Trigger (10 page)

She led the way into the softly lit restaurant in which couples and families dined, conversing in discreet voices. Classical music was streaming out of hidden speakers, lending another touch of elegance to the dining room.

I spotted my mother, Elisa, Victor and his wife Jen before the hostess and I had reached the table. All of us had gathered to celebrate my sister getting hired as a financial analyst at Goldman Sachs’s Los Angeles division.

My mother turned to face me just as I arrived. Her silvery blond hair was pulled back in a low ponytail. A smile spread over her pink lips and her alert blue eyes shone.

“Dylan!” she said. “I’m so glad you could make it!”

I bent down to kiss her on the cheek. “Me too, Mom. Sorry I couldn’t get here any earlier. I was in a client meeting.”

“Oh, that’s okay, honey,” Mom said. “I know how hard you work. We’re happy you could make it at all.”

I waved to the others and took a seat on the empty chair next to my sister. I pressed another kiss onto her cheek.

“Hey, Elle. Congrats again. I’m sure you’ll be the CEO of the entire company before you’re thirty.”

“Ha, ha, yeah, let’s hope,” Elisa grinned. She was wearing a red power suit that made her look older than her twenty-three years and her shoulder-length blond hair even brighter. “How’s work for you? Crazy busy as always?”

I rolled my eyes and sighed as though my life was so hard. I didn’t really think so; not lately, at least. “Yeah, you could say that. But it’s okay. It won’t be forever. Soon, I’ll be partner.”

Elisa punched my arm. “Yeah, you will, bro. But not before I’m Goldman’s new CEO.”

“Okay, fine. Whatever you say.”

I smiled at my kid sister and thought about how much I adored her. I glanced at the rest of the people around the table. At my uncle Victor, the prominent plastic surgeon with the balding head, twinkling grey eyes and the ruddy face that was usually smiling. At Victor’s wife Jen, a successful children’s book author, with the Farrah Fawcett hairstyle and the intelligent gaze. At Mom, who, at fifty-three, remained a knockout even though her pageant years were more than two decades behind her and who was a pillar in the community, the most unselfish, classy woman I could think of. At my sister, who never failed at anything she put her mind to. Taking in the people who made up my family made pride surge through me that I was part of such a great group. If only Dad had been here, too, it would have been perfect. He had been a navy pilot in his early years and then switched to law, becoming a successful corporate lawyer and one of the founders of the firm Gordon, Goldberg & Whitman. Like the rest of the family, my father had been a well-respected, accomplished individual. Someone to admire.

It really was a shame Dad couldn’t see how well Elisa and I were doing, both in our own right, just the way George Whitman would have wanted it. I hadn’t lied when I’d told my sister that soon I’d be partner. I did believe it would happen long before I turned thirty-five, younger than average for most lawyers. The way things were going at the office, me adding more and more important clients to the firm’s roster, I was bound to be offered partnership fairly soon. I was much too important for them to lose. I was sure I’d enjoy being a lawyer a lot more being a partner. And the best part of it was that I’d earned it, proved to myself that I truly deserved it.

“You’re practically glowing, honey,” Mom said to me, smiling wide. She squeezed my shoulder. “Did something great happen that you want to share with us?”

I easily returned her smile. Even though I felt Nina was someone I wanted to be serious with, it was too early to share her with my family. I wanted to let things develop a little more before I brought her up, got my mother’s hopes up. I knew she was dying to become a grandmother and she had been so disappointed when it was over between me and Emma.

My gaze connected with Victor’s. I had yet to let him know what had happened after I reconnected with Nina. I smiled. Victor would be proud of me when he found out.

Nina

I made a conscious effort to forget about Hannah after I’d brought her up when talking to Ricki. Letting her occupy my mind any further was a bad idea, only serving to make me depressed. I didn’t have time to be depressed. I needed to focus my energy on getting ahead in my acting career. So I spent my free time the next couple of days preparing a mailing of my headshot and resume to agents and thinking about new venues where I could try out material; I was getting tired of the ones I usually went to.

