“Mmm, I don’t know,” she says, arching her back in a lazy stretch. “Surprise me.”
I know how she feels. We’re still in bed and still naked, and I’m not too concerned about what we eat for dinner.
I tap the phone screen to order us each a burger and fries, along with a bottle of champagne. It feels like a champagne kind of night.
“When you asked me to dinner here, were you always planning for it to be room service?” Ally asks.
“Of course not. I made a reservation at the restaurant downstairs.” But I was hoping it would be a room service dinner. And since I’m pretty sure the restaurant will charge me a no-show fee, I don’t feel too guilty about missing it.
“Oh,” Ally nods. “I should probably text Sarah and let her know I’m staying with you tonight.”
“Good idea.” A smile tugs at my lips as I watch her climb out of bed to get her phone from her purse. In all the time she’s livedin my condo, she’s never fallen asleep in my bed, and it feels overdue.
Tomorrow morning, I’ll finally get to wake up next to her.
Ally climbs back into bed with her phone. “Sarah wants to meet you,” she says after a minute. “She’s asking if we can meet for breakfast tomorrow. Nine-thirty?”
“Sure. She doesn’t have a match tomorrow, right?”
“Not ’til Sunday,” Ally says, tapping at her phone. “She says you should be prepared for an interrogation.”
“I think I can handle it.” I pause. “Although I might be starting at a disadvantage. Did you tell her I’m hoping to steal her new assistant?”
“Don’t worry,” Ally says, setting down her phone. “I hadn’t actually taken the job yet.”
I roll to my side so we’re facing each other. “You hadn’t?”
“No. She offered it to me, but I hadn’t gotten around to telling her I wanted it. So there’s no issue there.”
No issue there, maybe, but some big questions. When I read Ally’s note on Monday, I thought Sarah wanted her to start right away. But earlier tonight, she said she left because she fell in love with me and she didn’t think I felt the same.
And I wasn’t thinking very clearly after that, or I’d have noticed that something wasn’t adding up. Everything seemed fine on Monday morning.
“Something happened on Monday,” I say slowly, and the look on Ally’s face confirms it. I’m an idiot for not putting it together sooner.
“I, uh, heard Heather Larkin talking about me,” she admits. “About us.”
“What did she say, Ally?” The look on her face tells me it’s going to be bad, and I brace myself to hear it.
“I’d asked Heather to write me a reference letter for nursing school,” she says reluctantly.
“Okay,” I nod, trying not to show my surprise. I had no idea Ally was applying to nursing, and the fact she didn’t tell me hurts a little.
“And she was nice about it, said she’d be happy to do a letter. But on Monday I walked by her office and heard her talking to Janine, her senior assistant.”
“Okay.” I reach out and put my arm around her, trailing my fingers along the bumps of her spine. “What did she say?”
Ally takes a deep breath. “Janine said she was surprised I didn’t ask you for a reference letter.” The words come out in a rush, like she wants to get them out as fast as she can. “And Heather said you could write me a letter that said I was very talented in bed. She said our relationship had lasted a lot longer than she expected. And she hadn’t thought you were the kind of man to be led around by his dick.”
Rage floods through me, red, hot, and roaring in my ears. Heather Larkin’s lucky she’s on a different continent right now.
“Drew?” Ally’s voice cuts through the red mist.
“Yeah.” I make an effort to pull myself together. “Sweetheart, I’m sorry. Why didn’t you tell me? I’d have dealt with Heather.”
Iwilldeal with Heather.
“I knew you’d have dealt with her,” Ally says. “But I was embarrassed, I guess. And you were already working too hard, I didn’t want to give you another problem to deal with.”
