”

Rob’s lips curled up in amusement.

I felt my fingernails biting into my palms as I clenched my fists. “It’s not funny. First you leave me out of a friendly group lunch and now you’re having me run errands for you I never had to run before.”

Rob raised his hand. “May I speak?”

I placed a hand on my hip. “If you must.”

“If you wanted to join us for lunch, you should have. I just assumed you wouldn’t be interested. You know you’re always welcome.”

I
used to
know that, but my recent inferiority complex made me question everything, even Rob. Although his explanation made me feel better about being left out of lunch, it didn’t explain why I was suddenly being asked to fetch coffee. “Whose idea was it for me to go to Starbucks?”

Rob pursed his lips. “I thought you wouldn’t mind an excuse to leave the office. You could read while in line.”

“That’s not what I asked.” I crossed my arms across my chest. I felt like a petulant child for droning on about this but I couldn’t help myself.

Rob leaned forward with his elbows on the desk. “Neither of us wanted to drink the firm’s coffee but we’re too busy to take a break. Daneen suggested I ask if you had time. I thought you’d be happy for an excuse to get out of the office.”

The truth was I
didn’t
mind taking a walk if it meant leaving the building, even if was to pick up coffee. But I hated the fact that the request came from Daneen. And I knew it was a power-play on her part. But if I said that to Rob, he’d think I was crazy. Or maybe he’d take me seriously, but the last thing I wanted to do was add more stress to his day. He was working his tail off and had more important things to do than play mediator between Daneen and me. “Fine,” I grunted. “I’ll pick up the damn coffee.” I held up my hand. “Money?”

Rob smiled, reached into his wallet and pulled out a fifty. Handing it to me, he said, “Buy yourself something too. And maybe a rice krispy treat to get you out of your funk.”

“Okay, but I draw the line at taking actual drink orders. No Vanilla Lattes or White Chocolate Mochas. You’re both getting Venti coffees and you can add cream and sugar here.”

Saluting me, Rob said, “Aye Aye, Captain.”

When I walked out of his office, Daneen was outside talking to Nicholas. She glanced at the bill in my hand and gave me a satisfied smile. “I’ll have a …”

Pulling a “Daneen”, I swung my hand in her face dismissively. “Rob already told me to get everyone a Venti coffee. Black. Cream and sugar is in the pantry.” I turned to Nicholas and tried to ignore his furrowed brow, “Do you want me to pick you up anything?”