Dylan and I exchanged quite a few texts during this time, which made it easier to push Hannah out of my mind. The first text especially helped cheering me up.

It came only an hour after Dylan had left my apartment. It contained a selfie of Dylan, grinning like a madman, and the words
This is how I’m feeling right now.

Seeing Dylan’s goofy photo cracked me up. It had been
so
unexpected.

I fired off a text.
LOL!
Is that you on a caffeine high?

My phone buzzed with a reply.
No, that’s me on a Nina high. I don’t need coffee after a night with you…

I sent back a smiley face with a heart attached.

The next text came several hours later, as I was stapling resumes to the backs of my headshots.

What are you doing?

I typed back
Trying to become a movie star. You?

Trying to focus on work, but keep thinking of you… Not good.

A wave of warmth rolled through my stomach and I smiled.
Have to admit you’re pretty much dominating my thoughts too…
It was the truth. I kept reliving our night together over and over and over in my head, like a broken record playing, except the songs on this record kept getting better.

Dylan’s next text came when I was creeping under my covers that night, about to pass out from a long day and sucky dinner shift at the restaurant:

Driving home from dinner with my family. How was your evening?

Full of European tourists who don’t know how to tip properly.

Oh, no! I’m so sorry. Well, I guess there’s a reason they call them Eurotrash…

LOL! Yes, these ones were definitely EuroTRASH. Dinner good with your family?

Yeah, always good. My kid sister got a great job, so we celebrated. Hey, want to go hiking Saturday and then maybe dinner in the evening?

Yes! That’s an awesome idea! My butt could use some hiking.

Your butt’s perfect…

If you say so.

Pure perfection. Sweet dreams, Nina.

You too.

Dylan

It was Friday afternoon and after having spent hours working on a contract, I sorely needed a break and could think of no better way to spend it but to talk to Nina. I dialed her up on my cell.

“Hi,” she said in my ear after a couple of rings, her voice intimate.

“Hi there. I thought we should talk for a change. My phone’s keyboard is getting worn out from all our texts.”

Nina giggled. “Yeah, mine too.”

“What are you up to?”

“Eating licorice and trying to come up with some more material for my one-woman show.”

“Am I in it?”

“No, sorry, you’re not
that
funny… And I mean that as a compliment.”

I laughed. “Oh, okay. Thanks, I guess. So, are we still on for tomorrow?” We had made plans to go hiking in the Santa Monica Mountains for the day, followed by dinner in Malibu.

“Absolutely. I’ll be ready and waiting for you at noon.”

We spoke for a while longer, exchanging sweet nothings and goofy jokes similar to the ones our phones were filled with, before hanging up. I stared at my screen, yet again thinking how happy I was I’d sought out Nina, which, in turn, had given her the courage to email me finally. My gut feeling had been right; she was definitely the girl for me, not Emma. The feelings I’d experienced for Emma seemed like nothing compared to the huge rushes of emotions that surged through my body each time Nina entered my mind. Deep, strong emotions of warmth and tenderness that made me feel like I was floating on clouds and so happy nothing could annoy me, not even talking to Rutger, my most annoying client who was about to call. I could barely believe I’d thought I’d loved Emma. That hadn’t been true love; it had been her screwing with my mind, making me
think
I loved her. Then again, how could I have known? Unless you counted the huge crush I had on a girl in high school, I had never before been in love. What I felt for Nina, this fascinating, talented, gorgeous, highly unusual girl, was what being in love was all about. It had to be.

I dialed up Victor, hoping I’d get a hold of him finally. I had tried him a couple times since dinner without success, just like the previous week. He’d left me a message, explaining that he was unusually busy with surgery lately. Eager as I was to let him know he’d been right about Nina, I hadn’t wanted to bring it up during Elisa’s dinner, steal her moment. Victor answered this time.

“Dylan, my boy! And what brings me the pleasure of hearing your voice at five o’clock a Friday afternoon? Aren’t you supposed to be working hard?”

“Trust me, I
am
. Too fuckin’ hard…” I was barely able to keep the smile out of my voice, contradicting the grimness of my statement. “I just wanted to call you to thank you.”

