Cat turns to me, smoothing her hands down her dress. “Okay, how do I look?”
I give her a once-over as she fusses with her purse and reapplies her lipstick. Instead of her jeans and combat boots—the funky style I’ve gotten used to—she’s wearing a slinky black dress and heels, her lips now a deep shade of red. It’s sexy, but it’s kind of jarring after the way she’s looked since I met her. It’s like she doesn’t quite look like herself. But then I guess I’ve only known her for a couple of weeks.
“You look amazing,” I say truthfully. I’m not sure I could pull off a dress like that.
Cat gives a humble smile, putting her lipstick into her purse and snapping it shut. “Thanks. So, what are you going to do this evening?”
“Write. I’m going to write.” I wave as she heads out. “Have fun!” The door closes behind her and I pull my laptop out, powering it on. Silence rings through the apartment, my fingers hovering over the keys.
Great. Time to write. Here we go.
I stare at the glowing screen, willing the words to come. But they don’t. Instead, all I can think about is Michael, in his suit, taking me on the floor of the book aisle.
12
Ugh, this is stupid. Why on earth am I thinking about that asshole? He wasnothingbut rude to me.
I stuff the thought of him back into that dirty little box in my head, and pad into the kitchen to make myself a cup of tea. As the kettle boils, I look around the apartment—officially my New York home, now—and feel a smile creep onto my lips. Between this and my new job, it’s finally starting to feel like things could work out for me here in the city.
Now if I could just get myself to write something.
I take my tea and settle onto my new bed beside Stevie, determined to get some words down. Picking up my laptop again, I mull over Cat’s idea to blog about being single in the city. It could work, I suppose.
I’m about to open up my browser and sign into my blog when I notice that Emily is on Skype. We’ve been texting but I haven’t spoken to her properly since that first day in Starbucks. I click on the icon to call her and a second later her face lights up my screen.
“Hi!” Her cobalt-blue eyes are bright, her shiny blond hair pulled up in its usual ponytail. Just seeing her face makes me miss her.
I adjust my screen so the camera catches me properly. “Hey.”
“Are you having a blast over there? How’s it going?”
“Good,” I say, unable to contain the grin pulling at my mouth. I grab Stevie and hold her up to the camera. “Meet my new roommate. Cat asked me to move in.”
“Oh!” Emily’s smile widens. “That’s fantastic. She’s great, isn’t she? And Stevie is so cute.”
I nod happily, setting Stevie back down. She curls her tiny body into a warm ball against my leg.
“So tell me everything. What’s been happening?”
I fill her in on the past few weeks: the wedding dress ordeal, Geoff giving me the job at the bookstore, meeting Mel and getting inspired for my writing. But I pause at this point as Michael’s mocking face flashes into my mind again.
“What is it?” Emily asks, narrowing her eyes.
“Nothing. I just…” I let out a sigh as I reach for my cup of tea on the nightstand. “There’s this guy—”
“Ooh!”
“No.” I hold my hand up. “No ‘ooh.’ Because he’s a total dick.”
She scrunches her pretty button nose. “That sucks.”
“Yeah. I mean, he’sgorgeous.”
Emily raises her eyebrows, smiling playfully.
“But he’s rude and arrogant and cynical,” I add, before she gets any ideas. “And the worst part is, he lives upstairs from me, so I keep running into him.” My mind drifts to him showing up at the bookstore today, and how he claimed he’d forgotten I worked there. What was that about? Did he actually forget, or did he seek me out just to taunt me? I shake my head to clear the thought and focus my attention back on Emily. “Anyway. How are you?”
“Oh, you know, same old.” She laughs, but it sounds hollow.
