“Just my business on the line. No big deal. Hopefully, we’ve got this, and the worst part will be having to be in a room with that obnoxious ass Jasper.”
“Ah, you’ll be fine, just stick with me.”
“Sure, but you’ll be with Sean, and he’ll be with Jasper.”
Nicole rolled her eyes. “I wanted to run this past you. I was thinking one of us should give Devin a heads up about us being at the meeting and that Jasper will be coming to speak. I don’t want her to feel blindsided by us.”
“I think that’s the right call. I know we promised not to use our friendship in any way that could look like we were asking for favors from her, but this is different.”
“Exactly my thoughts. I’ll call her because I don’t have a dog in this fight and that way, she’ll have a heads up and whatever happens at the meeting happens.”
Zaina’s shop bell rang. “I gotta go. Customer just walked in,” and she ended the call.
Nicole changed out of her work clothes and looked through her closet for an outfit that worked for the meeting and also for her date with Sean. Even though they’d be staying in, she wanted to look nice. Her heart began to race, and she realized that while she hadn’t invited him to spend the night, he might be expecting to take the next step.
She didn’t know if she was ready for sex. She hadn’t been with anyone since her and Duncan started dating and that had been nearly seven years ago. More importantly, she hadn’t been with anyone since she’d had surgery, and the thought of taking off her clothes in front of someone, well, just taking off her shirt, made her light-headed. She wrapped her arms across her stomach in response to the thought of being exposed.
She liked Sean, and it wasn’t like she didn’t fantasize about him naked in her bed, but she was afraid of what he would think when her clothes came off. When she had had surgery, her only thought was getting the cancer out. She didn’t think about the future, and sheneverthought about how one day she might want to take off her top and bra in front of someone she was dating. Maybe she could always keep them on. She rolled her eyes at herself, but when she thought about sex with Sean, keeping her shirt on made her feel safe.
She went back into her closet and found a soft T-shirt with a little V-neck, nothing too deep. She changed out of the button-down blouse she’d planned to wear. She adjusted the padded insert in her bra that made her look even and pulled her grey T-shirt over her head. Then she added an olive and creamcrochet cardigan and checked her look in the mirror. She felt comfortable and looked put together for the meeting.
Nicole sat down at her kitchen table and called Devin. She answered on the second ring.
“Hi Devin, it’s Nicole. Am I interrupting anything?”
“If you were, I wouldn’t have answered the phone. You know me.” Devin chuckled.
“I know that there have been some problems this year with Oktoberfest.”
Devin interrupted, “Some problems? Ten people were arrested over the weekend. This can’t continue and the town council will be discussing how we move forward tonight.”
“Ten arrests. Wow, that is not great,” Nicole paused. “But do we know how many total visitors we had?”
“I don’t have any concrete data, but there has got to be at least a thousand people coming to Marley Creek each weekend day. Nicole, what does Oktoberfest have to do with you? Please tell me no one has been peeing on your lawn,” she pleaded only half joking.
“No, I’m good. It’s Zaina that is worried. You see the thing is…”
Twenty minutes later Nicole had brought Devin up to speed on the plan to keep Oktoberfest going.
“You know I want the best possible outcome for everyone. We need to make sure our residents are unbothered, and we need to have businesses that are thriving.”
“Great, I’ll leave it there, and we’ll see what happens at the meeting tonight.”
Nicole ended the call. She had a couple of hours before she had to leave to walk over to Zaina’s, since they had planned to go the meeting together. She took the time to make a quick dinner and, get her stuff ready for the next day. Then she made sure the bed had clean sheets and that there were some condoms and lubricant in her nightstand.
At six, Nicole walked over to Zaina’s shop.
Zaina sat with her head in her hand and listened to Nicole talk about Sean.
“I wish you could see the light in your eyes right now. There is such hope. I can’t remember the last time your shoulders weren’t a little slumped, your skin a little grey, even your eyes looked dull.”
“I’m starting to feel insulted here, Zaina.”
She ignored Nicole and kept talking. “But now, it’s like you’re alive. Did you change moisturizers? Or is this all the result of some good consistent shagging?”
“Shagging?”
“It’s fun to say. I’m also trying to start using brilliant more.”
