“You shouldn’t call Eleanor that,” I chastise, with no genuine conviction. “I take it Meddling Mary is pissed off? I’ve been dodging her calls.”
“You could say that.” She grins and takes a gulp of the wine I ordered for her. “You look a little under the weather. Are you okay?”
“Yeah, just hung-over.”
“You? Hung-over? Wow. What happened? Lose a big case?”
“No. Nothing like that. But I did screw up. Royally.”
“Wait a minute. Let me put it in my diary real quick.” She makes a show of pulling her diary up on her phone. “Nick screwed up. When exactly? I need to get the date right …”
“You know, I didn’t call you to be mocked. I called for advice. But if you’d rather …”
“No. No. Of course. I’m sorry. You want advice? Shoot.”
“There’s this woman …”
Claire grins. “Ahh. So, there’s a reason The Ice Princess has been iced.”
I give her a glare, and she mimes zipping her lips.
“She’s the designer working on the remodel of the offices. She is possibly the most irritating woman I have ever had the misfortune of meeting. And I fucked her.”
“As in, literally fucked her?” Claire almost falls out of her chair she leans so far forward, desperate not to miss a word.
“Yes.”
“Well, that doesn’t sound so bad. Unless it was terrible. Or she’s a stage five clinger. Then it’s bad.”
“That’s not the bad part. Afterwards, I was a total arsehole to her. Told her it should never have happened.”
“Did you make her cry?” Claire scrunches up her nose and purses her lips.
“No, I didn’t make her cry. She was furious. Told me I didn’t need to be such a prick; she understood it was just angry sex and she wasn’t expecting anything. And then she left.”
“Yikes. Not your finest moment, brother.” Claire takes a moment to think. “Okay. Well, it’s not so bad. Sounds like you’re on the same page. And she’s not hurt, which is good. Which begs the question, what exactly are you worried about?”
“Well, I have to work with her. And she’s so incredibly annoying. And I looked at her proposal, which was actually pretty good. Better than good. But I can’t tell Harry because I've been against it all along. And I was so rude to her afterwards. And seeing her again will be …” I run out of steam and shrug my shoulders. Why do human interactions have to be so complicated?
I can see Claire doing her best to control a smile with little success. “Okay. Here’s what I’m hearing. You find her irritating, but you’re attracted to her. You want to hate her work, but you can’t. You don’t want to fuck her again, but you really, really want to fuck her again.”
I take a moment to digest all that. “Yes.” Much to my irritation, that sums it up completely.
“The sex was good?”
“Not that I want to discuss details of my sex life with my sister, but yes. Better than good. But under no circumstances can it happen again.” The turn this conversation is taking has me shifting in my seat. I can’t think about how good the sex was now, with my sister sitting next to me.
“So you said. Why not?”
“Well, for one, she probably hates me right now. With good reason. And we have nothing in common. It wouldn’t work.”
“What wouldn’t work? A relationship? Who said anything about a relationship? Why can’t you be fuck buddies? People do it all the time.”
“Yeah—people like Ben. Who don’t take life seriously.” I can’t quite hold back the snort of derision. Despite the fact I can’t help but like Ben, his life choices are questionable at best.
“It wouldn’t kill you to take life a little less seriously. Sex is supposed to be fun. A memo I imagine The Ice Princess missed.” Claire snorts at her joke.
“You’re not helping, Claire. I can’t afford to get involved in a scandal. If I’m going into politics, I want to be squeaky clean. I refuse to end up a political cliché with dirty secrets coming out.” Even as I say the words, I know the door on this option is closing quickly. Kicked by my own foot. And I feel not a shred of regret.
