“Giovanni’s”
“Oh.” Her body language remained neutral, but her eyes showed her surprise. “That’s pretty fancy.”
Tyler fumbled for words as quickly as he could because he didn’t want her to get the wrong impression. “It is, but…don’t…I mean…this is not…a date.”
“I know.”
“Just in case you think…”
“I know.”
“Because we don’t have that boss-accountant sort of relationship.”
Her smile widened. “Tyler, I get it. You’re not interested in me in that way.”
“Of course not.”
“This is strictly professional.”
“Yes.”
“So you’ll pick me up at seven?”
“On the dot.” He smiled briefly before he slowly walked away. She was in fact mad, he concluded. A complete nutcase, an absolute loony bin and he was even crazier for going along with this idea in the first place.
*****
Jordan arrived home feeling very unsettled. Tyler wasn’t himself today. He wasn’t the type to openly stare at a woman’s breasts. In his eyes there was Trisha and only Trisha. She was sure she hadn’t imagined it. His eyes were virtually glued to her chest. And then he asked her out to dinner. That, too, was completely out of character. Not to mention the fact that she wasn’t the only person in the finance department, so why was she the only one invited to this little thank-you dinner? He was up to something and she needed to find out what it was.
She opened the door to her townhouse and was greeted by a high-pitched scream of excitement. Jordan looked up in the direction of the sound and saw her friend slash roommate Gemma, looking exactly like…Gemma. She wore a long, airy, hot pink skirt with green trimmings at the bottom, an orange and yellow floral top and bright red shoes. Her curly, strawberry-blonde hair was untidily swept up in a ponytail.
Jordan dropped everything when she saw her and rushed to give her a hug. “What are you doing here? I didn’t expect you home for another week.”
Gemma pulled away and shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly. “I got bored of the Maldives and decided to come home a week early.”
Jordan smiled. Only Gemma would say something like that. She had been travelling the world since the tender of age of three. Her parents owned a villa or an apartment in almost every major city in the world. When she was eighteen, her parents had sent her off to Hawford School of Arts and bought a little townhouse so she wouldn’t have to live in the dingy, asbestos-infested dorm rooms on campus. After a week, when Gemma could no longer bear the loneliness, she bought herself a cat and when the loneliness still persisted, she found herself a roommate from the University of Washington, Jordan Shepard.
Although she had found a friend, Gemma’s soul was still searching for something, yearning for something. Six months after Jordan moved in, Gemma packed her bags, left her cat, Princess, and her townhouse in Jordan’s care and she was on the road again, returning to Seattle every couple of months when she got homesick.
Jordan had always wondered why she came back to this place and not her parents’ home, which was just a few miles outside of town, but that was Gemma. No one could figure out how her mind worked. She was flighty, unpredictable and very unreliable. She was just a care-free soul who refused to be held captive by the trappings of society. She did what she wanted and made her own way with no one to answer to but herself. She was fun and adventurous and had a heart of gold.
“So how have you been?” Jordan asked. “How was your trip?”
“It was great!” Gemma sighed with satisfaction. “I met this guy with a name I can’t really pronounce. I just called him Jack.It’s a really nice name to call out in bed. I was going for the whole Titanic feel, but without the iceberg…or the ship.”
“Don’t you ever get tired of having sex with these random strangers you meet at night clubs?”
“It wasn’t a night club,” Gemma corrected. “It was a bar…on the beach. I remember the way his skin glistened as he walked towards me.” She moaned sensuously. “Rock hard abs and a tight ass…the biggest cock I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen plenty. I should’ve married him…” She paused for a moment, very lost in her thoughts before she realized she was actually in the middle of a conversation. “Oh, you asked me something. Don’t I get tired of having sex with random strangers? Hmm?” She gave the question some thought. “I wish I could say I did so I wouldn’t have to sound like a complete slut, but I don’t. I really don’t get tired of it. Maybe I’ll stop after Jack and I get married. I will marry him. We’re soul mates. I could never understand a word he was saying, which makes him absolutely perfect.”
Jordan giggled. Even after a seven-year friendship with Gemma, conversations like these never got old. She fell in love at least three times a year. She spoke about marrying roughly fifteen different men but Jordan knew she would never settle down. That would mean she would have to stay in one place and that was nearly impossible for Gemma to do.
“What about Mario?” Jordan asked. “I thought Mario was the guy you were going to marry.” She walked into the small kitchen and started preparing two cups of tea.
Gemma followed her in and hopped onto the counter next to the sink. “Mario? Who’s Mario?”
Jordan tossed out the tea bags and handed one cup to Gemma. “How can you not remember Mario? He was the guy you met at that underground club…you had sex on the tour bus.”
“Oh, Mario!” Gemma nodded her recognition. “I completely forgot about him after Jack worked his magic on me.” She tooka swig of her tea. “Anyway, enough about me. What about you? How have you been doing?”