“Thank me? For what?”

“For pushing me to contact Nina.”

“Who’s Nina? Wait, it’s that girl who ran away from your apartment, isn’t it? What did you do to the poor thing
now
?”

“Ha, ha. That’s hilarious.”

“In all seriousness, why? She turned out to be normal?”

“More than normal. I really, really like her actually. She’s something else.”

“So you two got together again?” Victor sounded hopeful.

“Yeah. It took a little while, but then we finally did. I took her to dinner a few days ago and tomorrow we’re going hiking.”

“Really? That’s fantastic, my friend. Absolutely fantastic! Do you know what this means?”

“No, but I’m sure you’ll tell me.”

“It means that you’re taking me to Morton’s for a center-cut filet mignon and cheese cake, all washed down with the most expensive red wine they have.
I
won the bet.”

I chuckled. “You got it. Just name the day.”

Nina

I was changing my outfit for the fourth time. If I didn’t make up my mind soon, Dylan would be here and I’d be half naked. Not that I thought he’d mind that, but I really wanted to go hiking before we had another session of hot sex. At the thought of our last encounter, a smile spread over my face.
God, it was good.
Even though we’d barely slept that night, I remembered feeling more alert than ever while running around the city the next day, preparing my agent mailing.

Still, I needed some real exercise or my butt would start to grow the way I had been eating candy and sitting down lately, working on my show. I had already gained one pound if I was to believe my bathroom scale. As great as it was having sex with Dylan, I didn’t think it burnt that many calories. Especially not since he was the one doing most of the lifting and shoving… I briefly considered ways I could make my own efforts in bed more calorie-consuming, but soon discarded this idea. The last thing I wanted to think about then was how to get skinnier, and I doubted me all of a sudden launching into a set of jumping jacks while switching positions would be a turn-on. Funny, yes. Sexy, no.

One thing was clear, though. I was really into this guy. I shook my head at my image in the full-length mirror in front of me, an image in which I was dressed in a blue tank top and jeans shorts.
He’s so not my type even
. But it was something about him that drove me crazy with lust, and the more I got to know him, the more I realized how much I also really
liked
him. So weird. I had decided I’d go with it, though, see where it would take me. See if Ricki was right that he and I were meant for each other, which was why I had freaked out like that.

I’d find out if being in a relationship was something for me after all.

I picked up another pair of jeans shorts that I had previously discarded and exchanged them with the ones I was currently wearing. I studied myself in the mirror and was finally content with my outfit. I checked the time. Eleven fifty-eight. Perfect. All I needed to do now was attach my ugly but convenient and necessary fanny pack around my hips and rush outside. Dylan should be driving up my street as I was leaving my squat apartment complex, having just texted to tell me he was five minutes away.

He was already there when I walked out onto the street, leaning against his midnight blue BMW. Dressed in a royal blue T-shirt and khaki shorts, he looked as handsome as always. I couldn’t help but think it must be more than a coincidence that both of us wore tops that were exactly the same shade of blue.
It must mean we belong together
, I thought, feeling like a silly thirteen-year-old girl. Damn, if I didn’t watch out, I’d turn into one of those relationship-obsessed girls I loathed. Well, unless their name was Ricki.

Dylan brightened at the sight of me, that fantastic smile splitting his face almost in two. Grinning myself, I walked up to him and snuck into his arms.

“Hi, hot stuff,” he whispered and bent down to kiss me. “Miss me much?”

“Yes, I have to admit that I have.”

“Good thing I’m here then.”

“Absolutely.”

We kissed for several more seconds before Dylan withdrew. “If we keep this up much longer, I’m gonna have to do you right here.”

I gave him a mischievous glance. “Well, as much as I love that idea, I’m pretty sure my landlord would have me evicted for lewd behavior. Besides, I have a feeling we won’t ever get around to hiking if we begin the day with sex. So, let’s go!”

We jumped into Dylan’s car and took off for the Santa Monica Mountains, driving quickly along the roads. As soon as we had parked, we began half running, half walking up the first mountain, holding hands and laughing like little kids.